Chanting

Introduction

Chanting has been a part of Buddhist practice since the time of the Buddha. Because it was an oral tradition, the discourses of the Buddha were memorized. They were often composed in verse form. This lent them particularly well to chanting. The traditional language for chanting in the southern tradition of Buddhism is Pāli. Pāli has a unique rhythmic quality to it, something akin to Italian in the West.

Chanting is not as common in Western Buddhism as it is in the East. Some of that is cultural. Westerners do not seem comfortable with chanting. I went to a retreat with Thich Nhat Hanh once where after a few days some people started grousing about how they were being “forced to chant”. His response was: “To chant or not to chant, that is not a question.”

If chanting really makes you uncomfortable, then don’t do it. But remember that we are doing this practice as a way of pushing up against our boundaries. Chanting won’t hurt you, really, and it may help. So when you feel ready to revisit this practice, please do.

There are some good reasons to include chanting in your daily practice. The first of these is that chanting can help to quiet the mind and bring you into the present moment. When you first sit down you may have many things on your mind. Getting the mind to settle down is probably difficult. Chanting can help you let go of those worldly distractions, remind you what you are doing and why, and bring your mind fully into the meditation.

Another important reason is that chanting embeds the teachings in your mind. If you memorize a chant, then when you are out during the day, there will be moments when the words of the chant will come to mind. The chant may help you to act in a more skillful way. This is why the monks and nuns chant the Patimokkha - the monastic code - on the full moon and new moon days. Chanting helps commit the teachings to memory, and to put them front and center into our consciousness.

Finally, chanting connects us to a long and honored tradition. Since the day the Buddha first taught the Four Noble Truths, Buddhists have chanted the discourses. I still remember the transcendent experience of being at the Mulagandhakuti Vihara in Sarnath, India where hundreds of Sri Lankan pilgrims chanted the "Dhammacakkapavatanna sutta: the Four Noble Truths". (They had it memorized.) For those precious moments we were all connected as part of this great tradition.

There are many chants. You should choose ones that you like. There is no right or wrong list of chants to do. The ones that I picked out here are ones that I enjoy, and they help to fuel my practice. These chants are well-known in the Buddhist world, and are part of the standard repertoire.

The easiest way to chant is to have a recording of the chant and its text. You can just chant in English if you like, but I like the rhythm of the Pāli language, and I also think it helps to connect me more deeply to the Buddhist tradition. As you will see in my recommended list of chants, some are in Pāli only, some are in Pāli and English, and some are just in English. If you are doing the Pāli only chants, make sure that you know the meaning of the words, otherwise the chant will not be very helpful in your practice.

Pāli Pronunciation

Pāli is unique in that it is a spoken language with no native alphabet. (You may know that Chinese is just the opposite; it is a language where there is a standard written form, but the words have different spoken forms.) Thus, as Buddhism moved from country to country, it used whatever the native alphabet is.

When Western scholars started studying Pāli, they had to solve the problem of a written alphabet. The solution is "Romanized Pāli". The Pāli language has 41 characters in it. Because the Roman alphabet only has 26 letters, the other characters are represented using diacritical marks.

There are a number of differences between Indic languages and English. The first is that Indic languages are built more scientifically. They arrange letters in the alphabet by where in the mouth the sound occurs. For example, ḍ, ḷ, ṇ, ṭ are “palatal consonants”, and pronounced with the tongue touching the roof of the mouth. The characters d, l, n, and t are lengua-dental consonants, pronounced with the tongue touching the teeth.

(Note: The character ḍ is called “d dot under”.)

Second, Indic languages do not have a “th” sound as in the word “this”. What they do have is a sound with a character followed by an “h”. In that sound there is a slight puff of air that follows the consonant. These are “aspirated consonants”. The letter “th” would be a “t” sound followed by a puff of air.

Finally, in Indic languages the default accent is on the third to last syllable. In the Pāli word “nimitta” ("sign") the accent is on “ni”. However, in most Pāli words the default accent is over-ridden by the rules for vowel pronunciation. In the word “bhāvanā” ("meditation") both “a’s” are long and have equal emphasis.

Here is how to pronounce the vowels:

“a” as in “but”

“i” as in “pin”

“u” as in “duke”

“ā” as in “father”

“ī” as in “keen”

“ū” as in “pool”

“e” as in “way”

“o” as in “home”

Here is how to pronounce the consonants:

“g” is pronounced as in “girl”

“c” as in “church”

"ñ" as in “canyon”

Here is how to pronounce the "cerebrals":

"ṭ, ḍ, ṇ" - are spoken with the tongue on the roof of the mouth; the dentals

"t, d, n, l" - with the tongue on the upper teeth.

"ṁ" is a nasal as in “sing.”

Here is how to pronounce the "aspirates":

"kh, gh, ch, jh, ṭh, ḍh, th, dh, ph bh" - pronounced with a slight outward puff of breath, e.g., "th" as in “Thomas” (not as in “that”), "ph" as in “top hat” (not as in “phone”)

Double consonants are always enunciated separately, e.g., "dd" as in “mad dog,” "gg" as in “big gun.”

An "o" and an "e" always carry a stress, otherwise the stress falls on a long vowel: "ā, ī, ū" - or on a double consonant, or on "ṁ".

(Most of this information comes from the Introduction to the Majjhima Nikāya by Bhikkhu Bodhi.)

Homage to the Buddha

Traditionally the first chant is homage to the Buddha. This is repeated three times. Doing something three times is common in India and in Buddhist practice. It gives you three opportunities to use your full attention. These first three chants are typically done in Pāli only. The translations are underneath the Pāli. There is also a link below to a recording of these first three chants. They are typically done together, although the first chant is often done separately at the beginning of any Dharma related activity like a Dharma talk.

Going for Refuge

In the next one you go for refuge - a safe haven - in the Three Jewels: the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Saṅgha. These are also done three times. This chant is also usually done in Pāli only.

The Five Precepts

Then you take the five ethical and moral precepts. These are discussed in the next chapter, but for now you can see what they look like, even if you prefer not to chant them until you understand them. This chant is here in Pāli only, but it is also commonly done in both Pāli and English.

There is a lovely recording of these three chants by Upāsikā Sobhanā at the Birken Forest Monastery in British Columbia, Canada. (Internet search: "youtube homage refuge precepts")

Five Subjects for Frequent Recollection

The next three chants are from the chant book of Abhayagiri Monastery (Internet search: "abhayagiri chant book"). The chant book also has up and down arrows that show whether the tone is high or low. Chanting is typically done with three tones: a mid-tone, a high tone and a low one.

In the chapter on Establishing a Mental Posture, one of the steps is the "Five Subjects for Frequent Recollection". This is the "Upajjhatthana Sutta: Contemplations". [AN 5.57] Here are two versions of the chant. One is for women and has the feminine word forms and the second version has the masculine word forms. The words that are gender specific are in bold.

This chant is in both Pāli and English. The lines in square brackets - [...] - are usually only chanted by the chant leader.

You can find audio for this chant by doing an Internet search on "abhayagiri five subjects chant". Because it is chanted by monks the audio has the masculine forms.

The Metta Sutta

The next one is the "Karaṇīya Mettā Sutta: The Buddha's Words on Loving-kindness". [AN 11.15] This one is very commonly done, even in groups that do not normally do chanting. It helps to firmly establish the details of loving-kindness in the mind. This one is in English only.

You can find audio for this chant by doing an Internet search on "abhayagiri metta chant".

The Highest Blessings

The last chant is the "Maṅgala Sutta: Highest Blessings". [Khp 5] In this sutta notice how the Buddha starts with the blessings of worldly life, and works his way up to final liberation, nirvāṇa.

You can find audio for this chant by doing an Internet search on "abhayagiri highest blessings chant".

Summary

In this chapter we discussed the reasons why chanting is beneficial to your practice:

1. Chanting helps to settle the mind.
2. Chanting helps embed the teachings into your mind.
3. Chanting helps you connect to the tradition, and to practicing Buddhists around the world.

Next we introduced 6 chants that are part of the standard repertoire. These are:

1. Homage to the Buddha.
2. Going for refuge.
3. The five precepts.
4. Five subjects for frequent recollection.
5. The discourse on loving-kindness.
6. The discourse on the highest blessings.

All six of these chants - concatenated together - are available on the Internet. (Search keywords: daily pali meditation chants)