Note: This service was largely experiential in nature.  In order to get as close to the full effect as possible without actually being present and participating, consider borrowing an audiotape of the service and listening to it.  Short of that, the text accompanying the service is provided below.

     Don Campbell, author of The Mozart Effect, writes that “Chant is more than a repetitious song – it is an extraordinary way to integrate breath, heartbeat, emotion and purpose. . . chant unifies.  It brings people together in thought, intention, knowledge, and love.”

     And so we come together this morning to explore the phenomenon of chant: to reflect about it, to listen to it, and most importantly, to do it.

     Robert Gass, in his book, Chanting, which was really the inspiration for this service, makes his own attempt to explain what chant is.  He says “Chant is singing our prayers.  Chant is vocal meditation.  Chant is the breath made audible in tone.  Chant is ‘discovering Spirit in sound’.”

     There has always been a close link between breath and spirit.  Many meditation traditions include techniques based on paying attention to the breath.  The word ‘spirit’ itself comes from the same root as inspiration and respiration.  Our breath is the outward sign of the spirit that gives us life.
With chant, this relationship is taken another step with the production of sound: energetic vibrations that connect us physically with the surrounding atmosphere.  When people chant in groups, there is also a connection between chanters, as voices touch each other, blending into a common vibration.  And if we let the chant take us where it will, we may sometimes reach that place where the boundaries separating us, one from the other, seem to disappear, so that there is only one chant, one breath, as hearts join in deep communion.

    One point I want to make this morning about chant is its universality, its ubiquity, in one form or another across centuries and across continents.  In fact there are so many historical manifestations of chant that I will not be able to talk about, or even mention, anywhere near all of them.  But I would like to mention a few, and give us a chance to listen to and participate in chants from a number of different traditions and cultures.

    One tradition in which chant plays a particularly central role is Hindu/Vedic culture, rooted in the belief that sound vibration is the basic nature of the universe.  I spoke earlier of a similar notion in ancient Celtic mythology.  In the Upanishads, the sacred scriptures of Hinduism, the cosmos was created through the uttering of the primal sound embodied in the sacred syllable “OM”.  According to the Mandukya Upanishad, “The word OM is the imperishable; all this its manifestation.  Past, present, future – everything is OM.”

    Chanting “OM” is believed to invoke the same non-dual energy that is at the root of all creation.  That is, the vibration that is produced while chanting “OM” matches with the vibration that occurred at the time of creation.  And so, chanting “OM” is one way of participating in the ongoing creation of the universe.

      Let’s try it out.  As typically chanted, the syllable “OM” actually consists of three sounds: ‘A’, ‘U’, and ‘M’.  “AUMMMMMMMM”.  We needn’t all be on the same pitch, and we needn’t all breathe in at the same time.  Once we get going, try and feel the continuous sea of sound and vibration around you; let yourself fall into it and lose yourself, experience the energy of creation, until I call us back with the chime.

    [chant “AUM”]

    The entire Sanskrit language is said to be composed of sounds based on the vibrations that underlie the elements of the world, making for a genuine connection between the language and the underlying reality it represents.  Sacred Hindu mantras are chanted in order to awaken to higher states of consciousness.  The cognitive meaning of the chants is irrelevant – or at least secondary.  It is the sound itself that produces the desired experience.

    One Hindu chant that I use occasionally in my own practice consists of the words “Shri Ram, Jai Ram, Jai Jai Ram Om,” which honor the Divine in the incarnation of Rama.  Now, I have no theological stake in Hinduism or any of its versions of Deity.  But repeating this chant for a while does a good job of calming me down and centering me.

    I’m going to do this chant now, and once I’ve repeated the phrase twice, I invite you to join in again, adding harmony if you wish.  If the words are a distraction, just hum along.

    [chant “Shri Ram, Jai Ram, Jai Jai Ram Om”]

    We heard, in our gathering music this morning, some examples of Gregorian chant, a centuries-old practice that provides a link not only to the sung prayers of early Christians, but also back more than three thousand years to the Jewish tradition of chanting sacred texts, especially the psalms as a form of devotional practice.  There have also been many other forms of chant in both Judaism and Christianity, some of which we’ll sample a little bit later.

    Buddhism, Islam (including Sufism), African primal religions, the shamanic traditions of many aboriginal peoples – all have included chanting as part of their religious practice.

    Of particular interest to many is the recent resurgence of people in Western cultures seeking to reconnect with the living spirituality of the natural world, with emphasis on a deep sense of interconnectedness with all life, a close relationship with the seasons and cycles of nature, a reverence for the earth as mother, and the Divine as manifest in the image of the goddess.  Again, chant becomes a vehicle for experiencing those connections.  Amanda and the choir are going to lead us in a chant now, called “We all come from the Goddess.”

    [chant]

    Sometimes the words of a chant are relevant.  They may help us to focus on an image or an idea appropriate to our actions.  For instance, as we prepare to give and receive our morning offering, I invite you to join me in singing “From You I Receive,” which is #402 in your hymnal.  Let us stir our sense of sharing and generosity as we sing it through three times. .

    Most of the chants we’ve talked about and sung so far this morning have been directly tied to religious practice.  But the application of chant is really much wider than that.  One very common form of chant in our culture is organized cheering at sporting events, which some may consider religious, but I’m not so sure.  Such cheers do share in common with many forms of chant the function of focusing group attention and energy on a common purpose; namely defeating the opponent.  It sometimes even takes the traditional religious form of call and response, as in “WE ARE! – [PENN STATE]”.

    Chant also enters the world of political action, as a form of expressing solidarity and of exercising our democratic privilege of free expression.  Just last Monday I was out on College Avenue with some of you and a bunch of other people, shouting in unison things like “No attack against Iraq”.  It was much more satisfying than sitting home by myself just thinking it.

    Sometimes chants are just fun.  Amanda and the choir are going to teach us an Israeli round called “Toembai” which accompanies a dance.  I’m not sure if anyone here knows the dance it goes with, but if the spirit moves you, go for it.

    [“Toembai”]

    Another common use of chant is to help focus group energy in pursuance of some workaday task.  I finally saw the movie “O Brother Where Art Thou” the other night, which contained a classic example.  A prison chain gang chanted rhythmically as they set about the business of breaking rocks with sledge hammers.  I can imagine that the function of achieving an altered state of consciousness is at play in such cases as well for coping with the physical strain and monotony of the laborious task.

    The choir is going to do a round for us now called “Congo Boat Song”.  I don’t know for sure, but I would guess that it might have been used to maintain the rhythm of rowing the boat.

    [“Congo Boat Song”]

    I hope we have given some sense of the broad scope of the phenomenon of chant.  I’m sure there have been many other uses in addition to those I’ve mentioned.  The choir has a Japanese round for you now called “Bento-Uri”.  I’m not going to explain or translate it until they’re finished.  See if you can figure out what it’s about.

    [“Bento-Uri”]

    That was a Japanese vendors’ call, such as might be heard on the railroad station platform as a train arrives.  This particular one is listing some of the vendor’s wares, including chicken and eggs, rice and fish sandwiches, lemonade, salad, and milk.  So we can add business to the list of chant applications.

    I hope that our time together this morning has been at least somewhat interesting and informative.  I also hope that you have been able to let go and experience some sense of oneness and communion with your fellow congregants, perhaps even with the universe.  If not, I hope you at least had some fun.

    And we get one more chance now to join our voices in a communal expression of praise, joy, and thanksgiving – for life itself, for our being here together, or for whatever else is worthy of those feelings.  The words are simple: “Alleluia, Alleluia.”  The basic tune is probably familiar to many of you: Pachelbel’s Canon in D.  As the chant goes on, join in, let yourself go, try out different rhythms and different harmonies.  Find a place that fits you, and then lose yourself in it.  Make beautiful music together.

    [“Alleluia”]

     I leave you this morning with a closing excerpt from Robert Gass:
 

Chant and sacred sound are gifts of  Spirit.  To lie alone under the stars and chant with the night wind.  To send our children to sleep held in a tender song.  To join with our community in a house of worship and intone a communal prayer.  To sit with friends in the living room and chant for the sheer fun of it. . .

May your life be filled with the beauty and joy of chant.
May you share in a communion of voices and
hearts with those you love.
May your soul draw nourishment from the
deep well of sacred sound.
May your Spirit soar to heaven on wings of song.