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AN 5.26 Buddha confirms the right way of chanting here, and many other suttas

 

AN 5.26 Vimuttāyatana: Opportunities for Freedom

(2023 SP-FLUENT translation by frankk‍ derived from B. Sujato‍ ) FLP

        AN 5.026.1 - First jhāna possible while hearing live dhamma talk

        AN 5.026.2 - Giving a dhamma talk leads to himself getting jhāna

        AN 5.026.3 - Reciting memorized dhamma passage leads to jhāna

        AN 5.026.4 - first jhāna possible while thinking and pondering memorized dhamma

        AN 5.026.5 - No V&V, undirected samādhi into 2nd jhāna or higher


As my recent article explains,

The right way of chanting, this will change your life and improve your Dharma absorption efficiency a hundredfold.

AN 5.26 isn't going to happen (getting jhāna, upekkha, enlightenment) if you're chanting "group style" super slow, even tempo, worried more about keeping up with group intonations and accent than pondering the meaning of Dhamma you're chanting.


The bigger point of AN 5.26, and my follow up article

Chanting is not just a devotional group activity. It's an integral part of samādhi, the oral tradition, and life, if done correctly.

is that you need to stop thinking of chanting as some special different activity you do occasionally, just as you shouldn't think of doing 20 minute or 60 minute "formal sitting meditation."

The right way to think about it, is chanting is simply one mode of expressing samādhi that develops sati and increases your Dharma investigation, wisdom, and absorbing the the deeper meaning of Dharma.

You can keep partial jhāna going all the time, 24/7, any posture, any activity. 

Sati, vitakka, vicāra need to be understood correctly for the oral tradition way of learning and getting enlightened to work. 


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