Dear Friends,
The last track in the retreat recordings, Reflection on Universal Well-Being Chant, is a traditional Buddhist chant, translated to English.
Historically, teachings across many traditions were transmitted orally, and being able to chant the teachings in unison was a way to help the practitioners learn and memorize the teaching. You might have chants, hymns, or songs in your own personal traditions that you can bring to mind. Even if it’s just the lyrics to “Happy Birthday”, a beloved lullaby, or a gum commercial jingle…
Here are the words for this chant that Jill shared in the recording:
May I abide in well-being,
In freedom from affliction,
In freedom from hostility,
In freedom from ill-will,
In freedom from anxiety,
And may I maintain well-being in myself.May everyone abide in well-being,
In freedom from hostility,
In freedom from ill-will,
In freedom from anxiety,
And may they maintain well-being in themselves.May all beings be released from all suffering,
And may they not be parted from the good fortunes they have attained.When they act upon intention,
All beings are owners of their action
And inherit its results.
Their future is born from such action,
Companion to such action,
And its result will be their home.All actions with intention,
Amaravati Buddhist Monastery, Chanting Book · Volume One, page 41 (PDF page 50).
Be they skillful or harmful,
Of such acts, they will be the heirs.
https://cdn.amaravati.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/30/Chanting-Book-Vol-1-Web.pdf#page=50
What I like about knowing some chants is I can have one humming in the back of my mind as I go about my day. Personally, I’d rather have an earworm of the lovingkindness phrases instead of something about the flavor in some gum.
Some other songs and chants you might like:
- Metta Mantra from the Aloka Vihara chanting page (early in the pandemic, this was my “washing the hands for 30 seconds” song):
http://alokavihara.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Metta-Song-from-Sarah.mp3 - “This Joy” by the Resistance Revival Chorus – will warm up your joy muscle!
https://youtu.be/1TbDPwA09Bc - Eve Decker, a mindfulness teacher and musician, has numerous songs on meditation and mindfulness themes available, which you can listen to freely on her website (or order tracks to download):
https://evedecker.com/listen-buy/
Gosh, I could keep going, but I’ll stop there…
Do you have a favorite chant or song that inspires you?
Melodically yours,
Andrea
AG…. cool
I am a complete logophile. I love words. Written words. Lectures. Etymologies, Dictionaries. But words of course originate and return to a very specific locus in my brain. Dare I say? – i daresay! in my left brain, in the centres of logic – in the place that most resembles a mother-board. When we sing or chant those words leak, leach, leap, lure into all the other sparkling places in my two brains – that is into the right brain, and the limbic brain and the temporal lobes and miracle of miracle into the neuro-chemical centres that anatomically crown my heart. Chanting opens all the cob-webbed window shutters and pure song-light pours forth.Words become talismans of a different type of alchemy.
Madrigally Yours,
RND