The Meaning of Chanting

I do a daily chant, Nam Myoho Renge Kyo, and I recently found a posting about it online, by a woman talking about the various things she manifests in her life with this chant. True, things do seem to remarkably manifest, within hours of me chanting, but the manifestation of "things" isn't the point of Buddhism. Rather, the manifestation of our "Self" is.

I couldn't restrain myself, so I just had to say something in response to her posting, so here it is!!!...

I've been chanting this mantra for about l5 years and it's very powerful. I touch on it in my new book, Stories From the Yogic Heart.

I may chant sitting, walking or driving, but when I do it in a focused way for several minutes or an hour a day, it works best for me. I feel it's what resulted in my getting an invitation to the White House to do a presentation for my charity, Artists Against Racism, to the UN to accept an award for the charity (Global Tolerance Award), and has made my life so much better and smoother in so many ways. But these things I did not chant for.

What we must remember, is that both Buddhism and chanting are not meant to manifest "things" in our life. They are meant to center us, so that we will be grounded, know our True Selves, and live from our True Selves.

So, when I chant, I don't chant for "things" and neither should anyone else. I chant until I feel as one with the "vibe", one with the "reverberation" of the sound of the mantra, until I am the sound, I am the vibe, and this puts me on a different energy level where everything works out for my highest good--I feel like myself, I attract the highest good for my soul (in terms of relationships and everything else), and I make the right decisions--from my soul rather than my mind. Everything just flows. I am protected, as was Tina from Ike (I learned about this mantra from her movie but that's another story!).

When I was invited to the White House, I didn't chant for it; when my charity won the Global Tolerance Award and received it at the UN on the charity's behalf and I had the rare chance to make a speech that I'd been dreaming of doing all my life, I didn't chant for that either. The Universe is aware of our dreams and if it coincides with the highest good of the planet, it happens when we're in our highest vibration.

The meaning of life is to spiritually transcend, not to attain. Remember this, and you will be on your way...to true transformation in this precious short life you have. A transformation that is more valuable than anything you could ever wish to attain.

Namaste,
and, as my yogic mentor, Erich Schiffman would say, may you "be online" all the time.
Through the ocean of yoga, it is the answer to everything: your true Self.