Chant

I was once a ritualistic chanter of Buddhist sutra. Like meditating, chanting a familiar sutra repeatedly has an hypnotic effect. Under the influence of this hypnotic effect, I believe, it is possible to engage various parts of the brain for the concerted behavioral changes which can better your life. This is not an outrageously novel or new idea.

This morning I am listening to Gregorian chant on my favorite Amsterdam radio station, Conzertzender. It occurs to me that this chanting is not very different from the Buddhist sutra-chanting with which I am familiar. In my youth, I sang Gregorian chant in a boys' choir. I recall the rush of excitement when our choir got it just right and the echoes of our voices rebounded back to us off the stark stone walls of our church.

The Gregorian chant of Roman Catholic ritual is constructed to lull and mystify, in my opinion. It is a sound meant to echo off cloister walls. A sound to awe and entrance impressionable, illiterate peasants perhaps. The great monasteries of Tibet, perched on mountaintops, echoed similarly with the sutras, often accompanied by fierce horn blasts and choking incense.

While listening to Gregorian chant charms me and makes me nostalgic for my own blissful ignorance of youth, I also hear in it the theatrical manipulation of millions for centuries. Perhaps this will be the role of religious rituals in some enlightened future. Reminders of the blissful ignorance of humanity, before it woke up to its real place in the Universe.

Mantra

A mantra is a focal chant which is used similarly to meditation in practice. Ancient practitioners found that using a rhythmic, repeated phrase to free the mind allowed for a form of self-hypnosis, which then facilitated planting subconscious positive suggestions or images (causes) which could lead to actualizing desired behaviors or results(effects). This relates to the concept of causality, which is found in many Buddhist teachings. I am convinced that your mantra can be something as simple as "PEA-nut-BUT-ter", repeated while focusing on a mandala, or focal object, like a poster of the Buddha, or any other pleasing image. Basically, chanting is a form of conscious and intentional brain manipulation. Nichiren Buddhists use the mantra, "Nam myoho renge kyo," for example, a reference to dedication to the Lotus Sutra. Tibetans use the mantra, "Om mai ne pad me hung". I am convinced from my own practice that the specific sounds of the mantra carry less magic than the practice of chanting them with a mandala in a peaceful and relaxed atmosphere. The ancients tended to assign the mantra's magic to the creator of the mantra or to the mandala to which the mantra is chanted. But the ancients were unfamiliar with hypnosis and brain science. The means is less important than the end in this case. The end being the inducement of the brain to accept and foster the concepts of creating personal happiness and practicing peace and compassion.