My reply regarding Chanting and its Stages
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My reply to someone asking about the external signs related to the fruition of chanting:
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Icic... maybe you can search the internet for some of the benefits of mantras. It is a good practice so keep it up.
But the most important benefit is that it can calm your mind... when you are chanting, you must be aware of the chanting. If your mind wanders on what you are going to do next, or what someone has done to you, what happened to you, i.e. past and future, then the chanting will not be of much effect.
My local dharma teacher tells of 3 stages of chanting... I can only type from what I remember, briefly:
1) Chanting as a means to control our mind. Our mind is lost in discursive thinking, and lost its calmness. So by focusing our attention on chanting, we can prevent the discursive mind from wandering again. Unfortunately, many people at this stage simply 'chants with his mouth'. That is useless. His mind wanders on other things, and is not even aware that is chanting. It is only his mouth that 'chants'. The mind is not chanting. We must avoid this by all means, and chant with sincerity and one pointedness.
2) When we chant for a long period of time, the chanting itself becomes a momentum that gathers strength and helps us in daily life, constantly 24/7. Even in sleep. That means lets say you chant Amitabha (or any other chant), you will reach a stage where you automatically chant the mantra... its like motor going by itself in your head... you just keep chanting, the chanting takes place 'automatically' even without your intention to start chanting. This is important so that whenever you face any situations, you will not lose your calm and samadhi (one pointedness). Even in sleep, even in dreams, if you have a nightmare or you dream of ghosts chasing you, you will automatically start chanting... and free yourself from such situations. If something bad happens to you, even if your past life debtors or spirits want to take away your life, you will automatically chant and even if you die you will be able to be born in higher realms or in the pure lands.
3) Be-with-buddha chanting. You maintain ever present awareness that knows your chanting. That means, you are aware of chanting Om-ma-ni-pad-me-hum... totally present, aware, as you chant. This awareness is also aware of every arising thought, or even when there is no thoughts, it is present. With this awareness you will not be tricked by ignorant thoughts, whether the thought is good or bad, awareness is present and knows. When you reach this level, it is 'nian zhong you fo'. Every 'nian' got 'Buddha'. What is Buddha? Buddha is our Awareness. It is our true nature that is ever present and inherent in every being. If you reach this level, you are being with buddha'.
So if you see yourself progressing along these lines, then you do not need to rely on external signs to increase your faith in the mantra or chanting. The clarity/awareness, calmness, bliss is itself assuring. You will want to keep practicing to experience these qualities and you will see it help you even in daily lives. What is important is also to practice in daily lives, to 'extend' these qualities to meet daily lives situation.
You do not need to see or hear the Buddha, if you Be With Buddha, you will "be with" Buddha (Awareness) right in this moment, you will be one with all Buddhas in the 10 directions. It is not through seeking him in forms and sound, as the Buddha taught:
“He who sees me (Buddha) in forms or seeks me in sounds is on a heterodox path and cannot see the Tathagata (Buddha).”
“All forms are but illusions, in seeing that all forms are illusory, one sees the Tathagata.” -
http://www.jenchen.org.sg/vol7no4c.htm
Volume 7 no 4
Voice of Bliss
All forms are illusions
Buddhism is truly detached from idols
People who think that Buddhism is the worshipping of an image of the Buddha, or that the Buddha is somebody whom we can appeal to for favours, should know of two very profound verses from the Diamond Sutra that contradict these popular beliefs. To the intellectual, they can lay to rest the suspicion that Buddhism is superstition. To those who are used to praying for divine intervention, they can become self reliant through their own virtuous karma.
It is stated in the Diamond Sutra, “He who sees me (Buddha) in forms or seeks me in sounds is on a heterodox path and cannot see the Tathagata (Buddha).” It further states that, “All forms are but illusions, in seeing that all forms are illusory, one sees the Tathagata”. It is only when we have attained a certain advanced level in the learning and practising of Buddhism that we will be able to understand the profound meaning of these verses. If you were to tell a person who has just started to learn Buddhism that learning Buddhism is like these verses, then he would find them too profound. He would not be able to make out what Buddha is like. Of course, he knows what human beings are like and quite naturally he will assume that only those who are similar in form to human beings are Buddhas. We can say that this is correct, but we can also say that this is wrong. For example, kindergarten teachers may use drawings of an old man and old woman when teaching the young children about grandfathers and grandmothers. Thereafter, when the children see other old folks in such resemblance they know that they are someone else’s grandparents. But, to university students it would be inappropriate for professors to use the same approach when talking about such blood relationships.
It is the same in learning Buddhism. When we encourage a new student of Buddhism to pay respect to the Buddha in the temple or monastery, he will not be frightened when he sees that the Buddha is the same as a human being. At the same time, when he sees that the Buddha and Bodhisattva images are so dignified and compassionate, it will give rise to a feeling of joy and reverence and lead him to learn Buddhism.Often we come across people who have been learning Buddhism for a long time saying that they saw this Buddha or that Bodhisattva in their dreams. Initially, when we do not know about their level of understanding of Buddhism, we may praise them by saying, “Oh! You have such good affinity with Buddha and Bodhisattva that you can even see their images!” But it is wrong if we always praise them like this. If they report dreams like this for more then 3 times, you have to tell them, “The Mara is here, you have seen the Mara! All the Zen masters advise to obliterate the Buddha when the Buddha appears, and obliterate the Mara when the Mara appears [1].” We cannot praise them any more because they have already developed an attachment to forms.
In the same way, when we are dealing with people who are already advanced in Buddhism, we should use the method of the Diamond Sutra rather than the kindergarten method:
“He who sees me (Buddha) in forms or seeks me in sounds is on a heterodox path and cannot see the Tathagata (Buddha).”
“All forms are but illusions, in seeing that all forms are illusory, one sees the Tathagata.”At this level, people will realize that Buddhism is the only religion that eradicates superstition and attachment to all forms.
Critics often say that the Buddha image is an idol. They criticize that Buddhism worships idols. In reality, the cross, the Jesus Christ image and Mother Mary, they are also idols. In this sense, is there a religion that does not worship idols? Therefore, we cannot say that Buddhism is the only religion that worships idols. The fact is that only Buddhism does not worship idols. The Diamond Sutra states, “All forms are but illusions, in seeing that all forms are illusory, one sees the Tathagata.”!
The essence of the Buddha, the Buddha Nature is omnipresent in the space of the Dharma realm, and the Dharma Nature is omnipresent in the space.
Notes:
1. To ignore and not to be attached to such forms;. Mara is the Evil One, described as a murderer, hinderer, disturber, destroyer, etc.
© Copyright 2002.Jen Chen Buddhism Centre
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agree.
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Teaching by Ajahn Chah:
Clarity of Insight1
Meditate reciting Buddho, Buddho 2 until it penetrates deep into the heart of your consciousness (citta). The word ''Buddho'' represents the awareness and wisdom of the Buddha. In practice, you must depend on this word more than anything else. The awareness it brings will lead you to understand the truth about your own mind. It's a true refuge, which means that there is both mindfulness and insight present.
Wild animals can have awareness of a sort. They have mindfulness as they stalk their prey and prepare to attack. Even the predator needs firm mindfulness to keep hold of the captured prey however defiantly it struggles to escape death. That is one kind of mindfulness. For this reason you must be able to distinguish between different kinds of mindfulness. The Buddha taught to meditate reciting ''Buddho'' as a way to apply the mind. When you consciously apply the mind to an object, it wakes up. The awareness wakes it up. Once this knowing has arisen through meditation, you can see the mind clearly. As long as the mind remains without the awareness of ''Buddho'', even if there is ordinary worldly mindfulness present, it is as if unawakened and without insight. It will not lead you to what is truly beneficial.
Sati or mindfulness depends on the presence of ''Buddho'' - the knowing. It must be a clear knowing, which leads to the mind becoming brighter and more radiant. The illuminating effect that this clear knowing has on the mind is similar to the brightening of a light in a darkened room. As long as the room is pitch black, any objects placed inside remain difficult to distinguish or else completely obscured from view because of the lack of light. But as you begin intensifying the brightness of the light inside, it will penetrate throughout the whole room, enabling you to see more clearly from moment to moment, thus allowing you to know more and more the details of any object inside there.
You could also compare training the mind with teaching a child. It would be impossible to force a child, who still hadn't learnt to speak, to accumulate knowledge at an unnaturally fast rate that was beyond its capability. You couldn't get too tough with it or try teaching it more language than it could take in at any one time, because the child would simply be unable to hold its attention on what you were saying for long enough.
Your mind is similar. Sometimes it's appropriate to give yourself some praise and encouragement; sometimes it's more appropriate to be critical. It's like the child: if you scold it too often and are too intense in the way you deal with it, the child won't progress in the right way, even though it might be determined to do well. If you force it too much, the child will be adversely affected, because it still lacks knowledge and experience and as a result will naturally lose track of the right way to go. If you do that with your own mind, it isn't samm� patipad� or the way of practice that leads to enlightenment. Patipad� or practice refers to the training and guidance of body, speech and mind. Here I am specifically referring to the training of the mind.
The Buddha taught that training the mind involves knowing how to teach yourself and go against the grain of your desires. You have to use different skilful means to teach your mind because it constantly gets caught into moods of depression and elation. This is the nature of the unenlightened mind - it's just like a child. The parents of a child who hasn't learnt to speak are in a position to teach it because they know how to speak and their knowledge of the language is greater. The parents are constantly in a position to see where their child is lacking in its understanding, because they know more. Training the mind is like this. When you have the awareness of ''Buddho'', the mind is wiser and has a more refined level of knowing than normal. This awareness allows you to see the conditions of the mind and to see the mind itself; you can see the state of mind in the midst of all phenomena. This being so, you are naturally able to employ skilful techniques for training the mind. Whether you are caught into doubt or any other of the defilements, you see it as a mental phenomenon that arises in the mind and must be investigated and dealt with in the mind.
That awareness which we call ''Buddho'' is like the parents of the child. The parents are the child's teachers in charge of its training, so it's quite natural that whenever they allow it to wander freely, simultaneously they must keep one eye on it, aware of what it's doing and where it's running or crawling to.
Sometimes you can be too clever and have too many good ideas. In the case of teaching the child, you might think so much about what is best for the child, that you could reach the point where the more methods you think up for teaching it, the further away the child moves from the goals you want it to achieve. The more you try and teach it, the more distant it becomes, until it actually starts to go astray and fails to develop in the proper way.
Continued in: http://www.amaravati.org/abmnew/index.php/teachingsofajahnchah/article/387/P1/