Types of Religious Experiences
Ian Mabbet's adaptation of sociologist Max Weber's three types of authority to religious authority/ experiences are an excellent method for analyzing what different groups value within their religion. It defines the different ways people access their religion's concept of the transcendent. All three categories can be found within most religions, and the way various practices and rituals relate to these categories can demonstrate the multidimensional meanings of these practices.
Awe
The first of Mabbet's categories define their relationship to the transcendent through awe, wonder, ritual, and tradition. With its heavy emphasis on ritual and mysticism, Tantric Buddhism is a good example of a religion that values this type of experience.
Austerity
The second category accesses the transcendent through deep thought, rational or not, and turns their attention away from an impure outside world to an austere, intellectual focus. The more ascetic Theravada Buddhism with its more severe and stern nature is a good example of this.
Faith
The third category finds the transcendent through religious emotion, faith, and devotion, including the celebration and glorification of religious leaders and deities. Modern Mahayana Buddhism commonly focuses on this type with its embrace of other teachers. Modern offshoots of Mahayana such as Pure Land Buddhism with its emphasis on faith and evangelicism are especially focused on this type.
The appeal that Fanbai has to each of these different categories is revealing to the multidimensional value that this type of chant has to the Chinese Mahayana Sangha and lay Buddhist community.
One large role of Fanbai is within rituals such as holy days, praises, funerals, and other smaller often protective rites performed for lay Buddhists. In these purposes Fanbai appeals to the first of Mabbett's types. It is common for monks to perform rites at the request of lay people who tend to hold more stock in rituals of protection and rituals associated with marriage, death, and birth. Chant serves different purposes in different rituals, but it is commonly used on holy days as reinforcement of the significance of the meanings of these days and as praises to deities in the festivals that honor them. It is also commonly used in ceremonies and rituals for lay Buddhists to protect, purify, or legitimize the dead, weddings, new homes, new children etc.
Fanbai appeals to the second type through its loyalty to the text of the Sutras and the usefulness of chant rhythm and melody as a memorization tool. As the more austere Theravada Buddhism is the modern sect which most closely represents early Buddhism, this may have been the original reason for the invention of chant in Buddhism. This type has more value within the sangha than with lay Buddhists. The musical aspects of chant might be taken to be interfering with this type of religious authority, as they may distract from the letter of the texts.
The third type is especially relevant to lay Buddhist followers, especially those of the modern Pure Land Buddhism, which worships Amitabha Buddha, an almost Christ-like savior figure. An important belief of Pure Land Buddhism is that chanting rituals praising and developing a relationship to Amitabha Buddha will lead to a person's rebirth in the "Pure Land" where there will be few distractions to achieving enlightenment. It bypasses the more austere and difficult practices of Buddhism through worship and faith, and has gained popularity rapidly through the evangelical enthusiasm it inspires. The Mahayana tradition of accepting and worshiping Buddhas other than Gautama Buddha is also an example of Mabbett's third type, as are the Fanbai praises and the emotional or evangelical effect hearing Fanabi might have on its listeners or participants. However, more modern types of Buddhist music in western styles seem to have a similar and often greater effect to this third type.