Why and How can Chanting Help?
When we are stressed out and worried, we tend to have our minds continually revolve around the object of worry, and we are unable to break out of that cycle easily. This enhances the stress and locks us into an unhealthy pattern of breath and the impact that both the worry and the irregular breathing have on the physical body. When we try to simply shift the attention away, we find the thoughts continue to recur, and in many cases, our sleep is disturbed, or we turn to mindless distraction, or self-medication with drugs or alcohol to try to do away with the fixation.
There is however another way. The world religious traditions, and the spiritual paths that have developed over time, all recognize the power of chanting of various mantras, prayers or hymns, to break the cycle of external thoughts and move the awareness inwards to a state of peace and calm. Prayer and mantra are able to shift the focus of the mind away from the cause of worry and thus, shift the mind towards a recognition of higher realities and deeper truths. Chanting also impacts the breathing and helps to settle the mind, the vital energy and the body into a frame of quiet focus.
Chanting can also impact the external relationships as it builds up a vibratory pattern that can help bring peace to a wider congregation of people in a collective environment. Experiments have shown that, using Kirlian photography that photographs the human aura, there is a marked increase of energy flow and coherence when one is chanting versus a non-chanting state of awareness. Further experiments show that bricks or rocks taken from a temple where people have chanted and prayed for many decades continue to hold the vibration of the chanting and show a radiance not seen in ordinary bricks! Thus, chanting can have an impact on physical matter, and thus, by extension, can aid in healing the body if done with the right intention and right vibrational patterns to set the healing in motion.
Chanting is frequently tied to management of the breath, a process known as Pranayama in the yogic tradition. Breath management and chanting together can create a tremendous reservoir of energy within the individual. Thus, chanting can aid with attaining mental and emotional peace, physical and emotional healing, and development of energy for positive action and spiritual growth.
Santosh Krinsky
Institute for Wholistic Education (USA)
Keywords: relax, mind, body, stress, attention, focus, mood, concentration, Buddhist, Om, chanting, peace, awareness, healing, positivity, energy, inner work
Isn't the chanting likely to become so mechanical as to become ineffective? Would understanding the meaning of the mantra help in its not becoming a mechanical repetition? Would changing the mantra frequently, instead of chanting always the same mantra help towards making it effective in breaking "the cycle of external thoughts"?
ReplyDelete(Don Salmon here). What a fascinating take on this, Ramesh. I think you've put your finger on why there is such caution in Mother and Sri Aurobindo's writings regarding the adoption of any "technique" or method.
DeleteI was initiated into the practice of repeating the Divine Name over 45 years ago. I was ALWAYS wary of repeating it mechanically. My teacher always emphasized 'Diving into the Atmic sphere" (that is, stepping back into the Silence) and from there, listening to rather than "repeating" the Name. Also, when there is a spontaneous aspiration in the heart, the warmth of the DIvine Presence encircles the repetition of the Name, and when the aspiration is directed toward an integral path the Force begins to repeat the Name without personal effort.
But Santosh seems to have been referring more to group chanting. I started leading Kirtans back in the 1980s, and in the mid 1990s, for several years, I brought my accordion (quite similar to a harmonium!) to the New York Open Center where I regularly led Kirtan. No doubt it can be mechanical but I found particularly in group settings, where there is a great power of common aspiration, each can support the other in deepening one's aspiration.
But your point remains, as far as I can see, crucially important. Perhaps even more problematic than mechanical repetition is getting swept up in the vital excitement of group chanting and assuming that the vital emotion is somehow psychic or spiritual! One always needs to be vigilant and sincere, undoubtedly.
Diving into the inner silence and listening to the mantra from within as one chants rather than just repeating it mechanically - so beautifully put Don. Bhakti rasa has its own place but as you point out it has to be an expression of the psychic that suffuses the vital. At times though, one may experience the psychic as the higher vital emotion deepens.
DeleteHi Anuradha - your comment brings up a question. You said "one may experience the psychic as the higher vital emotion deepens."
DeleteThe question/comment I'm about to write is the kind that often evokes accusations of "mentalizing" (over analyzing, for folks not familiar with that term). So I just want to start by saying, I'm attempting to describe something the way you might point out the colors of the rainbow. If you're not familiar with a rainbow, it might sound like analysis, but when you actually see one, it's all just using words to point to experience.
Ok, with that out of the way, I wanted to ask about distinguishing the psychic from the vital. Analysis aside, this seems of vital (pun intended) importance.
I just happened, last night, to be reading a passage in which a child asks the Mother about this very question. She said the child was most likely experiencing "intimations" of the psychic - its influence on the vital/emotional nature.
I guess I don't really have a specific question. I'm in the process of putting together some notes for a LaGrace presentation on something Jan and I wrote extensively about in our book on yoga psychology - the difference between intimations of the soul and Self, and direct realization.
I've been VERY impressed with the Tibetan Buddhist tradition in regard to this. Teachers often present to students - absolute beginners - intimations of the soul and Self. They have a saying, "brief glimpses many times."
Rather than thinking of the path as linear, the student may have genuine glimpses of the coming forward of the soul or awakening of the Self, and learns (not a "method" really as much as an intentional shift of consciousness which was Graced to them through the pointing out of the teacher) to shift many times, for as little as a few seconds, throughout the day.
I would LOVE to present this in the context of Integral Yoga. To get back to Santosh's post, there may be many who, as you say, experience intimations of the psychic as the higher vital emotion deepens, just as there are many (even among those not doing yoga) who have glimpses of the vastness of the dynamic Self while gazing across a vast range of mountains or looking out to the horizon across the ocean, or at the night sky.
Doesn't seem to be a way to edit after publishing. I just wanted to clarify I was referring to Santosh's post and the sense that chanting and repetition of the mantra can lead to genuine intimations of the psychic as higher vital emotion deepens. If Ramesh is still here, I'd be interested to hear, Ramesh, if you see any distinction between mantra repetition in general and repetition of the Divine Name, whether of Ma or Sri Aurobindo, or as Dilip Kumar Roy famously persisted in repeating the Name of Sri Krishna at the recommendation of Sri Aurobindo. It seems that for one drawn to repetition of the name, devotion generally accompanies it spontaneously (though I must certainly admit from personal experience, one may persist somewhat unconsciously in a mechanical fashion even when devotion has faded)
Deletenote that nothing in the article describes any "mechanical" repetition. It specifically focused on several very specific uses under specific situations. of course, anything done mechanically has little long-term value, one way or the other.
ReplyDeleteThanks much for the helpful clarification. True, it was not mentioned, but as you write, "anything done mechanically has little long-term value, one way or the other." Having participated in Kirtan and practiced repetition of mantra AND the Divine Name over many decades, I found Ramesh's observation to be a quite helpful reminder.
DeleteAND I found the post to be quite helpful and informative as well!
DeleteHello, I have been practicing Buddhism using a specific mantra that gets repeated, for 33 years. We have always felt that, not only does it immediately change one's vibrational frequency, it also enhances one's ability to "bend" time. Everything becomes fluid while in that state. I'm so excited to see this concept explored academically, as this action, of chanting a mantra out loud, has allowed me to transform my life completely.
ReplyDeleteFirstly, thanks Santosh for sharing a very simple and powerful age-old technique - reminding us of it. Just wanted to bring out another aspect of chanting. Even mechanical chanting has an effect, I think. It gets established in the physical mind like a groove in the record. Generates slow change. And when one's consciousness is awake, this sub-text of the being can be accessed more easily. Something like breathing - when we breathe consciously, it has a power. But, the mechanical breathing is what keeps us going all the other time : ) Once again, thanks to Santosh - have never given Chanting so much thought !!
ReplyDeleteThis is Monica here.
ReplyDeleteThank you all for sharing your understanding, questions and experience of chanting.
I, myself have been practising Vedic chanting for the past 2 decades, as learnt from a yoga school in Chennai, with all the notations preserved over time and following the rules of chanting as mentioned in the taittiriya upanisad.
And more recently , I have also tried the Buddhist chanting of repeating only one mantra with a rhythm.
My experience so far has been the following :
1. Chanting the Vedic texts and Mantras following the rules has an effect of calming the mind, opening one to a sense of peace and bringing stability in the body which can be a starting point to go deeper in meditation or contemplation.
2. Even without the meaning, the vibrational quality of the sounds and the modulations of the breath when making the sound, make it a very effective tool of pranayama as Santosh jee mentioned as well as alters the state of mind and emotional state. So, can offer a great relief for someone whose mind is caught in endless repetition of worrying thoughts and is also healing.
3. Knowing the meanings is always recommended as it involves the intellect along with the vital and body and helps to establish a conscious psychic contact, However for a beginner, even repetition done with the correct pronunciation of the Sanskrit words has a powerful impact on the entire being, because Sanskrit being a language where sound and sense are eternally connected, mere repetition of the sounds over time, reveal the meanings and deeper sense behind the sounds.
4 Traditionally chanting was taught orally to children. This enhanced attention and memory because the child had to hear the sounds and then repeat without looking at text. Meaning was taught to them as they grew older.
As an eternal learner, I also continue to learn and my understanding is evolving. Thank you.
Rereading the post and comments, I see nobody has mentioned ajapa japa - the automatic , effortless repetition of the mantra.
ReplyDeleteI'm guessing that if you haven't practiced chanting a mantra (initially out loud, then silently) this may sound like an advanced state - the mantra just continues on its own while you rest in inner Silence.
But in my understanding and experience, yogic practice doesn't work in a purely linear fashion. We can have glimpses of the soul and even of the Self right at or near the beginning. Similarly, we can have glimpses of a state of non-doership even without engaging in any yogic practice.
I've found, over the years, that I have hardly ever met anybody who has not had the experience of "being in the zone" or "being in flow" where everything just seems to happen effortlessly. Well, if you've had even a taste of that experience, it may be a bit more subtle to have it occur within, but in a way, you can recognize even this from the beginning.
Here's a couple of ways I like to approach it with teens and young adults:
1. Try as hard as you can to stop thinking - NO thoughts at all. you might actually succeed for a few seconds, but notice carefully what happens - did you CHOOSE the first thought that arose? No, it just came, spontaneously. If you stop briefly, throughout the day, and look, you'll notice that almost ALL of our thoughts come this way. Well, now, try repeating a word, like "peace." Doesn't it feel like "I" am making an effort to repeat it. Now, look a little more closely. Stop repeating the word, and just set an intention to "hear" the word "peace but don't make any effort to say it. What do you notice? Doesn't the word "peace" come to mind automatically, the very thing you were NOT trying to say? And do you notice, without any effort at all, there's a feeling of quiet, peacefulness along with it?
2. This one's even more fun. Clap your hands to a regular beat - CLAP CLAP CLAP-CLAP CLAP...... CLAP CLAP CLAP-CLAP CLAP..... then pause for just a second. Notice if you're attentive to the rhythm of clapping, your mind will be VERY quiet during that pause. Keep doing this, and slowly lengthen the pause - 2, 4, 6, even 10 seconds. You'll be astonished, without even once practicing meditation, you'll find you can have the experience of complete mental silence during those 5 to 10 seconds. Now, when you practice chanting, you can begin more and more to notice the silence BETWEEN the words, and you may at some point realize there's a stillness, silence BEHIND the words. your heart will sing when you realize this!
a note to Anuradha - I know you're working with teens; I find that most have had the experience either with sports, video games or something in the arts, of being in the flow. For getting across the very advanced state of non-doership, it can be helpful to ask them of moments of experience - it often feels like magic, or if they're religiously inclined, Grace - when things just come together seemingly without effort. It may also be even something like picking out clothes, cooking a meal, studying for a test, every day experiences.
Deletehappened to come across the following from The Mother from 1960: from the book Notes on Evolution pg. 51 per citation on Facebook post by a devotee: "I have come to realize that for this sadhana of the body, a mantra is essential. Sri Aurobindo gave none. He said one should be able to do all the work without resorting to external means. Though had he reached the point where we are now, he would have found that the purely psychological method is inadequate and that a mantra is necessary, because only a mantra has a direct action on the body. Of all the formulas or mantras, the one that has the most direct effect on this body is the Sanskrit mantra: 'Om Namo Bhagavate'. When I sit in meditation or I have a minute of quiet for concentration, this mantra arises from the solar plexus, and there is a response in the cells of the body: they all start vibrating. Everything gets filled with Light! I repeat my mantra constantly, when I am awake and even when I sleep. I say it when I get dressed, when I eat, when I work, when I speak with people. It is there all the time, in the background of everything. That is the normal state. It creates an atmosphere of intensity almost more material than the subtle physical. And it has a great effect: it can prevent an accident."
ReplyDelete