The Enchantment of Chanting

The Enchantment of Chanting

by John Hawkins

People in the western world have a strong, clear, but only partial perception of what chanting is all about.

Religions in the west —Abrahamical religions— are very rudimentary and even primitive, being only a couple of thousand years old at best, compared to the ancient teachings available in India, Tibet, and several other places on the planet, mostly in the east.

In these rare and special areas of the planet, long lineages of sages have painstakingly passed on ‘tried and true’ teachings about consciousness to select members of every new generation, for many thousands of years, mostly by word of mouth!

This represents a priceless resource for Planet Earth and her people that far surpasses all the oil in the Middle East, all the gold in (wherever there’s lot of gold), and all the tea in China.

I am re-reading the Bhagavad Gita after twenty years with a new understanding that Krishna is the spark of All That Is that is situated in my actual physical heart. I have a personal relationship with this spark of divinity in my heart. Paired in my heart with Krishna is my own source self or Soul, celebrating along with Krishna this unique and eternal relationship.

The relationship of these twin divinities within us is like two birds in a tree. One is flitting about enjoying the sweet and bitter fruits (our Soul) and the other is simply observing the first with infinite, unfathomable qualities including interest and compassion (All That Is).

Chanting is one of the spectacular fruits of these resources that demonstrates the power and transcendence of these teachings. It turns out that based on the exhaustive and scientific methods and understanding accumulated in the Vedas, chanting a mantra can actually change your state of consciousness.

Isn’t this what is being offered, albeit mostly unsuccessfully, as the benefit, value and the veritable fruits, albeit mostly reserved for the fortunate few, of our own religions? This divinely rooted ability to change our state of consciousness from one that —let us say— limits, or vexes us, to one that soothes and relieves us by releasing our restrictions, meanwhile expanding our potential exponentially.

Isn’t this what prayer, communion and confession are all about, attaining a new state of consciousness? The problem in the west, of course, is that we have been attempting to deny consciousness as a concept with any reality or meaning for several hundred years or more, with varying but not inconsiderable degrees of success, especially in the modern era.

Accepting the idea that each one of us can learn to change our consciousness is tricky for a society that, as a matter of course, hardly deigns to acknowledge consciousness as a legitimate topic of discussion, let alone a valuable or helpful constituent of everyday reality.

Kris Offers Chanting (Summer 2009)

[This is excerpted from my homework for Kris’ online workshop entitled, “Search for Self” where he expanded on his presentation of chanting and related information.]

With the chanting that Kris has given us I feel that I not only have an enduring connection with my own Source Self, but I have a budding relationship with the Param Atma, the spark of All That Is in my heart —the same Param Atma in everybody’s heart, except that I have a unique relationship with this Glorious Being, [as does everybody.]

Chanting, properly done, becomes a basically foolproof method for focusing our concentration on the transcendental layer of our being. And of course we all know what happens when we concentrate on something!

For me the highlight was that it is our ability to hear, and the mental discipline that is required to hear, that is the basis of any spiritual learning. From this I come up with the idea that a disciplined mind enables us to hear transcendental sounds, and this is the basis of spiritual learning. And I have a clue about what constitutes a disciplined mind.

Kris mentioned in this session that true listening may often require us to set aside the instant opinions that the mind generates. The mind, like the irrepressible legs of a 2-year-old learning to walk, knows that it is supposed be responsive. It knows its job is to come up with an assessment of any given stimulus, and it does so reflexively, even when completely uninformed.

Thus the power of the chanting becomes even better understood because it is all about disciplining the mind and truly listening.

And finally, the highlight from the last session would be the idea that a set routine, such as chanting at the same time every morning, is very beneficial. It is very grounding for me spiritually and has health benefits also.

But the main benefit is in setting a consistent tone for every day. This lays the groundwork for events later in the day where my energy may begin to create what Kris calls a self-effulgent effect.

Since I am a creature of habit anyway, and have always loved routines, this information is very comforting to me. The only thing is the content of the routines. This is where new priorities are emerging!

My Personal Experience with Chanting (Nov. 2009)

[Chanting produced an immediate and noticeable effect on my everyday life. This is excerpted from a blog about my emerging understanding of new perspectives being afforded to me, seemingly by doing this chanting.]

Kris tells a wonderfully evocative story about service. Think about your hand. It is an almost autonomous aspect of your physical body, very expressive and functional. But how can the hand eat or drink? It cannot nourish itself in that way because it lacks the parts required for these functions.

However the hand is admirably suited to bringing food and drink to the mouth of its owner. In doing so it performs a service and also nourishes itself.

When we give loving, personalized devotion to the Divine in our heart we are nourishing our Whole Selves and the payoff is grace, the personalized support and nourishment we experience in every part of our lives as a reflection of that.

And getting into a transcendent state of consciousness —entering a state of grace— does change our experience of things here in the mundane world.

‘Mundane’ may not be the best word for our ordinary, everyday state of consciousness because I don’t mean to devalue it in any way. Let’s call it the Focus State —as in experiences as a focal personality. That said, there is no question that the transcendent state of consciousness represents an expansion of our mundane experience. It’s just a fact. Especially when it is discovered that the transcendent state encompasses all of the mundane states of consciousness because it is the very source of them.

Direction in Consciousness

This implies to me that there is at least an implicit “direction” within consciousness. When we expand our understanding to the transcendent state and perceive, even for a few moments, how our mundane, everyday states of consciousness are supported by, and depend upon this transcendent state, there’s no turning back from this perspective for any of us. It’s like the first time the world saw a picture of… the world from the moon. Sometimes a new perspective is a game changer.

Experiencing transcendence means a literal, qualitative difference in our state of consciousness even if only a seed has been planted to blossom later. Something essential and intrinsic changes when we expand our conscious perception to that layer of our being.

So how does our everyday experience of things change as a consequence of our tasting the nectar of this transcendent state of consciousness? Put in other words, how does somebody who knows they are eternal, immortal consciousness, full of wisdom and bliss, how does such a person’s everyday point of view change?

The first thing is that there’s been a curious ‘leveling of the playing field’ in my everyday life. The idea is that there has been a balancing and harmonization of what has always been a basic willingness to more or less cheerfully participate in whatever happens to be going on in my life.

For instance, for me there’s always been a big difference between bouncing out of bed early on those wonderful days when I can do anything I want, and me crawling out of bed late after stealing a few more minutes, on the days when I have to go to work.

Now that I am chanting every morning, I get up at 6 whether I’m going to work or have the day off. This means that for the first two hours of my day, from 6 to 8, I do the same exact thing every day. So the change I’m noticing is how I get up when the alarm goes off at 5:45!

At Some Level, There’s No Difference!

There is virtually no difference in my mood upon arising now, whether I have to work that day or not. In a metaphorical way you could say that I have set up a transcendent platform in my day where for two hours every day is the same. During this period, it doesn’t really matter much what’s going to be happening for the rest of the day. In the same way inhabiting, even in a small way, the transcendent platform of consciousness we find a place within ourselves that is not swayed by the senses.

Let’s be clear, I’m not saying that I don’t create bad things in my life anymore. I’m saying that this doesn’t mess me up the way it used to.

Revisiting my newfound equanimity about whether or not I am at work or doing what I want. I don’t want you to think that work has ever been such a burden. And for that matter, I have even had issues lately with what I get up to at home alone, so this whole thing is not simple or cut and dried.

Transcendence: A New Platform for Expression, Engagement, Exploration

The point for me is that in either environment there is a significant portion of me that is fairly unimpeded in its pursuit of its interests, no matter which set of sense data is being processed by my mundane consciousness at that particular time.

By establishing this new platform for my identity and consciousness of myself, I have created, or better, become aware of, a playing field quite independent of the events in time and space that surround me. And the remarkable thing is that this transcendent state of consciousness is perfectly comfortable and natural for me.

Even though it is beyond, and untouched by any sense experience we have ever had, this realm of consciousness is one where we find ourselves perfectly at home, once we adjust our focus and perception to recognize it.

When I say that the transcendent perspective ‘levels the playing field’ of mundane experience, I don’t mean that it takes anything away from this layer of experience. [except perhaps our potential to overwhelm ourselves, but that’s good thing!]

The joys and sorrows are still here in full force, but they are informed by a perspective that is not moved by them. Or better is not overwhelmed by them. [we can choose to be moved, even transcendentally]

If all you have is the world of sense experience, then what happens in your sense world is ‘do or die’ so to speak. But when we become aware of a platform of our awareness and perception that is independent of sense data, untouched by time, and not bounded by space, everyday experiences are actually enriched even though they are bound to be leveled to a degree.

Never ‘Either’ ‘Or’ – Always ‘And’

As an eternal immortal consciousness full of wisdom and bliss, all sense experiences are something I have chosen and created for the value and meaning inherent in them.

Thus sense experiences graduate from being almost random streams of meaningless events impacting us day by day, and hour by hour, they graduate to being deliberately and intentionally chosen experiences for their inherent potential for value fulfillment. Quite a different perspective.

And it turns out that the transcendent state is not some kind of soft, billowy void or emptiness. No such thing. As we begin to inhabit the transcendent state we start to notice things, to make friends and initiate projects in this realm of our being. It can get quite busy and there is no end of potential and opportunities.

Needless to say these transcendent encounters, experiments and observations can be conducted in virtually any sense environment since they are operating from a realm that is independent of the sense environment.

Easier to Direct Attention in the Mundane World

And here’s another thing. Because I have a foothold in this transcendent state of consciousness I am finding it easier to steer my attitude and intention in the mundane world. This I put down to not being buffeted by the sense experiences as much, however swirling and animated they might be, and thus being able to negotiate any necessary or desired maneuvers of attitude and attention unimpeded.

I know this sounds a tiny bit paradoxical but it boils down to not caring —I know that sounds awful. What I mean is lack of judgmental concern, compassionate caring is good. It’s about understanding that ultimately, no matter what happens in any sense environment, this other transcendent place that we all live, knowingly or unknowingly, is not touched by any of that. [This gives us a place to be that is not—ever— overthrown, by any sense input.]

And, on another note, I have noticed that some of the big things and mostly some of the little things that I want to get done, just seem to get done. Almost like they’re doing themselves!

For instance, I had a lovely experience with my Vision Board a couple of weeks ago. I was showing my new cleaning boy (actually a man in his early forties) around my apartment so he would know what he was getting into when he agreed to clean it. As we passed my Vision Board, hanging in the hall outside of the bathroom, I noticed the picture of a big bag of money, with a big dollar sign on it. This struck me because the reason I was hiring this cleaning boy is that I had recently inherited a tidy sum, quite unexpectedly, and could suddenly afford all the things that I had been putting off.

In other words the big bag of money had appeared in my life! I quickly glanced at the other things on the board, aware that I had not really looked at it for years. Examining the board I noticed at least five things that had come true, or were about to come true. Like goal number 3, about cleaning and de-cluttering my apartment – the very reason I was showing the cleaning boy around! Spooky!

Innate Gracefulness — We Are Emerging Avatars of Our Whole Selves

Not to beat our drum here or anything, but the word itself, and even some of the ideas behind the film ‘Avatar’ come directly from Vedic literature, philosophy and language. Any particular sage in any particular era of human life can be thought of as an ‘avatar’ of Krishna or ATI, that is to say a constitutional expression —as much as can be expressed in impermanent terms— of some suitable subset of the infinite and irreproachable qualities of All That Is, expressed as an actual personhood —in the flesh, as it were.

Ongoing at the heart of all of us is the highest possible expansion of possibilities about whatever means the most to us in any particular moment. Chanting allows our innate awareness of this inner gracefulness and perpetual fulfillment to unleash itself in both transcendental and mundane perceptions.

This is chanting! We only needed a way to focus our concentration on these transcendental aspects of ourselves, for all of these innate inner and outer glories to become apparent to us in our everyday perceptions.