Is There Any Right Way to Chant?

Many questions come up about chanting and to day we are going to discuss two of them.

Transcript download: Is There Any Right Way to Chant

I’ve received two questions about chanting which I am going to address. Starting with these questions, we are going to discuss the different issues that can come up as we chant.

First Question

“How should you chant for a longer period of time? All at once or break it up?”

Just to say first, there are no shoulds here. Each of chants in the way that is comfortable for us. Nichiren Daishonin didn’t give advice on how to chant. When it comes to chanting for longer periods of time, you can always break it up into shorter periods. The only thing is to chant until you feel satisfied, whether you break it up into shorter periods or do it in longer ones.

Second Question

The second question. “I have had conflicting advice about how to chant for a goal. Should I set deadlines or just chant for a goal but let the universe fill in the details and deliver my goal? In other words should I chant with a detailed goal and a deadline or let the universe do its job? “

Some people don’t chant for goals at all and seem satisfied with their chanting. When thinking about whether or not to chant for goals it’s important to remember that no chanting is ever wasted. Even without chanting for a goal, your life will still take an upward direction.

That  being said, I personally feel that if you want to get something done, that chanting for a specific, detailed goal makes the process move along faster. And, if you want the universe to know you are serious, you can always set a deadline, a drop-dead date when you want the goal to be accomplished. Setting a deadline, works well, if you can maintain your positive mindset and remain focused on the goal, no matter what appears to be happening.

 You Can fall off Track when….

1. Obstacles appear.
2. It looks as though your goal can’t possibly be achieved in the length of time you have set.

Don’t let yourself be derailed. You might fall into looking at your fears, rather than at your end goal. Or you might find yourself doubting the whole process. When this happens your fundamental darkness has taken over and hidden your awareness of your Buddha nature, your universal connection.

If you fall into the abyss of doubt, then achieving the goal within your time frame might not happen. Remember the law of oneness of self and environment. Our outer environment comes from within us to manifest in the outside world. So you want to create what you want, not what you don’t want.

Remain steadfast with your responsibility, which is to keep your mind focused on your goal. Then let the universe do its job of finding the way to accomplish it and make it happen.
That means to let go of trying to force the goal to happen, or trying to control the process, while, at the same time remaining determined that it will happen.

You can set a detailed goal and still let the universe do its job. There is no conflict here. The detailed goal is your end goal. How it gets worked out is the job of the universe. It is your responsibility to stay focused on the end goal, not how it is going to happen.

Importance of Faith When Chanting for a Goal

When chanting for a goal it’s as though you can only see a certain distance in front of you. Then you come to a spot where you can’t see any further. Just remember that when you get to that corner the next section of the path will come into view. Faith is needed to keep your positive focus and to keep moving forward no matter how things appear.
If your faith waivers and you try to control the process, you can interfere with the universe doing its work.

 Find Supports to Remain Positive

Sometimes this means setting up a support system of people to chant with, so you will remain positive. Find someone you can go to, who can help you clear up doubts before you start to dwell on them.

Take Action

Another important part of the process is to take action on what comes to you around your goal. Just chanting about it alone, won’t work. You must take action on ideas that come to you. You never know what the results of those actions will be.  but the universe works through each of us as we take action. You don’t know how your goal is going to come about, so pay attention to the ideas that come to you and follow through with them. Again, chanting with a support group can help you find courage to take action.

Diane’s Experience:

Let’s see how Diane used these principles to achieve a very detailed goal with a drop-dead date.

Diane needed to manifest a job within thirty days. To top it off she had five very specific things she wanted have happen when she achieved her goal.

1. She wanted to find work within 10 minutes from her home.
2. She wanted her workplace to be situated so she could drive drive against the Dallas rush hour traffic.
3. She wanted a $30,000 annual salary.
4. Full family medical
5. And, to top it off she wanted full reimbursement to get her four-year Bachlors degree.

This could not be a more detailed and specific goal with a 30 day deadline. How many of you would say that this goal was unrealistic and not possible? Many would.

Diane took action. She sent out resumes. She talked to the temp people to provide work to tide her over. She went to interviews. She called back everyone who called her. The days passed and she was getting closer and closer to her 30 day deadline.

As she got closer she began to guard against falling into doubt. She committed to chanting an hour a day and she developed a support system of people to chant with as often as possible.

One day, she received a call from a temp agency. She ignored this call, as she was looking for a full-time job. Then something unusual happened. The temp agency called a second time. As she said to me, “This never happens, so a warning signal went off. I realized I had to return the call.” To her great surprise, the temp agency presented her with a full-time job possibility. Needless to say, she followed up and called the company. After an interview and negotiations, she received a job offer, which included all the criteria she had specified. The offer arrived at noon on her drop-dead day, the 30th day.

Four years later she graduated with her Bachlor’s. During that four years she had worked full time and taken responsibility in her organization.

In Summary:

We discussed two questions today. The first question asked how you should chant for longer periods? Do you have to do it all at once or can you break it up? The answer was that you can do it either way, but to chant until you feel satisfied.

The second question, “Should  I set a detailed goal or just let the universe fill in the details and do the work?”

The answer was that some people don’t chant for goals at all and their lives still improve. No chanting is ever wasted.

But you can also set detailed goals as your end goal and let the universe do the work of figuring out how it is going to come about. You have to let go of control and trying to force a goal to happen, but maintain the determination that it will happen. We showed this through Diane’s experience.

Here are some other blogs you might find interesting

Faith Slipped? 6 Ways to Get Back on Track. https://wp.me/p3V1J9-UA
Know the difference Between a Determination and Forcing Through a Goal? https://wp.me/p3V1J9-Sy
Here’s a Method to Handle Fears That Arise While Chanting https://wp.me/p3V1J9-Sn
For chanting questions refer to my book Stepping Stones, A Guide to Buddhist Practice. You can get it on this website or through Amazon.

Comment

Now I want to hear from you. I’d love to receive some of your experiences with the lessons you learned from them. Just to let you know, if I use an experience on my vlog I always change the name. And, as always, send me comments and thoughts. I’m always interested to hear what you think.

Thanks for listening and see you in two weeks