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Chanting plays a small, but nevertheless
an important part of sesshin. Each afternoon of the sesshin a
chanting ceremony is held which lasts about twenty minutes. There
are also chants before meals and at the close of the day's formal
activities. The afternoon ceremony includes 'The Prajna Paramita
Hridaya Sutra', the ten-verse 'Kannon Sutra' and the Four Vows.
Although chanting does not take up much sesshin time, the chants,
particularly the Four Vows, represent a necessary part of Zen
practice.
Zen Chanting is very vital. It is accompanied by the steady
beat of a mokugyo, a round wooden drum, and accompanied
by the striking of a keisu, a large bowl-shaped gong. On the
whole, one chants around a monotone with hara as the source of
the chanting. During a sesshin chanting is both an inspiration
and welcome relief.
At the end of the formal activities 'Hakuin Zenji's
Chant in Praise of Zazen' and the Four Vows are chanted.
Hakuin was a seventeenth-century Japanese Zen master.
He was a deeply awakened man and his teaching helped to inspire
a revival of interest in Zen practice in Japan.
Before meals, the Meal Chant is chanted. This chant asks us
to remember the toil of others and to be be moderate in all things.
All chants should be done mindfully and with vigor.
To invoke the compassionate nature is to awaken to the sufferings
of others and to arouse the will to work for the salvation of
all.
Food is symbolically offered to hungry and thirsty ghosts. This
is a very ancient ritual, and in Zen it is interpreted to mean
that an offering is made to appease those parts of ourselves
which are too restless, so greedy for attention and thirsty for
sensation, that they cannot join in with the practice but are
always striving to pull away from it.
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