CHANTING
MEDITATION
The practice
When you chant in meditation, the sound produces the meditative state. Practitioners believe that the mantra — word, phrase or sound — repeated during meditation has healing properties itself.
Mantras can be spoken, chanted, whispered, or repeated silently. Chanting may be done alone or in a group.
THE TRADITION
While often associated with Buddhist and Hindu tradition, forms of sacred word recitation across all spiritual traditions, including Judeo-Christian and Shamanic. Call and response recitations are part of most services. Mantra practice can also easily fit into a secular meditation practice.
Mantras may be used to connect with the divine, or to sharpen the mind-body connection and help keep the mind focused on life’s higher purpose.
Chanting may be used to call for assistance, protect against unwelcome distractions or emotions, or to retrain the mind.
Your mileage may vary.
I TRIED IT
No matter what form of chanting I’ve tried, I’ve felt the benefits of the sounds resonating through my body. It left me feeling great. I’ve done a lot of kirtans (yoga chants) in my day, but my most serious efforts followed the SGI Buddhism tradition. Though I never went full Gojukai, occasionally I do the chant. Part of it anyway. If I sounded as good as Tina Turner does in this video, who knows what might have happened.
If you’d like to read more in my forthcoming memoir, Blissful Thinking: A Memoir of Surviving the Wellness Revolution, join the Advance Reader Team below!
MORE TO EXPLORE
I encourage you to explore other techniques, too. Click the symbols below for more.
OTHER STYLES TO EXPLORE
Silent Meditation
Guided Meditation
Moving Meditation
Gazing Meditation
Short Moments
read the BOOK THAT INSPIRED THE QUEST
Blissful Thinking: A Memoir of Overcoming the Wellness Revolution
Never give up, especially on yourself.
What would you do if your partner ended your marriage, over the phone? From another country?
Blissful Thinking is the raw and honest account of L.L. Kirchner's recovery, a quest that took her from university halls in the Persian Gulf to the streets of Manhattan to a sex cult in India.
The author was living in Qatar, separated from friends, family, and life as she’d known it when her marriage imploded. Feeling unable to move forward, she decided to take a time out in India. That time out turned into an odyssey that spanned years and crossed continents, zigzagging between silent meditation retreats, gurus, and finally a psychic in Florida.
If she applied herself, Kirchner was sure she could be rid of the flaws that had caused her ex-husband to leave in secret. But once she started looking, the list of her failings was a never-ending well.
Read along as Kirchner bravely searches for radical honesty. And a second date.
NOT SURE? read the introduction first
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