How Do You Chant if Vague About Your Goal?

Transcript download: question

This week we have a question.
“I have been chanting for months now to find out what my passion is. Unfortunately I can’t seem to connect to my own prayer and I keep feeling I should chant differently, perhaps word my prayer differently ..in the past I have always had success when chanting for concrete goals, but now that I am chanting for something that seems so vague I find it hard to focus. I keep feeling that the universe won’t answer me because I am being so vague. How exactly do I chant to tap into my talents and passions, when I don’t really know what I am looking for? It’s been a few months now and there’s been no wisdom emerging from my prayers.”

You are right that vague prayers lead to a vague response. Why not trying chanting for a place, where you can use your abilities. Your abilities, interests and passions are tied together. Then set a firm intention that you are going to find that place. Chanting with hope but without a firm intention can also result in a vague response.

What Are You Attracted To?

We all have tendencies and we gravitate towards certain interests. These are usually indicators of where our abilities and passions lie. My husband drew his first picture at 12 and loved working in a darkroom with a neighbor. He became a graphic designer, photographer, videographer. As a teen I volunteered in a hospital and in a social agency and ended up working as a counselor in both. My son had a double paper route at age 9. He ended up running his own business.

What do you gravitate towards?

You may not have come across a place where you can use your abilities, but when you do, you will know what your passions are. You’ll be entirely happy doing whatever you are doing.

I’ve always been interested in the growth and development of people. That’s why I became a mental health counselor. That was pretty satisfying, but I knew there was something more. Once I got involved with spirituality I realized that the two needed to be combined. I couldn’t see how to do that since I had a professional license and was only allowed to do certain things.
When I joined this practice, I realized that the chanting practice was much better in helping people to grow than my counseling work. Then I retired and had a nudge to take a writing course. That lead to finding my mission, writing books about the practice, and the development of this website to help people get benefit from the practice.

I find complete delight and satisfaction in helping people practice and watch their lives take a steady upward turn. I’ve found what I was looking for. My professional training
has been helpful in knowing when people need other kinds of support and help along with their practice. So, I’m able to use all of my abilities.

When we chant for something there are some things we need to look for.

Ways Answers Can come

You have started a dialogue with the universe and answers can come in different ways. You might find you are having an internal quiet nudge to go one way or another. This little voice can be very quiet but it is our infallible guidance system so pay attention to it.

Answers may come through other people or a book outside your chanting time. If you have asked the universe about something pay attention to anything that relates to your question.

Second Guessing Answers?

Are you second guessing any responses you are getting? It is easy not to trust the response of the universe. Our intellectual mind can lock in very quickly. But if you’ve asked for an answer and you’ve gotten one, try to resist the tendency to second guess and instead follow through with the suggestion. This is where faith becomes important. If you trust your practice to guide you, then you can refuse to pay attention to the intellect which questions everything.

An Experience

A young woman once told me she was chanting to know her direction, her mission in life but that she wasn’t receiving any answers. When we explored this further it turned out she had been getting nudges to take a course at the local community college. She had been resisting doing this, questioning whether she would like it. We discussed the fact she had gotten the direction she had asked for but was not taking action. Then her resistance to moving forward surfaced. What if she didn’t like the course? She would have wasted her time. Then she said that this indecisiveness had been a major life-long problem and had kept her from moving forward with anything, keeping her whole life in limbo. The indecisiveness was the karma she needed to address first.

I strongly encouraged her to follow through with the nudge as she had gotten an answer but wasn’t taking action, the second half of the equation. Chant first and when the universe responds, take action. After all, if she didn’t do something and try out the course, she would never know. All of her fears about moving forward came to the surface. She turned to her husband and told him he would have to take her to sign up, since she was so nervous about taking this step. He agreed to do that, saying it would be wonderful to see her get off dead center.

The next thing I heard was that she was taking three courses at that community college and had clearly broken through the block to moving forward.

Handling Fears About Moving Forward

Sometimes we get nudges or answers but many fears surface when we think about moving forward. Our practice can be quite helpful in dealing with those fears. Just chant until you no longer feel fear and then take the action quickly. Or, you can challenge yourself. You’ve heard the old saw. Feel the fear and do it anyway. Usually the fear disappears when you take the action. Then you feel wonderful. You’ve had a victory.

Daisaku Ikeda has the daily encouragement book For today and Tomorrow which gives lots of support around moving forward in your own way and is helpful in dealing with fears.

Importance of Faith

Sometimes we don’t follow through because just we don’t see the path to our goal. We don’t have to know how to get there.

Just take the first step in faith, understanding that you will only see so far on the path. When you get to that point then the path will unfold further. I believe the universe works through us when we chant and take action.

Sometimes we don’t move forward because our rational mind looks at our circumstances and only sees the obstacles, so we don’t believe our goal can be reached. Maybe we’re being told we aren’t being realistic.
When we chant about something we have started to walk in the spiritual world where different rules apply. We have to learn to ignore what our cultural training tells us and trust that our connection with the mystic law will guide us accurately.

We need to muster our faith when doubts come to the fore. Do some study ( you can look up things by topic in the indexes of the books) or get guidance from an experienced practitioner to handle the doubts.

The way I see it, when you chant about something, your intention is creating a blueprint in the unseen worlds. At some point it will show up. But there are always time delays If you give up on your intention then that blueprint disintegrates and you have to start over.

In Summary:

We discussed the fact that vague goals lead to disappointing results.
We looked at how the universe communicates with us through quiet little nudges to do this or that, through books and friends, anything pertaining to our goal.
Then we looked at the ways we might stop ourselves from moving forward. Second guessing the ideas we are getting, fears, and chanting but not taking action.
Finally we discussed the importance of faith, trusting our connection with the Mystic Law to guide us accurately, when we can’t see around the obstacles and can’t see the path to achieving our goal. When we have doubts, study or get guidance from an experienced practitioner.

Other blogs

1. Do You Know How the Universe communicates With You? https://wp.me/p3V1J9-Yc

2. How to Transition into Your Life’s Work? https://wp.me/p3V1J9-Vw

3. Practical Buddhism, Handling Obstacles https://wp.me/p3V1J9-ho

Comments:

I’m always interested in your questions and comments.  This time I have one for you.
Tell me if you would be interested in a monthly phone call to discuss issues that come up with our chanting practice.