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Chanting
ThailandTom
Veteran
Where to begin with chanting sutras? I have, for whatever reason, never really turned to the suutas or sutras much over the past 5 years. Right now I am feeling rather beaten and down in general and have the heart sutra playing, but I have never been able to follow along in Pali. Also I would appreciate no smart ass comments from usual subjects, you know I can take a joke and often such comments with a pinch of salt, but I would rather not have to deal with that at the moment.
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You mean chant entire long sutras? Chants I've heard about are often short, but infused with meaning. You keep that meaning in mind even as you chant, even of each individual word/syllable (such as "Om Ma-ni Pad-me Hum")... but what do I know? I don't chant. Don't listen to me.
Rather than chanting suttas, I actually use my mala beads on a regular basis, currently....
I was listening to a CD of Tibetan Buddhists chanting the "Six-Syllable Seed Mantra" (Om Mani Padme Hung) and it was incredibly fast..... Now, I don't know if that's the usual, acceptable or common speed it's normally chanted by, but I use the Tara Mantra (Om Tare Tuttare Ture Soha) and the Blue Medicine Buddha Mantra, (Taya-teh Om Bekandzeh, Bekandzeh, Maha Bekandzeh Radza Sammud Dhat-eh Soha) and I certainly don't rush them.... but the repetitive nature is also soothing, and focuses the mind.
I have a 25 minute long YouTube video of the heart and medicine Buddha sutra songs, I may try what you do with your mala and music with that video.
I guess I worded it a little wrong, maybe more mantras rather than chants..?
Mantras are done at different speeds and different auditory levels. For example the SGI practice I recently attended was done at 'deafening level'. If just starting I would recommend full and deep drawn out auditory level. As this works as a 'calm breathing' practice.
OM MANI PEME HUM is often the main practice of senior practitioners with decades of choice mantras to use. . .
Tara and Medicine Buddha chants are as Federica mentions, excellent.
http://www.wildmind.org/mantras/figures/greentara
Mantra Faqs
http://yinyana.tumblr.com/day/2013/08/03
Some mantras . . .
http://zenmirror.blogspot.co.uk/2009/03/mantra-practice.html
I really enjoy sutra chanting. It's not something I find I enjoy or get much out of doing on my own, but I really enjoy it as a group. Whenever we do retreats with my teacher we chant the heart sutra at the beginning and I really like that. We just do it in English though.
Sometimes, I watch a youtube video that I really like that is a heart sutra chanting and I chant along with it.
Our teacher uses a stick of some sort to tap a rhythm so that we know what time to keep, so to speak. It's just very evenly spaced in about 4/4 time. That helps a lot, so maybe something like that would work for you to get started?
I used to do a bit of chanting. Probably the longest I memorized was The Heart Sutra (in Pali, I think). I never did memorize it in English. It seemed to mean less, be less alive, in English... which is not to say I speak or plan to learn Pali.
I put n repeat this video which is the heart and Buddha medicine mantra song, on repeat in fact yesterday, and sometimes I would be busy doing things, other times I would listen and I also did go along a little at times. Quite a bit of Pali is similar to Thai which I am pretty much fluent with regards to speaking, that helps I guess. For example you pronounce 'concentration' in Thai like 'samadti' and in Pali concentration roughly translates to 'samādhi'
Anyway towards the end of the day I felt that the depression that swept over me the night and following morning had lifted, and today too I feel better. Maybe there is something to the Medicine Buddha :P I want to try what @federica suggested soon though.
In the shower I chant
refuge:
Lama la chapsu chay o (guru)
Sanjay la chapsu chay o (buddha)
Cho la chapsu chay o (dharma)
Gendu la chapsu chay o (sangha)
and also...
I go for refuge to the Buddha
Until all sentient beings realize Buddhahood
(the whole thing x3)
Another chant in the shower:
Om Mane Pema Hum (you should get the intonation used from youtube)
Arousing Bodhicitta:
May the hearts awareness waken in the unawakened
Where it has begun to stir may it never fade
and may it awaken fully
(I also chant the Tibetan, but don't know how to spell)
I also chant the Lotus in the flower mantra (Om Mani Pema Hum)
While I do not chant sutras I do chant the refuges and precepts in pali before I start sitting meditation.
I'm in Thailand at the moment, and in the evenings I like to find the nearest temple, and just go in and chant evening puja with the monks. It's almost always the same chants, so learning them and following along is quite easy.
Morning puja however... No thanks, 3.30am is not a good holiday wakeup time.