The Challenges and Opportunities of Buddhist Music Discipline in a New Era—The Practice and Application of Mind and Body System in Chinese Buddhist Chanting

Religious music is an inevitable and important topic when exploring the significance of the “new” or “deep” dimension of religion or spirituality. Traditional Chinese culture influenced Chinese Buddhist chanting practices, developing special melodies, languages, and meaning, and establishing special mind and body practice system spanning thousands of years. Advances in music therapy, meditation, and vocal research give the Chinese Buddhist chanting mind and body practice system enough theoretical support to facilitate the construction of the discipline in the modern era. This paper adopts the scientific approach to tracing and analyzing the origins of the body and mind system in Chinese Buddhist chanting practice and reviews how the system benefits the mind and body and modern society in general. This paper also examines the issues confronting the standard and development of special chanting skills in Chinese Buddhist music in the modern era.

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