Buddhist Music and Chanting: Shomyo

Buddhist Music and Chanting: Shomyo

Buddhist Music and Chanting: Shomyo

Buddhist chant is an incantation or hymn, similar to Gregorian chant. Almost all schools of Buddhism incorporate Buddhist chant, or shomyo in Japanese, to one degree or another. It is often said that singing and even just listening to chant can bring about a spiritual wellbeing via the sound vibrations emitted.

I have had an interest in Buddhist music ever since my encounters with the shakuhachi, the Japanese bamboo flute, which is said to have its roots in shomyo. I chant every morning at the Shingon temple where I am a monk at in Nara, Japan, as well as have frequent group classes in the evenings. Often during ceremonies I mix my shakuhachi sounds with the chanting. Within Buddhist chant, various instruments souch as bells, gongs, conch shells (Horagai) etc. are used so the tone colors of the shakuhachi fit well together. The slight variation in pitch among the chanters and the shakuhachi works well together as an overall unison.

A few of the most difficult things to grasp are how to read the notes and intonations as well as there being 2 different styles of chanting the same song; Ryokyoku and Rikkyoku styles. As ordained monks there are many thick books of chants, however, the lay practitioners usually chant the Heart Sutra (Hanya Shingyo), and the repetition and unison of the voices has a very calming effect.

Shomyo originated with the esoteric schools of Buddhism, the Tendai and Shingon schools. In general, Tendai chants have more varying melodies and a wider tone scale, as where many of the Shingon schools keep the traditional less melodic intonations. Many of the more popular and newer schools of Buddhism refer to their songs as shomyo also, but are actually that temple's prayers set to a modern western melody, not unlike what you would hear at a Catholic mass for example.

In Shingon chant it is not always necessary to understand the exact meaning of the prayer. Sometimes it is believed that there is an inherent force to the sound and vibrations of the words, and the repetition of that is more powerful than focusing on what the words mean. Sounds can speak more directly to us than words sometimes. Often our interpretation and experiences associated with certain words alter the way we comprehend it, distracting us along the way. A historically famous Tendai priest even went so far as to use the shakuhachi in place of chanting. It was said that he felt a strong connection with the sounds and he communicated more directly using the bamboo flute.

Buddhist chant can be seen as quite complicated, but if you understand it as a form of musical meditation where the sounds are what connects us to each other and nature, then it is easier to open our senses and feel the music for what it really is; a communication with the universe. Traditional meditative bamboo flute music (http://www.grand-island-serene-gardens.com/shakuhachi.html)is said to be played instead of chanting, but played with the same intentions. Ultimately there is a communication with nature and the universe through sound.

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