johalis gervasio vyrney
Jennell Venier
As a side note, the original post (beautiful, @Timothy ) reminded me of an old Irish chant, that I must confess brings a tear to the eye. Maybe these chants bring so much emotion as they are tied to a part of my brain that recalls my long ago student life in Dublin, with Maria, pints of Guinness, and the beat of a bodhrn. The post reminded me of .
On top of the five reasons given in the sutta, I guess chanting or listening to melodic chants is a sense pleasure; so it comes with all the issues of sense desires (addiction, painful when it stops etc).
I actually find it remarkable that the Theravada tradition managed to respect this advice so well after 2500 years. It is astonishing and very inspiring! And once more the Buddha was thinking about future generations with remarkable prescience.
This is a difficult thought to put into words. One thing that SC seems to do, is what no other prior platform for the early texts does, and that is to create community around the early texts, and to bring the word of the Buddha to a wide audience in an energetic and engaging way. We have D&D, which creates community, engagement, discussion and debate, another form of energy and spiritual friendship. SC has this capacity to bring this traditional practice to a wider audience and inject some real energy into the Path of Practice. Yesterday, Facebook kind of exploded over some discussion that originated here; D&D planted a seed that resonated widely, and drew a new audience into SC. I saw people writing in asking for the link to SC, so that they could join this community, too. Juice and energy for the Dhamma, all created by a seed planted here, that some might feel went beyond what Theravada study and practice might entail.
There are sense pursuits that we all agree are mundane and not consistent with development on the Path. Chanting, though, seems to occupy a special space and has a capacity to bring energy to the Dhamma. This is my own view, and I am sure others rightly feel differently.
There is one other area where Buddhayana might be enriched by dialogue with Christians. Theravadian hostility towards all forms of beauty has prevented the development of any sacred music or plainsong beyond the most rudimentary forms. Thai chanting is not unpleasant to the Western ear although its simple tune and rhythm offer limited scope for further development. Burmese and especially Sri Lankan chanting is little more than a caterwaul. Sonorous music, song and chanting can have an enormous value in communal worship, they can give expression to saddha and they can even be an adjunct to meditation. The Buddhayana would study the rich Christian tradition of plainsong and sacred music and try to develop forms of each that would be suitable to use with Pali gatha and other mediums.
However, there are some chants that might be expansive and comforting at the same time, while offering a little taste of that sense of letting go, and these could be very helpful in a sick bed setting:
It is helpful to learn as many chants as possible, for we can find meaning in them at any time. Then we are familiar with the chants if we ever need a particular one to help us through a spiritual test. In such a time, try to chant with spiritual depth so as to grasp the potential of the chant. Some chants are meant to help us create a new sense of joy or love, while other chants help us take the negative state and transmute it into something higher.
May the article When to Use These Songs, by Paramhansa Yogananda help you explore the deeper healing power of the Cosmic Chants. Most of the meanings given by Paramhansa Yogananda are kept brief and leave much room for individual interpretation.
I led the group on a guided meditation to connect with an animal guide in the spirit world, then brought everyone back to our nook at Ardantane. Each participant filled out a worksheet to capture aspects of their guide that could be incorporated into a simple chant. Then, I took them through a process of turning the material into a simple song. We created a first line that includes the animal, some interesting visual quality it has, and how it was moving in the meditation. The movement helps create a more active lyric. Once the basic text was there, we analyzed for the stresses and pitches that are the natural melody of the speech itself.
Some participants created chants that combined more than one melodic trajectory. This next spirit animal chant combines two figures: upward movement as Hawk flies high, and downward movement as its message comes to rest with its human friend.
A chant (from French chanter,[1] from Latin cantare, "to sing")[2] is the iterative speaking or singing of words or sounds, often primarily on one or two main pitches called reciting tones. Chants may range from a simple melody involving a limited set of notes to highly complex musical structures, often including a great deal of repetition of musical subphrases, such as Great Responsories and Offertories of Gregorian chant. Chant may be considered speech, music, or a heightened or stylized form of speech. In the later Middle Ages some religious chant evolved into song (forming one of the roots of later Western music).[3]
Chanting (e.g., mantra, sacred text, the name of God/Spirit, etc.) is a commonly used spiritual practice. Like prayer, chanting may be a component of either personal or group practice. Diverse spiritual traditions consider chant a route to spiritual development.
Some examples include chant in African, Hawaiian, Native American, Assyrian and Australian Aboriginal cultures, Gregorian chant, Vedic chant, Quran reading, Islamic Dhikr, Bahʼ chants, various Buddhist chants, various mantras, Jewish cantillation, Epicurean repetition of the Kyriai Doxai, and the chanting of psalms and prayers especially in Roman Catholic (see Gregorian chant or Taiz Community), Eastern Orthodox (see Byzantine chant or Znamenny chant, for examples), Lutheran, and Anglican churches (see Anglican Chant).
I encourage you to simply begin a mantra practice in whatever way that feels right, using my book Sacred Sound. and/or the mantra library on my website (www.bit.ly/mantralibrary), as a guide . Start simple, such as with om, and incorporate other, longer, or more complex mantras as they resonate with you. Some mantras may appeal to you because of their sound, while others may become attractive as you understand their context, underlying mythology, and intention. Over time, as you use each mantra in your life and practice, it will become like a friend whom you come to know more and more deeply. The mantra may start out as a little gem that lightens your day, but after years of saying it, it may also become a bright light that guides you through the darkest of times. Through practice, we make these mantras our own so they help us on our spiritual journey.
A form of individual Jewish spiritual practice and communal worship, the repetitive chanting of simple biblical Hebrew verses from psalms or other sections of siddur is being incorporated into congregational worship services and the pratices of contemporary Jewish seekers alike.
For Jews and other seekers who have minimal or no traditional or religious Jewish background but want to embrace a Jewish spiritual life and practice, sacred Hebrew chanting is simple and immediately accessible. The repetition of short, individual Hebrew verses renders liturgy far more approachable than lengthy Hebrew prayers that fill the traditional siddur (Jewish prayerbook). Shorter prayers that contain single themes make it easier to maintain kavannah, spiritual intention during prayer.
Traditional nusach, melodic scales for reciting long Hebrew prayers are employed less frequently in communities where congregational singing of prayers and guitar and keyboard accompaniment has become more common. But songs written in the folk or rock style, or classical choral pieces do not appeal to all worshippers. New musical compositions bring a revitalizing and energizing dimension to communal and private prayer. Exciting chants often used in sacred these services have been composed by Rabbi Shefa Gold, Yofiyah, and Rabbi Andrew Hahn and others. These chants fill the worship space with layers of harmony and rhythm. As was historically true of Jewish music, some of the new chants borrow from musical worship of other cultures and spiritual traditions, such as kirtan, a Hindu form of musical worship which utilizes a pattern of call and response. Accompaniment by drums and other types of percussion makes chanting services more celebratory and uplifting.
Join us at Congregation Beth Israel Judea in San Francisco, at 7:30 PM on the fourth Friday of each month, for our Erev Shabbat of Sacred Hebrew Chant and Drum Service. Please bring a treat for the Oneg Shabbat Shmooze that follows. Check for more details.
Use the audio players to listen to the various parts of a chant. To listen in a separate browser tab (or window), click the musical note available above an audio player. To download and save a chant (or part of a chant), right-click (or Control-click) the musical note.
For the most recent chants see the New Chants & Practices page, which lists chants chronologically from the most recently added chant. For the Modah Ani chants, see the Flavors of Gratefulness page. For the Hallelu-Yah chants, see the Flavors of Praise page.
But there is a remarkable amount of intriguing evidence showing that chanting does activate parts of the brain. Most scientists have studied religious chanting, but it seems to be the case that if you are devoted to your mantra (regardless of your spiritual beliefs), then you could reap the benefits of chanting it.
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