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Listening to the chanting of Avalokiteshvara is a very deep
practice. Avalokiteshvara is the name of a person who knows how to
listen to the suffering within himself and the suffering in the world.
If we know how to go back to ourselves and listen to our own suffering,
understanding and compassion will arise and lighten us up. We will
understand our suffering, the suffering of our father, our mother, our
ancestors. We will understand the suffering of our people, our country,
the suffering of the Earth, and of our society. Such understanding will
nurture and strengthen our compassion....
There is a transformation and healing that takes place when compassion
is born in our hearts. We suffer less right away. Now we can look at
the person who made us suffer with compassion because we can see the
suffering in that person. We don't blame. Instead of trying to punish,
we have the intention to do something or to say something to help the
other person to suffer less. Understanding our own suffering, we can
understand the suffering of the other person much more easily.
Avalokiteshvara is the bodhisattva who has a great capacity of deep
listening. He always goes back to himself and listens to the suffering
inside so that he can understand the suffering of his parents, his
ancestors, and the suffering of other people in society. This is a
very important practice because many of us do not want to face our own
suffering. Mindfulness of suffering is our practice. The chanting will
generate a powerful energy that makes us feel less fearful and have
enough courage to touch our internal pain so that compassion has a
chance to arise and liberate us.
When the monastics chant the name of Avalokitesvara for the first
round, they go back to themselves and try to touch the suffering
inside of them. When they sing and chant the name for the second
round, they become aware of the suffering of the people around them.
And when they sing and chant for the third round, they get in touch
with the suffering in the world. There are many areas in the world
where people suffer deeply. They suffer not only because of war or
because of separation or natural catastrophes, but also from difficult
relationships, social injustice, violence, and suppression.
When we sit and listen to the chanting, we follow our in-breath and
out-breath and go back to ourselves. For the first round, we practice
embracing our own suffering like embracing a crying baby. We can say
silently to ourselves: “Oh, my dear pain, my dear suffering, my dear
sorrow. I know you are there, and I am here for you. I'm not running
away from you anymore.” A loving, quiet presence is always comforting
and brings about healing. When we hear the chanting for the second
round, we shift our awareness to the people around us who suffer, and
we want to offer our presence to them. When we hear the chanting for
the third time, we know that around the world, people suffer very
much, and we want to be in communication with them. We want to be
something or do something to help the world suffer less.
Attentive listening enables us to stay in the present moment, not to
be taken away by our thinking. We just focus our attention on the
chanting while following our breath. There is only the in-breath,
out-breath, and the chanting. The thinking will slow down and stop. We
allow our body to be relaxed, open, so that we can feel the collective
energy of mindfulness and compassion of the community and allow it to
penetrate our body. The key to the practice is not to think, just
feel, and open our body and mind to the collective energy of the
chanting. After a few minutes, tension and pain in our body start to
go away. The same effect happens to our emotions: sorrow, anger, and
fear in our heart. Don’t keep our emotions for ourselves, open our
heart to the compassionate energy of the community. We can practice
saying silently in our heart: “Dear friends, I entrust myself to the
community. I have pain, suffering, fear, despair in me. Please help
embrace these blocks of pain in me.” We will feel better after a few
minutes of listening to the chanting.
Transformation and healing are possible during the time of this
practice. We can send this healing energy to a loved one who is
suffering deeply in this moment but is not here to practice listening
to the chanting with us. Just think of that person or call his or her
name silently in our mind. As we do that, the energy generated by the
practice will be channeled to that person right in this moment, and
that person may feel better.
Avalokitesvara is a bodhisattva who knows how to listen to the
suffering inside and outside in the world. Practicing like the
bodhisattva of compassionate listening, we will feel that the
bodhisattva is in us, not outside of us. Avalokitesvara is in us
because we too have the capacity to listen to our own suffering and
the suffering of the world. Let us sit relaxedly and practice
listening to the chanting.
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