I found this very interesting scientific paper on the neurophysiological correlations from religious chanting. The experiment: "Twenty-two participants with at least one year of meditative experience in religiously chanting Amitābha Buddha, for at least 15 minutes per day, participated in the EEG/ECG study. The age range was 40 to 52 years old (mean = 46.5; SD = 2.6; 12 females)... All participants underwent three conditions in random order. The experimental condition consisted of mentally chanting Amitābha Buddha (religious chanting condition); that is participants chanted internally, silently and without any movement of the lips. It is worth noting that this type of internal, silent chanting is also a relatively common Buddhist practice, particularly when meditative moments are sought while being in public places (e.g. while waiting at an airport or train station). Resting state without chanting was used as a control condition (no chanting condition), similarly to a previous study13. During resting state, subjects maintained their eyes closed, similarly as during chanting. Additionally, to control for the potential effect of implicit language processes, a second control condition was employed, featuring mental chanting of the Santa Claus (non-religious chanting condition). Both chants comprised of four Chinese characters (阿彌陀佛 and 聖誕老人) and were comparable in terms of linguistic complexity."

The study showed increased Delta Wave activity for mental religious chanting over resting control and non-religious chanting. The authors cite a previous study to show mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) showed increases in Alpha Wave and Theta Wave activity, but not Delta Wave. While the participants were chanting Amitābha Buddha, I think one can reasonably speculate similar results would attend mentally chanting 南無妙法蓮華經 Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō.

Interestingly, they cite a study showing Loving Kindness Meditation (LKM) also showed increased delta-band activity:

"While our study on religious chanting found increased delta-band power during practice, one previous EEG study compared the Buddhist loving-kindness meditation (LKM) with Christian religious prayer and found that LKM practice was associated with increased delta, alpha and beta waves, whereas the practice of religious prayer was associated with increased alpha and gamma waves."

The author's then state:

“By frequently practicing samatha and vipassana during religious chanting, advanced practitioners become able to combine these two aspects of the practice and reach a state called samadhi, during which both mental processes run in parallel. The present study corroborates evidence suggesting that the neurophysiological correlates of religious chanting are distinct from correlates of the extensively researched mindfulness meditation.”
“Mindfulness enhances alpha and theta power and in our previous EEG study on mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), the alpha-band power increased while the delta-band power decreased during MBSR meditation, compared to the resting state11. Therefore, it appears that despite certain overlaps between mindfulness and spiritual prayer, different forms of meditative practices are associated with different patterns of brain activity.”

Of course, for religious chanting, we are talking about a single study with a limited sample size, so there is only so much one can reasonably conclude from the experiment. I think this is worth noting because whenever these studies are publicized, the temptation is to claim too much. The authors are careful (as scientists must do) to caveat that future investigations and studies are needed to explore these differences. So here I caution that I engage in some speculation below, and similarly offer the caveat that we should be ever ready to discard views based in speculation beyond what the evidence supports, treating such speculations as expedient.

I think it is interesting to find that chanting - or at least mental chanting - increases the same brainwave activity associated with deep sleep, neuroplasticity, and healing. My speculation, based on this and the LKM result, is that a mental object of focus that invokes faith and imagery brings a kind of reification of the object of focus. For example, from a materialist perspective, we know that our sending loving kindness or imagining loving-kindness being extended from our personal sphere of loved ones to all beings is not something that is empirically "true." Yet when in the guided meditation, we suspend disbelief and put faith energy into that activity as though it is something that is really happening. In doing so, we do in fact expand our own awareness and ability to activate loving kindness, thus making it more real in our everyday life. If more and more people start to do this - perhaps motivated by the health benefits -- then like a viral meme or superhero movie, it can start to enter the collective consciousness and become real in actuality.

Knowing that chanting has this effect, and that other forms of meditation have different effects, we appear to have the beginnings of a science-based answer to those Nichiren Buddhists who ask the question "Should meditate along with chanting or only chant?". The answer appears to be yes - it is beneficial to engage in other forms of meditation to obtain different benefits therefrom. To those who argue Nichiren Shonin stated other forms of meditation are expedient and not fit for the time, and one should *only* chant, I think that there are a number of replies. The first is that to my understanding Nichiren did not say exactly this, but instead cautioned that other forms of Buddhist meditation should be introduced carefully, lest one "overload the ship with treasures and cause it to sink." Thus, we reaffirm the principle that Odaimoku is primary, and other practices supportive. To this we can add: we should be skillful in adding ancillary practices, and very thoughtful and careful about how and whether we should do so, lest we become discouraged or confused. Here, it is nice to see research and science adding its voice.

The other thing to note is Nichiren himself spent the first part of his life training in T'ien-t'ai-based meditation and would have already obtained the benefits of being a skillful meditator even if he let that go as expedient. In our own lives, if we can obtain benefits from mindfulness meditation, LKM, and so on, we should also feel empowered to pursue those, much as we would do so for any beneficial activity, such as Yoga, learning an instrument, exercise, and so on. The important thing, again, is that if and when we do, we be careful not to lose focus on 南無妙法蓮華經 Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō, and if and when we do, to return always to 南無妙法蓮華經 Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō.

My final, and most important thought, is that the object of faith matters a great deal. The study implies, but does not conclude, that the mental, physical and emotional benefits of faith-based chanting would be the same regardless of whether one chanted to Amida Buddha, God, or the Force, provided one chant with faith. It is here that we cross over from what we expect of reason and science and why we practice. Amida is a Buddha of a Western Paradise, God in Heaven, Jesus on the Cross or in Resurrection, Vairochana of Cosmic Transcendence, and the historical Gautama extinguished into Nirvana. All of these place Awakening and Enlightenment out of this world and this life. None of them can be said, by their own terms, to be the Supreme Awakening of here and now, in this land, this body, and the beings of this world. Thus, even if we get all the benefits Delta Waves have to offer, if we put faith in teaching or dharma that says Awakening is elsewhere or else when, we still put false constraints on Awakening with our very own mind. We literally choose to have faith that is not all-encompassing and not able to offer true liberation for all beings. Conversely, if we dismiss chanting with faith in a proper object of focus and Dharma, then we close the door that would allow us to walk out of the burning house of our self-centered practices that do not engage the imagination but instead focus only on body and breath, pain and pleasure. We become trapped in our own body and mind. It is of the utmost importance that we choose a mantra and object of focus that is both subjective and objective, encompassing all beings and all dharmas both the here and now and past and future, and not limited any of the innumerable meanings and practices that are more targeted and limited. That mantra is:

南無妙法蓮華經 Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō

This is because the Eternal Shakyamuni and the Lotus Sutra are of this world, and indeed, all worlds. As the Buddha states in Chapter 16 of the Lotus Sutra (Shinozaki, Michio; Ziporyn, Brook; Earhart, David. The Threefold Lotus Sutra: A Modern Translation for Contemporary Readers - Kosei Publishing Co.):

Throughout immeasurable kalpas,
I am always on Divine Eagle Peak
And abiding in all other places.
When living beings see great fires burning
At the time of the end of a kalpa,
This land of mine is tranquil and calm,
Always filled with heavenly beings and humans....
those who perform virtuous deeds
And are gentle and upright of nature
Will all see me here Teaching the Dharma.
At times, for the sake of them all,
I teach that a buddha’s life span is beyond measure.

The Buddha also severally extols the benefits of keeping a single verse of the Lotus Sutra as a superior practice:

The Buddha further said to Medicine King, “Moreover, I also bestow the assurance of Supreme Perfect Awakening upon those people who, after the passing of the Tathagata, hear even a single verse or a single phrase of the Wondrous Dharma Flower Sutra and thereby experience even a moment of rejoicing.” Suppose those who have received, embraced, read, recited, expounded, or copied even a single verse of the Wondrous Dharma Flower Sutra look upon this sutra with reverence as if it were the Buddha himself.

Lotus Sutra, Chapter 1 (ibid)

They [who respectfully keep and uphold the Lotus Sutra] will soon proceed to the place of the Way
To achieve the undefiled and the unconditioned
And abundantly benefit heavenly beings and humans.’
In every place that they stop, stay,
Walk, sit, recline,
Or expound even a single verse,
You should erect a stupa,
Adorn it, and make it beautiful
With every sort of offering.
When such places are occupied by these buddha children,
They are in use by the Buddha himself.
There he is always present,
Whether walking, sitting, or reclining.”

Lotus Sutra, Chapter 17 (ibid)

The Buddha then said to Maitreya, “I will now clearly tell you about the merits of this man who gave the means of happiness to all beings in the six realms of existence of four hundred thousand million myriads of worlds and caused them to attain arhatship [by the Eightfold Noble Path]. His merits do not come close to those of that fiftieth person who heard a single verse of the Dharma Flower Sutra and rejoiced. Indeed, his merits do not equal one one-hundredth, one one-thousandth, or even one one-billionth of them, for they are beyond what calculations or similes can express.

Lotus Sutra, Chapter 18, (ibid)

Accordingly, we are fortunate that we can recite the August Title of the Lotus Sutra and thereby obtain both the worldly and transcendental benefits that come from chanting with faith. And indeed, such benefits are not separate from one another -- they are unified in the Wonderful Dharma.

南無妙法蓮華經 Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō

By Brian M. McGuire, Esq.