chanting. There are various ways chants, and people from different countries chant in different ways. And if you go from one place to another, you find that different Buddhist communities chant in various ways.

[01:11]

to chant in a certain way, and I don't know whether it's the best way or not, whether we should chant in that way or not, but I'm going to let you know how it was that I was taught to chant by my teacher, Dr. Diamond, I talked ago initially, I already said that chanting was an expression of dhagya. So the strength that we have in dhagya, the strength or power that we have in dhagya is expressed through our chanting. So after sitting in the morning, with a strong concentration,

[02:22]

but a state of mind, a state of being. So he always encouraged us to have very strong chanting. Chanting, sometimes people say that you should understand the word, chant. And sometimes we feel that understanding the words of the chanting is what is necessary. But there are two principles in practice of the Dharma. The second principle is understanding words. The first principle is understanding ourselves, or expressing our understanding, or being immersed in what we call practice.

[03:35]

That's the first principle. The second principle is understanding words. So, even though the chant is made up of words, Understanding the word is the second principle. Chanting itself is the first principle. So, in Zen though, even though we read words as a vehicle for chanting, the words are secondary, and chanting itself is primary. So, our concentration should be on the work, but mainly, we should not forget how we do things. If you want to enjoy chanting, if you want to enjoy your half-hour, if you don't want to spend it, then please, do your whole heart of it.

[04:45]

The way we enjoy ourselves is when we do things completely wholeheartedly. Then, no problem. So, what I want to help us to do, or encourage us to do, is to chant completely and wholeheartedly, whole body and mind, immersed in expressions of chanting. So first, where does the sound come from? Sound can come from various places. But a good chanting wave, or singing wave, comes from right around here. Down here in the tummy. Feels like our lower abdomen.

[05:51]

And when you breathe in his abdomen, I'm breathing it down here. I pass through this thing. And so when you take a breath, your lower abdomen expands. And when you inhale, it contracts. Expanding, inhaling, contracting, and exhaling. That's called normal breathing. First, we want to establish normal breathing. Then when we chant, our breath is coming from that same place. our picture, picturing where the note is that we're using to attempt.

[07:05]

If it's too low, then we have a lot of trouble chanting from here, because we have to take a breath over and over again. And if it's too high, we feel that we're straining, or it doesn't feel feel superficial. And so to find the right pitch, a nice pitch that we can all feel comfortable with is pretty important. Not too high, not too low. It's okay to harmonize. You don't have to all be in the same pitch. But if the cochlear, the person who establishes the pitch, establishes a nice note that you can easily meet, then you can harmonize with that note.

[08:17]

So it's very important, establishing the pitch. Cochlear should always think about what tips they're establishing so that everyone can join in and enjoy themselves, feel comfortable either on that note or around it, in harmony with it. So I would like us to just, what I'm going to do, is established in a tone or a note. And I'm going to play with it a little bit. And I'm going to show you some possibilities based on thinking about Now when I do that, first I take a big breath in, and I turn it off.

[09:47]

And as the air goes out, I turn it back on. And so, it really feels like my stomach is pressing against my backbone. So, I like us all to do the same thing when I do it. Which is to take a big breath from here. And then hold the note as long as you can. And when you feel you can't hold it any longer, just push a little more. One of the important factors of chanting is endurance. When we speak, we don't think so much about endurance, but automatically we take a breath. Our mind works together with our breath, automatically. And when we think about what we're going to say, we take a breath, and then we hold it all the way to the end of what we're going to say.

[10:55]

You don't find out when you're gasping in one sentence. So, the same goes for chanting. Take a big breath and hold it as long as you can, up to the point where we can take another one that's in harmony with what we're chanting. So let's pray. Big breath. Now, I would like us to play with our voice like the wind. Remember the wind is blowing, not forming a wave.

[11:57]

The wave kind of surges. So you can surge your voice. Aum. Aum. Aum. You're like the wind. Pretend you're the wind. And the control comes from here. It doesn't come from your throat. It comes from here. You control the voice from here. So any kind of change in it comes from here.

[13:01]

It does not come up in your throat. I'd like us to just work on the meal chain. Maybe the people that know it don't need one. But, if you need one, if you don't know it and you can't completely get hold of it, raise your hand. Man, I'd like one too. So beautiful.

[14:34]

When you hold a meal chain card, we hold it in dasho, like this. When you hold a regular enchantment card, we usually hold it like this, with your little fingers inside and thumbs on the table. This is how we hold ordinary enchantment cards. For meal chain cards, we hold them like this. What I'd like us to emphasize here is intensity. So to hold the intensity of a voice through each sentence or through each line. And to not chant too slowly. You know, what happens in chanting is you learn something, and then as you practice it forward, you find it day by day.

[16:28]

After about six months, after about three months, it gets slower. After about six months, it gets really slow. And after a year, You can hardly find your way in it sometimes because it's so slow. So maybe you should bring it back. You can bring it back into a kind of concise tempo. And then it will get slower. So maybe six months later you can bring it back again. Everybody chant a little bit more quicker. So I want us to chant not too slowly. Maybe you can start bringing it back a little bit. I'm really, [...]

[17:31]

Buddha was born at Udine, and what is that Buddha? And what is that Buddha? And what is that Buddha? And what is that Buddha? Now we open the door to Thakur's people. May all be free from suffering. We take refuge in the Buddha. We take refuge in the Dharma. We take refuge in the Sangha. Let us recite the names of Buddha. In order to establish a rhythm, There are various ways to do the clappers, but the way that I wanted to do them is at the end of, homage to the dharmakaya vairochana buddha, buddha, so that you can go right into the next one.

[19:15]

If you say dharmakaya buddha, then there's a gap, and a little block. Let's do it. Let's do it. Aniruddha bhagavad gaya bhargo janabhura. Aniruddha sambhuddha gaya om janabhura. Aniruddha nirmala gaya sadhyamuni pura. Homage to the teacher, Mahaitreya Buddha. Homage to all Buddhas, in the same direction, past, present and future. Homage to Mahārāja Śrīla Prabhupāda, who guided us to the path.

[20:24]

Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare This morning meal and so forth. Then, the second part. Innumerable labors brought us this food.

[21:28]

We should know how it comes to us. Receiving this offering... In the numerable eras of Buddhist school, we should know how it comes to us. Receiving this offering, we should consider whether our virtue and practice deserve it. Desiring the natural order of mind, we should be free from greed, hate, and delusion. We need you to support and buy a new paradise, the way of Buddha. Oh, spirits and powers, we offer this food to pervade all existence. This food is for the three treasures, for our teachers, family, and all people, and for all beings in the six worlds. The first portion is for the precepts. The second is for the practice of samadhi.

[22:31]

The third is the state of all beings. Let's eat this food and awaken with everyone." Okay, we offer this food because this food is for the three treasures. Do you have any questions? That's all. I have one question on the homages. There's a homage that, I don't know how long it's been there, but I don't know, I never know how to quite pronounce the name where it's written in and it says, Homage to Mahayana Saddha Arma.

[23:35]

Saddhama. Saddhama. The H's. I think that you can use it to push the V. But it's not pronounced by itself. It's a Sanskrit. It's a D and H together. I used to chant. I used to chant, but then it was taken out for a long time. Now, it's back to me. It's written in. Back to me.

[24:36]

There's also... way of chanting the Heart Sutra, which is put up in the Kugyo, and more in keeping with our own English-American way of pronouncing or expressing. So let me practice that Okay. Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva, when practicing deeply the Prajñāpāramitā, perceived that all five skandhas in their own being are empty and was saved from all.

[26:21]

O Śāriputra, form does not differ from emptiness. Emptiness does not differ from form. That which is form is emptiness. which is emptiness form, the same is true of feelings, conceptions, formations, consciousness. O Shariputra, all dharmas are morphine. So, here's a tricky component. If you've been used to chanting the sutra, the words for twenty years in one way, and then suddenly change a few. Yes, sir. Thank you. I always find it as simple as it is. Do you try chanting that way, possibly? Maybe we have some questions about it.

[27:23]

Yeah. Do you sort of slug it, or do you...? Well, there's certain places where you put emphasis. Right. It's hard to say exactly where the places are. Do you know how to describe exactly where it is? Well, it's really hard to say exactly. It's kind of intuition. My feeling is that all of us, or each of us, could do it in a way that feels, that we're putting emphasis in the natural realm. It doesn't necessarily have to all be in the same place. The Sanshin Heart Sutra, the way we usually do it in Japanese,

[28:28]

So it's completely flat. And so chanting in English in a flat way doesn't sound as nice or as good. So if you can find a kind of natural emphasis in yourself, you can change it. I wonder how people, it's not a horror movie, it's done very nicely, and I wonder how people would react. Anybody have an idea? I think they could do it that way. Let's try it that way. Let's try everybody, just chanting it. And at the same time, listen to everybody else.

[29:36]

You know, the trick of chanting is listening. If you're just chanting by yourself, then you can't keep the right pitch with everybody. And you tend to isolate yourself. And when you isolate it, then you stand out. Try to listen to everybody and to think to each other, see how many people you can hear. And at the same time chant with them. If you can't hear anybody else, it means you're too loud. Maha Mara Maha Prajnaparamita Hridaya Sutra Om Nirmala Bodhisattva, when practicing deeply the Prajna Paramita, first we verify Shraddhas in their own being, I am clear what say from all suffering,

[30:49]

Shakyamuni Buddha, form does not differ from emptiness. Emptiness does not differ from form. That which is form is emptiness. That which is emptiness is form. The same is true of feelings, conceptions, formations, consciousness. O Shakyamuni Buddha, all dharmas are our own. With emptiness they do not appear nor disappear, are not tainted nor pure, do not increase nor decrease. Therefore in emptiness no form, no feelings, no conceptions, no formations, no consciousness, no eyes, no ears, no nose, no tongue, no heart, No body, no mind, no color, no sound, no smell, no taste, no touch, no object of mind, no realm of eyes, until the realm of mind, consciousness, no ignorance, and also no extinction of it,

[32:01]

No age, no death, and also no extinction of death, no suffering, no origination, no stopping, no end, no fruition, also no attainment with nothing to attain the 45. the world Therefore know the Prajna Paramita is the Great Transcendent Mantra, is the Great Bright Mantra, is the Atmos Mantra, is the Supreme Mantra, which is able to relieve all suffering.

[33:11]

That wasn't so bad. The thing to remember is not to let the pitch drop. Also, not to slow down. I felt that it didn't slow down, which is remarkable. But I did feel the pitch drop. So maybe it's my fault. Maybe I started on too low a pitch. If the pitch is too low, it's really hard to sustain. And when it's hard to sustain, the pitch drops. And you start up here and you end up down here. So, that's really something that we should consciously avoid.

[34:15]

The other thing is, since there's no refugio to hold us together, we have to sustain that intensity. So, I want to do it again, but not all the way through. Just part of the way through. Oh, I was going to say something, but I wanted to stop there. I'll start on a little higher pitch. When I introduce the sutra, I don't stop. So I just continue into the future, so please pick it up. All of you are avoiding sorrow in practicing deeply the Vajravarahi.

[35:35]

Perceive that all lives, countless in their own being, are empty, and let's say, from all suffering, pushkariputra, form does not differ from emptiness. Emptiness does not differ from form. That which is born is emptiness, that which is emptiness born. The same is true of feelings, conceptions, formations, consciousness. O Shariputra, all dharmas are marked with emptiness, they do not arise. no fear nor disappear, are not tainted nor pure, do not increase nor decrease, therefore in emptiness no form, no feelings, no perceptions, no formations, no consciousness, no eyes, no ears, no nose, no tongue, no body, no mind, no color, no sound, no sound.

[36:41]

Is that, uh, you know, whether I'm okay, or... Well, I think... May I? If, uh, if a cook goes to dinner, and he won't start with everything, I have to adjust, you know, in addition to taking the water, and, like, the reason they don't... Also, you can harm them, you know, if you don't treat them by reasonable means. Um, but that's okay. It might, it might take a little bit to find a reasonable means. Yep. Um, when you come to me and you look at the language, it's not actually a common type. And, uh, I want to give you a definition of what the language is, but I'm not going to go into that in great detail. It has to do with the parts of the language that you are looking for. And, uh, I'm going to give you something that I'm not going to go into in great detail.

[37:45]

And, uh, What's changing? The time of day off? Yeah. Well, you know, it's possible to accent the Sometimes you feel that you'd like to do that, you know.

[38:46]

Especially if you have a very intense voice. going down a quarter-tone or up a quarter-tone in little waves makes a very, very nice variation. Now it's not baked very thick, just blew off the tone. It actually feels good, quite comfortable. And there's a natural tendency to do this. Various ways to do this, which it might be okay to try too. Whatever anybody feels like doing. So the whole thing is a kind of I'm going to try that real quick.

[40:05]

First one. Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva, in practicing deeply the Prajna Paramita, perceive that all Maya skandhas and their Namo Amitabha. [...] The same is true of feelings, conceptions, formations, consciousness. O Shariputra, all dharmas are marked with emptiness.

[41:11]

They do not appear nor disappear. or an emptiness, no form, no feelings, no conceptions, no formations. no consciousness, no eyes, no ears, no nose, no tongue, no body, no mind, no color, no sound, no smell, no taste, no touch, no object of mind, no realm of eyes until no realm of mind, consciousness, no ignorance, and love. kind of dragged along. But I think it's good to go to extremes in order to find where the right place is.

[42:14]

I think we're going to have to do it a bit, not as soon as we have it, but searching a bit. That felt rather draggy, I think, though. So, I think it's important to keep in touch with them. And there's this very little opportunity. I think another chant that I'd just like to touch on is the robe chant in the morning. Also, I would like us to bring together, not have it so spread out. I'm not sure if that's exactly right, but, you know. Chai, chai, [...] chai

[43:37]

Yes, very good. One more time. And then at the end, so, of course, even the English at the end, which is a little strange, because I only heard twice the Japanese and once the English at the end. But if you end a Japanese chant, you kind of end it by Shoulders roll. Kind of nice kick. Like the kicker you're thinking of. That kind of nice, shallow kick. Roll. Anyway.

[44:41]

Any questions out there? About anything? Not, yeah, we're just not so thrilled. We're not over it, but. Yeah. Well, it depends on the circumstances. If it's added to another chant, at the end of another chant. then it can be changed quickly, not too quickly. But if it's sometimes changed by itself, then you have to let it go longer, more slowly, in order to flavor it.

[45:40]

@Text_v004
@Score_JF