Student: What is Zen chanting?
Zen Master Seung Sahn: Chanting is very important in our practice. We call it “chanting meditation.” Meditation means keeping a not moving mind. The important thing in chanting meditation is to perceive the sound of one’s own voice; not hear, but perceive.
Student: Are you using the word “perceive” in a special sense?
ZMSS: Yes. Perceiving your voice means perceiving your true self or true nature. Then you and the sound are never separate, which means that you and the whole universe are never separate. Thus, to perceive our true nature is to perceive universal substance.
With regular chanting, our sense of being centered will get stronger. When we are strongly centered, we can control our feelings, and thus our condition and situation.
