Can't follow along with chants, pujas

[Pårl]

Hello there,

I'm still having real difficulty following along with the chanted pujas; I can never seem to quite the right starting place and get lost almost immediately, even with the phonetic tibetan text written out in front of me. Is there a tried and trusted way the unlocks this problem for relative newbies?

I'm happy to close my eyes, sit and listen, but it would be nice to be part of the chanted puja.

Hope someone can advise,

Paul

[Johnny Dangerous]

A lot of it is down to the Tibetan umze going at a pace people can handle and paying attention IME, which is I’m sure not something you have control over.

Other than that, if there are melodies involved it helps a lot to learn those.

[zerwe]

It takes time and practice. Also, as the previous poster mentioned, melodies help. However, with that said and my experience is with a different lineage, there can be differing melodies for differing chant speeds, from different monastic universities, tantric colleges, etc...

Shaun

[Hazel]

Practice and experience. Little by little pieces will come together. Finding your place when you lose it will get easier.

Here's a hack, if you lose track of where you are in a verse, try listening to the end of each line and scan the page to find your way back. This will get easier as you develop your ear.

If you can, familiarize yourself with Tibetan. To set expectations, many of the sounds you learn in a textbook/online are going to differ from how your teacher pronounces them, but it's still helpful.

[Konchog Thogme Jampa]

Most important thing the Bodhicitta you generate whilst doing the practice being a great technician doesn’t matter too much everybody has their strengths and weaknesses

[Johnny Dangerous]

Practice and experience. Little by little pieces will come together. Finding your place when you lose it will get easier.

Here's a hack, if you lose track of where you are in a verse, try listening to the end of each line and scan the page to find your way back. This will get easier as you develop your ear.

If you can, familiarize yourself with Tibetan. To set expectations, many of the sounds you learn in a textbook/online are going to differ from how your teacher pronounces them, but it's still helpful.

This is good advice. Learning a few important Tibetan phrases and words in ones sadhana can make it a lot easier to follow.

[PadmaVonSamba]

If you can borrow a copy of the sadhana text and read through it slowly on your own, this will help.

Some sadhanas are really done fast. I don’t know why that is. I think it was Patrul Rinpoche who equated the rapid chanting of mantras, rather disparagingly, to cranking out of a string of sausages.

[Terma]

My thoughts...

If you understand a little Tibetan, even some very key phrases and words then this helps.

But in my opinion, unless one either understands Tibetan fluently or has a great deal of familiarization with the sadhana itself and practices it regularly, then group pujas are really nothing more than a cool sing-along with bells, drums and cymbols.

I think this is one area where Tibetan Lama's in the West need to consider a little more.

[pemachophel]

If the chant is going too fast for you, just say the last three syllables. Over time the rest will come. Vajrauyana Buddhism has a steep learning curve, but, if you're serious about this, you're in the for the long haul in any case.

Good luck & best wishes.

[lhaksam.dorje]

Hello there,

I'm still having real difficulty following along with the chanted pujas; I can never seem to quite the right starting place and get lost almost immediately, even with the phonetic tibetan text written out in front of me. Is there a tried and trusted way the unlocks this problem for relative newbies?

I'm happy to close my eyes, sit and listen, but it would be nice to be part of the chanted puja.

Hope someone can advise,

Paul

I hear you. For me, having a copy of the text to study did little to help, because what I would choose as the natural cadence was not necessarily the same as the cadence (beat, tempo, emphasis) that the chant master used, making it sound like a completely different text (to my ears).
Having a recording of the same liturgy (or a even a different liturgy with the same melody and cadence) made a huge difference to me. Knowing the cadence or the melody gives a big sense of where you are (or might be), and then familiarity with certain tibetan sounds or phrases helps pinpoint where you are.
If you're not online and can see other puja participants, look for when people turn the page ...that's a dead giveaway. If you're still lost, quietly ask the person next to you....for that matter if you're on zoom ask for the page references in chat. All non tibetans were beginners at chanting transliterated tibetan at some point and will be very pleased to help. Everyone is familiar with the experience of being lost in the foreign text