Silent Chanting

Sometimes there is little time in a day to chant, for example, if there is a lot of traveling involved. I commute daily for an hour and a half each way, mostly by commuter train, and this takes up so much time there is often no time left for chanting at home in the morning or in the evening. Family needs time, home maintenance needs time, finance needs time, health needs time, and more. What to do?

My chapter leader talked about chanting while driving. I have done that many times. On an open road, with no traffic to worry about, just Interstate miles to grind through, it’s easy to chant. There is no gohonzon or equivalent, as the eyes have to be kept on the road, but that’s only one part of chanting. The verbal part is more important. So I can sound off, if I'm alone as is usually the case, and chant for a half hour, or forty-five minutes, which is my limit from my throat getting hoarse. It feels good, just like chanting at home.

My next experiment in chanting was with silent chanting. Obviously, on a commuter train or bus (which I also use frequently), I can’t be sounding out “Nam Myo Ho Ren Ge Kyo”, without disturbing all the sleeping, reading, computer-watching, or daydreaming or gossiping fellow-travelers. So instead, I tried to focus on an object, usually a small object separate from its surroundings, and repeated in my mind our mantra. It does something, but it is nowhere near as powerful as chanting out loud. On some days, I could feel the focus kick-in at the 20 to 25 minute mark, as it sometimes does with chanting before the gohonzon, but other days it just didn’t happen. Now that also happens with chanting out loud, but it happens more often with silent chanting than with loud chanting. It is also much harder to stay mindful of the chanting if it is silent. There is probably something going on with the verbal-to-auditory feedback that helps keep the mental noise down, and without that, the mind drifts more readily. The environment is also obviously not as conducive to chanting, with other people around. Fortunately for me, on the morning train almost everybody is quiet, so there is no distraction from some inconsiderate person babbling on the telephone or to their seat partners. On my train there are some groups that do that, but not in the train car I choose. Only a small, small number of people act that way, for which I am most grateful and appreciative. It is so appalling to have to listen to foolish banter for a hour of trapped time.

There also seems to be an experience effect as well. It worked better when I started, rather than after 6 months of experimenting with it. After some months, there seemed to be a separation in my mind, so that two parts were operating distinctly and independently. One part was repeating the chanting, probably the verbal part of the mind, while the other part, the thinking part, was thinking about something else. This, of course, goes on while meditating in any fashion, but there is less control and more drifting when chanting is only inside the mind.

I am looking for a different solution now, so that I can find some more time for out-loud chanting, and divert some tasks to train time. When work/family/health/etc. pressure and stress are greatest, it is hard to find break time for chanting. Rather than give in to this, I need to organize my time better so over-stress doesn’t occur. I usually don’t spend enough time organizing my work, often because it seems obvious what to do and how to, but this may be an error. So the experiments continue…