Recitation (zen)
In Zen there is the practice of recitation . Several times a day, the practitioners read texts together with full voice and concentration. In Japanese Zen, these are almost always texts in the Old Chinese language (with Japanese pronunciation). The Chinese texts, for their part, are often old translations from Sanskrit .
The Japanese syllables in their unfamiliar Chinese arrangement not only point the European practitioner back to his own thinking and consciousness and do not allow him to distract into the discursive thinking of the apparent understanding of words .
In addition to short texts, such as the Triple Refuge and Dharanis , central texts of the Mahayana , such as the Lotus Sutra and Heart Sutra , but also the entire list of lineage holders from Buddha Shakyamuni to the current Roshi of the lineage are recited. The Heart Sutra is probably the most frequently recited religious text in the world.