Folks, this blog is not only awesome, it's also educational, and today I'm going to teach you about Kirtan. When I was a kid, I had to go to church. We're talking Roman Catholic church, the whole nine yards of it. Now, I didn't really like church much at all, but one part that I really did like was the singing and chanting aspect. Not so much the "memorize all this stuff we believe" part but just the communal act of chanting. Kirtan is the closest thing I've found to extracting that part of the experience that I enjoyed. Now, to be sure, Kirtan is a pretty hippie exercise that certainly isn't for everybody. And there still can be that "memorize this stuff" aspect. But the words are not taken terribly seriously. It's not about the meaning of the phrases, generally, but more the sensation of them, the vibration of them. If that sounds really frou-frou, I understand, but trust me, it works. Once, long ago, I went to a festival and attended a "sound healing" workshop, and it sounded cheesy, but basically I laid on the grass while people played giant gongs and it was heavenly. The vibration of the sound as it moves through your body is something I find deeply soothing. It reminds me of putting my head against the glass of the car as we traveled down the highway on a road trip; another awesome feeling.
Generally speaking it's rare to find full Kirtan sessions. There happens to be one here in Portland every Sunday at 6 and today I managed to make it by. Usually I find Kirtan as one piece of a larger session involving yoga and meditation. Either way, though, if you happen to find one, it can be worth your time. If you're new to all this, I suggest finding one that's being taught by a community center or a yoga studio, as opposed to a temple. Not that Buddhist Kirtan isn't great, but it can feel a lot more church-y and some people get turned off by how complicated the chants are or just how religion-y feeling the whole things is.
Give it a shot; you'll like it.