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Sutra Chanting as a Practice of Buddhism
Zazen, in Zen Buddhism, is unique among meditations. In meditation there is a great problem with distraction. The yogis say to keep patiently bringing the mind back to the focal point. But Zazen confronts distraction more directly than conventional meditation. You step back from the mind and regard it objectively. Each thought, as it occurs, is allowed to bubble up through the water until it reaches the surface, where it is allowed to burst, ending its existence.
In Zazen, mind is no mind. Sutra chanting as a practice of Buddhism carries the approach a bit further. In chanting the sutra, ego is no ego. In the chant given on this page, sections of the Lotus Sutra, a Mahayana sutra of unknown authorship, ostensibly a teaching of the Nirmanakaya Siddartha Gautama, are chanted in medieval Japanese. The use of a dead language, a few of the words of which are known, is a time-honoured way of lending a proper aura of mystery to a spiritual practice.
Chanting the sutra is an excellent format for disciplining the mind to be an instrument of the individual higher self, rather than manifesting the ego, the look-how-smart-I-can-be false identity in which so many are imprisoned.
Your mind will respond to the same type of parent-child discipline that you received while growing up. Punishing it (not harshly) when it manifests ego, brings results. Remember, though, that you are breaking a long-standing habit -- you must be patient over a long period of time.
Two Sutras:
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