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Chanting Buddhism Meditation Related Questions

Can Buddhist chantings replace meditation? Is chanting a mantra a form of meditation?

Should we chant OM-OM while meditating?

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15 Answers How do I chant om in meditation?

Safwan Zabalawi, studied at Politechnika Gdańska How do I meditate the Buddhist way?
Updated Aug 15, 2018 · Author has 1.1k answers and 242k answer views
According to Nichiren Buddhism, is mentalizing
Meditation is a practice of the past, when Buddhism was confined to temples yourself chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo during
mindfulness meditation useful? Does it produce
and dedicated monks. One of the reasons Buddhism did not spread among the
goo...
people is that practice of silent meditation, which requires special conditions in
What is better chanting or meditation?
the surroundings and an impractical time for busy individuals, mothers,
farmers, business people - but it is good for monks and temple priests - for Is Buddhist meditation mystical?

obvious reasons.  Ask New Question

Chanting is more effective than meditation. The effect of 20 minutes chanting
surpasses hours of meditation. It is the practice based on verbal rhythm
vibration -uniting the conscious mind with the five senses and voice active - with
the subconsciousness where karmic seeds reside, and with the Buddhanature
(the Amala Subconsciousness, the enlightenment of Eternal Life). Benefit of
chanting is almost immediate after a relatively short time of practice. It results
in a feeling of releasing inner energy, and clarity of mind, with inner insight on
causes and effects taking place in our life, and what to do to benefit one’s life
and that of others.

If you meditate while in a depressed state, you may get more depressed. There is
no guide to protect your mind, present in meditation. This is why many people
do not or cannot perform meditation. On the contrary, the chanting phrase
NamMyohoRengeKyo is the guide for the mind to be in harmony with, and
NamMyohoRengeKyo is the field of Buddhahood, our inner Buddhanature.

Here is what a master in meditation says about meditation:

“To meditate, one has to fix his thought on something; for instance, on the oneness
of God, or his infinite love, or on the impermanence of things. But this is the very
thing Zen desires to avoid. Meditation is something artificially put on; it does not
belong to the native activity of the mind…Who wants to be arrested in the daily
manifestations of his life-activity by such meditations… “ (An Introduction to Zen
Buddhism, p.41)

And here is the opinion of a Tibetan nun, Tenzin Palmo, who practiced
meditation of 12 years over 10 hours a day, saying effectively that meditation
does not lead to enlightenment:“I’ve hardly even started. There are a lot more
barriers I have to break through in my mind. You see, a flash is not enough. You
have to repeat and repeat until the realisations are stabilized in your mind. That’s
why it takes so long - twelve years, twenty five years, a lifetime, several lifetimes”.
(page 207, Cave in the Snow) .

Meditation may produce some limited effects, and mostly a tranquilizing feeling
that other drugs can also produce. Buddhism is not based on silence, but on the
voice that makes the Buddha’s work. Chanting includes meditation and
observing the mind, but is more effective and more practical. A mother with a
child on shoulder, making dinner, can chant to her hearts content and can bring
the atmosphere of harmony and happiness to all around directly through the
lifeforce and wisdom emerging from chanting.

Meditation and Chanting

202 Views · View Upvoters · Answer requested by Rodrigo Machado

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Related Questions More Answers Below

Is chanting a mantra a form of meditation?

Should we chant OM-OM while meditating?

Is OM chanting a form of meditation and what are the benefits by meditating of OM?

How do I start Buddhist chanting?

Do Buddhists need to chant in Pali or can they chant in English?

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Michael McCormick, Ordained Priest in the Nichiren Shu

Updated Aug 13, 2018 · Author has 242 answers and 73.8k answer views

The word “meditation” is English and is not used in Buddhism. There are words
in Buddhism that have been glossed as “meditation” but the match is imperfect
or even inaccurate. So the short answer is that in Buddhism chanting practice is
a form of meditation (if used meditatively).

Citta-bhavana would in English literally mean “mental cultivation” and is a

general term for many kinds of Buddhist practice.

Buddhist practice basically has two aims: śamatha or “calming” and vipaśyana
or “contemplation.” The first leads to a mind that is tranquil and peaceful and
centered, the other leads to insight.

When doing calming practice one temporarily overcomes sensual craving, ill-
will, restlessness, drowsiness, and debilitating doubts. There are four states than
can be achieved called dhyanas (the Sanskrit word, jhana in Pali, in Chinese it
was called chan’na and the Japanese pronounced it zen). The first is
characterized by thinking of and continuing to think about whatever the subject
of the contemplation is, bodily rapture, and mental happiness and ease, and
one-pointedness of mind (focused on the subject of meditation). In the second,
deliberate thinking of and about the subject drops away. In the third, bodily
rapture drops away. In the fourth even mental happiness and ease is replaced by
a more stable and peaceful equanimity. The subjects for meditation are many,
focus on the breath being a popular one but only one of the many. Other subjects
are contemplation of the Buddha, or the Dharma, or the Sangha, or the bliss of
the heavenly realms, or peacefulness, or light, or colored disks, etc… Though
many believe that chanting would require a deliberate effort that would hinder
the achievement of the higher dhyanas it is also a form of practice and many
people have experience a state where the mantra seems to repeat itself without
any deliberate self-conscious willful effort to continue it and have reported
experiences that sound to me as though they matched the higher states of
equanimity.

Calming practice alone, however, is not sufficient for a complete Buddhist

practice. The Buddha himself rejected such an approach as incomplete and
incapable of permanently extinguishing defilement (or transforming).
Contemplation leading to insight is what the Buddha specifically taught. In this
case, one must contemplate various aspects of the Dharma and/or the actual
realities of one’s life, first analytically but eventually in a more direct and
intuitive way. In such practice one really can’t go past the first dhyana. Here,
chanting has been used as an insight practice by various Buddhist groups.
Nichiren Buddhists who chant daimoku can specifically contemplate Namu
Myoho Renge Kyo and what it represents/conveys (which really leads to the
actual “wondrous phenomena” of one’s own life). One can also chant a mantra
with the question “who is chanting?” There are various ways in which chanting
is a part of contemplative “meditation” or vipaśyana.

In Nichiren Shu we have a practice called shodaigyo meditation which consists

of sitting silently (focused on the breath in the tanden or lower belly), then
chanting daimoku slowly, increasing the tempo over time and then slowly
decreasing the tempo (perhaps even doing several such cycles of speeding up
and slowing down for a long session of practice), and then ending with another
period of silent sitting (contemplating the daimoku).

Namu Myoho Renge Kyo,

Ryuei
304 Views · View Upvoters · Answer requested by Rodrigo Machado

Michael Beraka, removed not one shred of delusion

Answered Jul 16, 2018 · Author has 180 answers and 218.2k answer views

Hey Rodrigo, thanks for the question. Be careful with these kinds of things
because not knowing about Buddhism generally doesn’t stop people from
earnestly answering questions on it on here. From the Nichiren Buddhist
standpoint, yes, chanting ‘replaces’ meditation just as Christians believe the
New Covenant ‘replaces’ the Old, as it will take you more efficiently and less
narcissistically to the same place meditation aspires to. There is a crucial
difference between the two, since chanting is not strictly a discipline practice,
and it is important to understand and situate the importance of discipline in
your life and practice. But the relation of that to the spiritual practice, and it’s
role in your broader life, becomes quite different in the Latter Day. Does a
Nichiren Buddhist have to swear off any meditation or otherwise old Buddhist
practices? Maybe not. It is one of many fine theological points I am still trying to
sort out. But if you think about the Christian idea of ‘righteousness’ as an active
verb, of religion as the vehicle to take you from one spiritual place to another,
and Buddhism similarly as simply a methodology to effect the alignment of
oneself into this state, then certainly meditation is no longer the ‘vehicle’ of this
transformation.
500 Views · View Upvoters · Answer requested by Rodrigo Machado

Pannadipa Tan Bk, PhD from University of Toronto (2008)

Answered Aug 13, 2018 · Author has 140 answers and 11.5k answer views

Buddhist chanting with a focused mind on certain wholesome qualities or

concepts like recollecting the quality or virtue of the Buddha, Dharma or Sangha
can help one develop some sort of concentration. This has very similar effect as
repetitive prayers or other repetitive recollection practices. But due to the use of
sound the concentration can not be developed to any strong and stable
meditation absorption called jhana or dhyana. In order to get that state the
sound has to be dropped or to convert to sound of silence and the mind is tuned
to a stable mind conception not disrupted from input of other five sensory
doors. Attainment of jhana signifies purification mind in early Buddhist
scriptures and on this basis one can be guided to direct his mind to attain direct
knowledge and insight knowledge into the nature of mind and body.
44 Views

Chris Thomas, 35 years a meditator, now a trained teacher, mentor and coach.
Answered Jul 16, 2018 · Author has 893 answers and 313.7k answer views

Having had recent contact with various strands of Buddhism (traditional Zen,
Interbeing and Nichiren), my experience of all three tells me the answer is
emphatically no.

Using Zen and Interbeing guidance for practice results in deep meditative
states, frequently losing track of time and space until the gong (on my android
tablet!) invites me back into what we think of as the real world. Chanting, as it is
practiced in the Nichiren group I have attended, results in a noisy cacophony
which I shelter from using Zen techniques until they are finished. Lovely people
to have discussions with though. Sadly, having observed for well over a year,
there is a remarkable lack of change in this particular group.

I have come to the opinion that Nichiren claimed to be a buddhist but ignored
much of Buddhist teaching and was probably more of a daoist than a buddhist.
The way Buddhism is represented in the Nichiren group I am aware of is
unrecognisable compared to, for example, the current teachings from Plum
Village.
85 Views · View Upvoters · Answer requested by Rodrigo Machado

Edward Cherlin, Soto Zen Buddhist priest, Order of Buddhist Contemplatives,

Shasta Abbey
Answered Jul 23, 2018 · Author has 2.6k answers and 1.1m answer views

Can Buddhist chantings replace meditation?

Buddhist chantings are a form of meditation. Every school of Buddhism has its
preferred chants, including Soto, Rinzai, and Obaku Zen.

There are many forms of meditation, of which pure zazen, as described in the
Heart Sutra and Dogen Zenji’s Fukanzazengi is the most efficacious overall. But
it has to be accompanied by many other practices, most notably keeping the
precepts.

Hindu and Christian and Jewish and Daoist and Muslim and Sikh chantings are
also forms of meditation, and in each case there are other forms recommended.
And similarly in the thousands of other known religions worldwide.
Chanting is in some schools the main form of meditation, while in others it only
supplements meditation.
75 Views · View Upvoters · Answer requested by Rodrigo Machado

Harry C Emberson, aka Pandita Thu'Nam, Karma Kagyu Tibetan Buddhist 30+
years.
Answered Jul 19, 2018 · Author has 865 answers and 886.2k answer views

As a Tibetan Buddhist, chanting is part of some of the meditation techniques we

use. There is nothing mystical about them. We use them to repeat refuge vows
and engender bodhicitta, which is the vow to practice for the benefit of all
beings. We also chant aspirational prayers to, for example, remind ourselves to
be generous, kind and compassionate.

Additionally, we use chanting in tantric meditations. This is a style of

meditation in which we use body, speech and mind (in the forms of sitting cross-
legged, chanting mantras and visualization) for the purpose of fully immersing
ourselves in some aspect of buddha-nature such as those listed above and
others, including forgiveness, clarity of thought and awareness.

Tantric meditation is often misunderstood, but its not difficult to understand as

long as one has a good foundation in basic buddhism and concepts of Emptiness
and the true nature of the self as taught in the prajnaparamita. It's best to have a
teacher to learn about the self and Emptiness as these concepts can be
confusing. But there are some very good books on the subject as well as the
Prajnaparamita itself. The shortest sutra in the Prajnaparamita is the Heart
Sutra which is the basis for teaching Emptiness in many commentaries.

Tantric practices are passed down through an oral practice called

Empowerment. When one's teacher believes one to be committed to practice
and is ready, they are permitted to take these empowerments as either a basis for
practice or as a blessing, like when the Dalai Lama gives the Kalachakra
Empowerment to a large group at one time. If one intends to do a practice, they
are given instruction by a qualified lama.

There is one mantra almost everyone familiar with Buddhism knows, “Om mani
padme (peme in Tibetan) hung”. This is the mantra for the Buddha of
Compassion. Kalu Rinpoche was a well known Lama who came to the West
about 60 years ago and was told by His Holiness, the 16th Kagyu Karmapa, to
come and teach the sadhanna of the Buddha of Compassion as he felt the world
was in dire need of it. That is how the mantra I listed above became so well
known. It is Sanskrit and roughly translates to the Lotus Emerges from the Mud
- very loosely! But in essence it means that everyones Buddha nature can arise
when one eliminates all obscurations to it and achieves enlightenment. (There
are many commentaries on the various meanings of this mantra in Tibetan
dharma.)

Chanting is certainly not limited to Tibetan Buddhism, but I am not qualified to

speak about other schools of Buddhist practice, so I'll leave that to them.
Chanting is not a replacement for meditation. It is meditation, just a different
kind than the sitting calm-abiding meditation many are first taught.
132 Views · View Upvoters · Answer requested by Rodrigo Machado
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