Why No Chanting Sessions in My Meditation Retreats?


Some laypeople express surprise that there’s no chanting sessions in my retreats—but their reaction doesn’t surprise me. Chanting is practically a standard item in organized Buddhist retreats in Malaysia. So why do I leave it out?

During the Buddha’s time, lay Buddhists didn’t chant either. Even when observing the eight precepts on uposatha days, they do so without any recitation. Monastics did chant, but mainly to memorize and preserve the Buddha’s teachings—which isn’t why most laypeople chant today. In fact, they often don’t even understand the words they’re reciting.

Nowadays, people chant for a few common reasons:

  1. To occupy the mind with something soothing, so that it can settle; but sometimes so that they can forget their suffering.

  2. To satisfy the belief that by chanting they gain merits.

  3. To cultivate a sense of community in temples or monasteries.

I don’t include chanting in my retreats because:

  1. I want my students to have maximum opportunity to practice meditation. Once participants master this skill, they can achieve far more than just temporary calm.

  2. I don’t believe people gain merits by chanting. Besides, this idea is absent in early Buddhist texts.

  3. There is group meditation in my retreats, which naturally fosters community—no chanting needed.

Final Thoughts

Chanting can hold meaning for some, but it isn’t essential for spiritual growth. What truly matters isn’t what we recite, but what we understand, internalize, and live by.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Giving Gifts or Giving Burden?

Image
Lay Buddhists are often taught the importance of giving (dāna)—especially to monastics—as a meritorious act. While this practice is deeply rooted in the Buddhist tradition, it has led to a growing concern: the excessive giving of gifts to monastics, resulting in monasteries having to deal with unnecessary possessions. Monastics do depend on lay people to give them what they need. However, when the giving becomes excessive, it creates a burden for the monastics. Their monasteries can become cluttered with items they neither need nor want. In this situation, the gifts have become a burden. To address this issue, lay Buddhists should be advised to practice wise giving . This involves considering the true needs of the recipient and the potential result of the giving. Instead of giving out of religious piety or a desire to gain merit, one can give wisely. What do the monastics really need? If you want to give but don't know what the monastics really need, you can always ask them. By ...
Read more

Beware of Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing: Protect Yourself from Hidden Personality Disorders

Image
Sometimes I meet people who suffer because they are unknowingly living or working with someone who has a personality disorder. It’s important to be aware of such disorders, as being with individuals who have them can be distressing. When we think of mental illness, we usually think of conditions like schizophrenia, depression and anxiety disorders—conditions that are either very obvious or that people usually seek help for. We don’t usually think of another category of mental illness: personality disorders . There are many kinds of personality disorders, but let me speak of two which are not so obvious but surely worth knowing for our own protection: APersonality Disorder (ASPD) and Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) . Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD) “Antisocial” here does not mean “unsociable”. In fact, individuals with this disorder may appear highly sociable. They are antisocial in the sense that they are hostile or disruptive to social norms. They lack emp...
Read more

How To Deal With People Who Often Criticize You

Image
Having people, or even just one person, in your life who is constantly critical of you can be very challenging. It’s possible that they don’t know the harm that they are causing. In any case, you’re the one having a problem and so you’re the one to do something about it. You need to find a suitable way to stop being constantly criticized. You first need to find out why they behave this way . There are a few possible reasons: They have a spoiled entitlement schema . They feel entitled to criticize you. They have an unrelenting standards schema . They can’t stand standards lower than their expectations, which they feel are normal and justified. They have a defectiveness schema . They try to feel better about themselves by putting others down. If they have a spoiled entitlement schema , your chances of getting them to stop is very slim. The only way they would even consider changing their behaviour, is being under the threat of losing something that they want...
Read more