It depends on how you do it, as to what kind of effect you can get out of it. When Rosemary and I first became Buddhists, we were living in Australia. We had the occasion to live at a center, very much like the assistants do here, and the teachers taught chanting, Pali and English together. We did it in Pali, then we did it in English, or vice versa, sometimes it was only English. What came out of that was that we learnt what the Pali meant. When you do the Triple Gem chanting on the Buddha, the Dhamma and the Sangha, and you do it in Pali, it's like "I know what that means." The effect it is going to have on me is going to be different to somebody who doesn't know what the words mean. For me, I can use it as more as a reflection: "Oh yeah, "Lokavidu" Knower of the worlds." That is one of the little Pali words that means "Knower of the worlds." Yeah, the Buddha knew all worlds. He had a mind that encompassed everything. "Sattha-deva-manussanam" - "Teacher of gods and humans," he could teach anybody. So, because I know many individual words, it means more to me and I can reflect deeper. "Yeah, that's what the Buddha is, that's what the Dhamma is, that's what the Sangha means." For me it has quite a different effect, and a deeper effect because I know some of the words.
However, just the chanting itself (if you have ever been to a Pali chanting, especially where they go into a long routine) is very calming. If you have ever noticed, the chanting language, the Pali language, done as they do it, is very calming. It has a bit of a rhythm to it, a bit of a musical aspect to it, and it is very calming. That is one thing that can come for anybody, even if they don't know the actual words. Now when you know the words, then you can bring them up wherever you want.
Now, many of you know the little e-book, the "Twenty Suttas" that I edited, many of you have it. We have been working with many of our old students (the assistants in particular) with memorizing some of the Suttas. It is important to know that the Pali chanting all comes from the Suttas. It is not something different. It is actually the Suttas that they are reciting. We have been teaching the assistants to memorize the Suttas in English. So they become a walking scripture! And occasionally we push a button, "Hey Meghan, how does this one go? Hey Bart, do you remember the one you did?" And we ask them to bring the Suttas out on occasion, and sure enough, a lot of them just bring them out. It is a set thing, because they have it in their head. Now what does this do for you, if you've got scriptures that you carry with you all of the time? Your practice is going to be stronger, lots stronger. And you are going to be able to have Right View more often.
A classic example happened to me about sixteen years ago. I was staying in a monastery (this was before we were teaching), and there was a western monk there. Both of us had practiced about the same length of time, fifteen years, but he was a monk, I was not a monk. I had memorized the Satipattana Sutta very early. As a brand new Buddhist, I thought this was great. I memorized it on my own, so I knew it word for word. The western monk started mentioning what he thought some things in the Satipattana Sutta meant. I said, "Oh no, that's not correct." He wasn't going to listen to that, no, he was the monk, I was the layperson, no, he knew, I didn't know. And I had to say, "No, it's not that way." And he got a bit upset with me. I also want to mention that we were the same age as well. Finally I said to him "Now look, do you actually know that Sutta yourself, have you ever actually memorized it? Because I have." "Oh." You know, he stopped for a minute, "Oh." Because he hadn't, he hadn't actually memorized it. It is possible he had never even read it. So I explained to him, I actually repeated word for word the section we were discussing, and he saw I was right.
Now that was very good. It was helpful for him, and it showed me quite dramatically that if we know some of these scriptures for ourselves, and actually know them word for word, we can stick closer to Right View, and not be swayed by somebody else who thinks they are smarter than us, or has some "special statistics". That story is something very important.