Chanting for Peace

[Aloka]

Soto Zen teacher Brad Warner shares his thoughts about chanting for peace. (Approx. 11 minutes).

[philg]

There are a few issues here. One is whether there is going to be a measurable effect if I do this. Another is whether we should be wishing for anything other than to make progress along the path as an individual. Should we have expectations about anything at all as we practice? Are we really, as Brad suggests, all connected in some way? Is there a balance to things, as he suggests?

I remember many years ago wrestling with this sort of thing in my practice, wishing people well, wishing all beings in infinite space to come to full and perfect understanding, and so on. In the end I came understand that such things are unconditional or are nothing. You wish someone well whether is does anything or not. No preconditions to your practice. At the very least the universe has one more person doing such things and one fewer doing other stuff. And it may just help me as a person.