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

 

Chanting not just devotional group activity. 

It's an integral part of samādhi, the oral tradition, and life, if done correctly.

* first chant I ever memorized was fire sermon. i discovered a wonderful property about chanting Dhamma that's liberating, this is 'eminently useful', you can recite over and over repeatedly, I did it for hours of time without getting tired of it. 

I also discovered first hand, without having read the suttas such as 5.26 that describe how chanting, thinking about Dhamma, leads to rapture, joy, pleasure, samādhi. 

that's eminently useful, not just a nice idea from the suttas.

people treat Dhamma books and dhamma talks like disposable knowledge. you chew on it, enjoy its flavor, and then soon forget about it. Maybe pull it out of the pantry a few months later, chew on it and dispose of it again. But when you memorize it, recite it everyday, it impacts you much deeper and differently. As AN 7.67 says, memorized Dhamma become weapons on hand that you can use at will once you understand it, and remember it. Not vague fuzzily remember like people do with disposable book Dhamma and Dhamma talks, but Dhamma passages that you've memorized by heart, know inside and out, practice using it in your life all the time. So for most people, the Dhamma they vaguely and fuzzily remember is like Dhamma weapons that are locked up in a vault in a storage locker located a few miles away in a storage facility. If you even remember having the weapon and think about using it, you are slow to retrieve it from the vault, clumsily wield the weapon, and it's not very powerful. For a weapon to be lethal, you need to have it memorized, remembered (sati) constantly, sharpening the blade with jhāna and  practicing using the weapon with jhāna and satipaṭṭhāna.

Simile to help you determine if you're chanting correctly.

The Buddha sits on your right shoulder, 

Māra the evil one sits on your left shoulder. 

Both whisper advice in your ear all the time. 

Keep score.

Which adviser is winning, meaning which one do you listen to more often, and how badly is one side beating on the other?

If you're chanting correctly, 

what you chant all the time becomes your Dhamma weapon.

And the more skilled you are with the weapon, the more skilled, quicker and stronger you are overpowering māra everytime time he whispers bad advice to you.

The stronger you get over time, the more Māra becomes a weak whisper cowering on your shoulder knowing the beat down that's coming when he opens his mouth.

Pretty soon, Māra stands 20 feet away, doesn't even perch on your shoulder any more because he knows the pain that's coming if he's in striking distance of your Dhamma weapon. 

Eventually he just gives up on you and stays away completely.

That's how you know you're chanting correctly.

Whatever dhamma you say out loud, that's sammā vācā right speech.

Whatever dhamma you memorized, that's the 'sati' remembrance of Dhamma faculty.

Whatever dhamma you mentally recite in your mind, that's vitakka, directed thought.

But vitakka is only a coarser rough comprehension of the Dhamma you're chanting.

Vicāra, evaluation of the directed thought, you fully comprehend (intellectually) the meaning of the Dhamma passage you've memorized (sati) and recited or thought about. 

Upekkha = upa + ikkhati (looking upon) = Equanimous observation. 

Upekkha, is the samādhi powered version of Dhamma-vicaya (investigation) that accomplishes deep insight practice.

Vicāra falls under Dhamma-vicaya, and without jhāna power behind it, falls under intellectual understanding.

But when upekkha, equanimous-observation, is done with the samādhi of 3rd and 4th jhāna, now the Dhamma weapon you memorized, recited, has lethal potential, the ability to do some real harm to Māra and his army of evil minions. 

Vicāra understands and knows that lust is unskillful.

Upekkha, when one sees deeply from 4th jhāna, that lust is unskillful, the insight penetrates much deeper to affect your personality at a much deeper level. 

And the result is the defilment of lust is weakened proportionally to how strong your jhāna and upekkha are.