[Buddha-l] Re: Filtered Buddhism

[Michael LaTorra]

On the matter of chanting in various languages, Richard replied to Curt:

> It is precisely because of that incomprehensibility of ancient canonical 
> languages that Asian Buddhists also chant some things in languages that they
> can understand. (In so doing, they are following the explicit and unambiguous
> instructions of the Buddha.)

Linguistic incomprehensibility always bothered me in our American Zen sangha.
So, for awhile, we dropped the foreign language chanting and retained only the
English versions. This was a decision taken by myself and another priest.

The lay members objected. They **liked** chanting words they did not understand
(or, more precisely, words for which they did not know the precise individual
meanings, although they did know that these words were supposed to be the
originals from which our English translations derived).

I myself prefer to know what I am saying. Evidently, this preference places me
in the minority.  Does anyone else here feel the same way?

Regards,

Michael LaTorra

mlatorra at nmsu.edu

Department of English
New Mexico State University
PO Box 30001 MSC 3E
Las Cruces, NM 88003-8001




> It is precisely because of that incomprehensibility of ancient canonical 
> languages that Asian Buddhists also chant some things in languages that they
> 
> can understand. (In so doing, they are following the explicit and unambiguous
> 
> instructions of the Buddha.)
>