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Meditation basics - what language to use?
in Meditation
Greetings everyone!
I recently started attending a local Tibetan center here in Seattle and had the opportunity to meet one of the teachers at the monastery. On the occasion of asking how to meaningfully initiate daily practice, I was instructed on my first meditation to make use of. My command of Tibetan is completely non-existent. My only exposure to it has been at group meditations, which I just started attending as well. My teacher was kind enough to quickly take me through the Tibetan version. It has the English translation is beneath.
My question is about which language to use in doing my daily practice - Tibetan or English.
What have been doing is to recite - or attempt to recite - each section in Tibetan, and then again in English. Even though my heart and mind are in the right place, I feel absolutely awful butchering the Tibetan language so badly. Hearing it chanted by others and then hearing myself try to stumble through it is really painful.
In any case, so far I have found the process of meditating to be really mind expanding. I can't say that I have had another experience like it - it has made me feel is as though my mind is no longer contained inside my head. My consciousness feels really expansive and airy, like it is part of something much greater.
I appreciate your help, one component of why I am asking here - I am trying to avoid asking too many 'dumb' questions of a teacher who has graciously offered a complete newcomer their time to help further my learning.
Thanks to all of you for your input, I really appreciate it.
I recently started attending a local Tibetan center here in Seattle and had the opportunity to meet one of the teachers at the monastery. On the occasion of asking how to meaningfully initiate daily practice, I was instructed on my first meditation to make use of. My command of Tibetan is completely non-existent. My only exposure to it has been at group meditations, which I just started attending as well. My teacher was kind enough to quickly take me through the Tibetan version. It has the English translation is beneath.
My question is about which language to use in doing my daily practice - Tibetan or English.
What have been doing is to recite - or attempt to recite - each section in Tibetan, and then again in English. Even though my heart and mind are in the right place, I feel absolutely awful butchering the Tibetan language so badly. Hearing it chanted by others and then hearing myself try to stumble through it is really painful.
In any case, so far I have found the process of meditating to be really mind expanding. I can't say that I have had another experience like it - it has made me feel is as though my mind is no longer contained inside my head. My consciousness feels really expansive and airy, like it is part of something much greater.
I appreciate your help, one component of why I am asking here - I am trying to avoid asking too many 'dumb' questions of a teacher who has graciously offered a complete newcomer their time to help further my learning.
Thanks to all of you for your input, I really appreciate it.
0
Comments
Some info for you.
Do what feels right for you. Be it in Tibetian or English.
But always focus on the direct meaning and what the language points to.
Good luck.
I know it's not about how the chant/mantra sounds, but the unifying rhythm of the practice is IMO an important aspect of chanting. English tends to ruin that rhythm and turns many chants I've encountered into rote reading.
Sound does influence the energetic body, but that may be too esoteric for most.
the right language is just the one that can best explain that to you.
Your chanting is fine. Have confidence it will transform you. Without doubt this will happen. :clap:
@taiyaki, thanks for the link and the info, it provides a lot of background which is helpful in understanding the goal and intent of the Vajrasattva meditation.
Also nice to hear the perspectives on chanting and use of English vs. Tibetan. The next time the monastery offers Tibetan language class, I will sign up and take them. In the mean time, in order to best internalize the message, I will proceed in English. I agree with the sentiments regarding rhythmic/auditory component of chanting and the notion that English doesn't always sound the best.
Thanks to all. I am grateful for your help.
I listen to a lot of foreign music that I don't understand. I try to feel and interpret the music without understanding it. Gives a whole new dimension to the music.
Most of the Tibetian chants I do make no sense but the point is to relax into the chanting and allow the chanting to be an expression of that infinite moment.
We can realize the whole of the dharma from chanting. Each instant is a new instant, a new note, a new sound. Yet there is a flow of continuity. Completely die in each instant and be reborn again!
Where is the sound arising, abiding, going to? (emptiness).
Is there a hearer? Or is there just the sound as the hearing.
Sorry to throw you on the deep end.
My initial reason for writing was to try and ascertain if I was "doing it right" strictly speaking. Just a few short days later with new perspective, the original question seems kind of silly - especially when one looks at the notion of each moment or sound passing by, and being gone to be reborn into a new one. It is easy to connect that idea to the idea of doing this specific meditation to carry away the old, and to start anew.
On another level, my brain was having a bit of a hard time with regard to being really literal about the meditation. One of the reasons Buddhism resonated with me was the 'lack of diety worship' component, and in the most literal sense my first meditation seemed to have me doing exactly that. Perhaps that is a topic for another discussion
@taiyaki, and everyone else, thanks a lot for helping me see this differently.
I know you are not supposed to count a mantra on your index finger, and what direction to count in, but how exactly do you hold a mala when meditating?
@taiyaki I do the same thing. I can listen to tibetan meditation music, have no idea what they are saying, but some how, I feel connected to the music.