Listen to Traditional Buddhist Monk Chant

Across religions and countries, chanting has often been used to create spiritual and meditative results for the listeners.  This is another way music has been utilized to create positive effects on our human emotions – in this case to calm the mind and encourage introspection.

Catholic monks created the “Gregorian” chant. “The Gregorian chant originated as a form of plainsong in the Roman Catholic church under the auspices of Pope Gregory the Great. Gregory is depicted in early Christian art receiving the gift of chant from a dove, representing the Holy Spirit, who sits on his shoulder and sings into his ear.”  ~Don Campbell “The Mozart Effect”

Buddhist monks created their own form of chanting. Wikipedia reports that in the Buddhist faith, “chanting is used as an invocative ritual in order to set one’s mind on a deity, Tantric ceremony, mandala, or particular concept one wishes to further in themselves…In Buddhism, chanting is the traditional means of preparing the mind for meditation.”

Our voices are a powerful part of the human body, with its capacity to connect us with each other through language.  But also the voice is our most organic musical instrument.  Using the voice to musically touch our spirit seems a natural progression from using our voice for language.  But even more effective than communication through language, the musical aspect of communicating through singing provides the most direct route to touching the emotional core of another human.  As Leo Tolstoy said, “Music is the shorthand of emotion.”  Music can achieve things that our words can’t.

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