Effective Buddha-name Chanting Method
August 31, 2009 When one feels it is difficult to concentrate while chanting, one should first collect one’s wandering thoughts and chant sincerely with serious effort. Then one’s mind will be unified. To unify one’s mind, one must first be sincere and serious. If sincerity and seriousness are lacking, it is not possible for one to collect one’s wandering thoughts. If one is sincere and serious, but the wandering thoughts persist, one should attentively listen to one’s own chanting.
Whether the chants are silent or voiced, every chant must arise from one’s mind. The voice exits one’s mouth and enters one’s ears.
Giving rise to the Buddha-name clearly with one’s mind, chanting it clearly with one’s mouth, and hearing it clearly with one’s ears will help unify one’s mind and the wandering thoughts will naturally stop. If one’s mind is still flooded with wandering thoughts, then one should use the ten-chant-and-count method, and devote all one’s energy to chanting the Buddha-name. Even if the wandering thoughts still exist, they will not be able to function.
This is the ultimate method to unify one’s mind and one’s chant.
Those who expounded the Pure Land school in the past did not mention this method because their faculties were considered sharp enough and they were able to unify their minds without it.
I had problems collecting and controlling my wandering thoughts and then realized the effectiveness of this method. I have used it many times and never failed. I am not sharing this information lightly or by imagination. I want to share this method with everyone as well as those in future generations so that anyone who practices this method can successfully attain rebirth in the Pure Land.
What is the ten-chant-and-count method?
When chanting, one chants ten times in a single breath. Every chant must be clear, and one must count and remember where one is and stop at the tenth chant. One then repeats the process, but never counts to the twentieth or the thirtieth chant. One must count and remember while chanting, and not rely on moving the chanting beads. Counting and remembering must be in one’s mind.
If it is difficult to complete ten chants in one breath, one can chant for two breaths. The first breath is for the first five chants, the second breath for the remaining five chants. If two-breath chanting is still difficult, one can break the ten chants into three breaths. The first through the third, the fourth through the sixth, and the seventh through the tenth chants complete in three breaths.
If one can chant clearly, count and remember the chants clearly, and hear one’s own chants clearly, wandering thoughts will have no place to step in. Over time, the state of one-mind undisturbed can be attained naturally.
~ Great Master's Yin Guang, Thirteenth Patriarch of the Pure Land school
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and Buddhism that many practitioners say they bring to their business lives