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Prayer in Buddhism
wongkow wrote:Abandoning negative thoughts has nothing to do with praying.
The act of praying WILL NOT abandon wrong views.
The act of praying commonly understood can prevent the arising of unskill thoughts if you are lucky. That is why I come to the conclusion that the Buddha never encourage praying maybe I'm wrong. I've got to read the Kamala Sutta.
Considering this statement as disrespectful is prevalent in an oppressed society.
While prayer may not have a direct relationship with abandoning negative thoughts and actions, it is most definitely a skillful means towards cultivating a mindset and way of life condusive to such an abandoning. Prayer is no magical formula to zap away negativity, I do agree with you there. But to say that it cannot help some people along the path to enlightment is to be disrespectful to them. There were, after all, 84,000 teachings taught by the Buddha for the benifit of beings.
In my tradition prayer involves several things. We do three prostrations signifying the three gates or three aggregates, which are the body, the speech and the mind. At an esoteric level they also signify the identification of the student with the three bodies of the Buddha: Dharmakaya, the sambhogakaya and the nirmanakaya. We invoke and take refuge in the Buddhas; the Dharma; and the Sangha which inlcudes the enlightened beings like the Buddhas, bodhisattvas, yodams or tutelary deities, cho-kyongs or dharma protectors, dakas and dakhinis or celestial beings, nagas or wisdom beings and other dharmapalas or guardians of the Dharma.
These offerings to the deities and the three Jewels can be followed by the Bodhisattva vows, mantras, mandala offerings, and the prayer of Guru Rinpoche and other prayers. After this the practicioner can practice meditation. The prayers are concluded by rejoicing in the deeds and merit of others, requesting the Buddhas to teach and not enter in parinirvana. Dedications of the merit accumulated by us as a result of these prayers are then dedicated to all sentient beings.
Keith
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Comments
Im interested in what other people think about prayer in Buddhism. Does it have a place? Did the Buddha teach it? Can it be a skillful means towards enlightment?
Keith
I hate to nit-pick, but it's my nature.
If I may, I would like to clarify one thing: There are five khandhas (aggregates), not three. The five khandhas are rupa (body), vedana (feeling) sanna (perception), sankhara (mental fashionings), and vinnana (consciousness). The three gates [body, speech, and mind] are simply the three ways by which we can create kamma (our intentional actions).
Please forgive me if I am out of line.
Jason
It all depends on what exactly you mean by "praying". In some ways I think that it can be a good thing if it actually helps to produce more skillful intentions, good will, and loving-kindness in someone, but I also think that it can be an equally unskilful thing if the "praying" takes the form of simply asking things of "higher beings". As it is said in the Dhotaka-manava-puccha:
[Dhotaka:]
I ask you, O Blessed One.
Please tell me.
I hope for your words, Great Seer.
Having heard your pronouncement,
I'll train for my own
Unbinding.
[The Buddha:]
In that case,
be ardent —
astute & mindful right here.
Then, having heard my pronouncement,
train for your own
Unbinding.
[Dhotaka:]
I see in the world of beings
divine & human,
a brahman who lives
possessing nothing.
I pay homage to him
the All-around Eye.
From my doubts, O Sakyan, release me!
[The Buddha:]
No one in the world, Dhotaka,
can I release from doubting.
But knowing the most excellent Dhamma,
you will cross over the flood.
[Dhotaka:]
Teach with compassion, O brahman,
the Dhamma of seclusion
so that I may know —
so that I, unafflicted as space,
may live right here,
independent,
at peace.
[The Buddha:]
I will teach you peace
— in the here & now,
not quoted words —
knowing which, living mindfully,
you'll go beyond
entanglement in the world.
[Dhotaka:]
And I relish, Great Seer,
that peace supreme,
knowing which, living mindfully,
I'll go beyond
entanglement in the world.
[The Buddha:]
Whatever you're alert to,
above, below,
across, in between:
knowing it as a bond in the world,
don't create craving
for becoming or non-.
Jason
Your quite right about the 5 aggregates and the three gates and their differences. I was just confused for moment. I guess I was thinking something like along the lines of "A mass, assemblage, or sum of particulars; something consisting of elements but considered as a whole." and in that since any group of things that can also be consider a whole could be called an aggregate. But like I said your right and my calling them the three gates or aggregates only confuses them with the five aggregates. I can understand about the nit-picking, I can do that to.
As to praying as "simply asking things of "higher beings."" I was trying to say that this is not what Buddhist prayer is about. Prayer in Buddhism, from what I understand, is a practice of inner reconditioning. We are reconditioning ourselves by makes prayers such as this:
May all beings have happiness and its causes,
May all beings be free from suffering and its causes,
May all beings not be seperated from sorrowless bliss,
May all beings abide in equanimity, free from bias, attachment, and anger.
So, even though we may not have actualized the limitless compassion and loving-kindess of a Buddha implied but the former we chant this prayer, or similar prayers, as though we have already done so in order to cultivate these things within ourselves.
This is what I mean by prayer in Buddhism. As a note Im say "we" rhetorically here rather than trying to imply that this must or is everyone's practice.
Keith
I have no problem with that.
Jason
Im not sure how it is in other Buddhist traditions but I practice in the Tibetan tradition and I was taught that the three prostrations are to the Three Jewels, to the three bodies of a Buddha, and in recognition of the Three Doors or Gates as three ways we create intentional action and the three parts of our practice: body - posture, mudras; voice - chanting; mind - meditation, visualization. Or maybe I just made that up, I though I remeber hearing this somewhere.
Excellent!
One of my original intention was to respond to wongkow's claim that prayer has no place in Buddhism so Im glad you agree that it does. (at least in the way I described it, rather than as supplication to some samsaric diety)
Keith
The practice you are describing sounds more like Metta meditation and chanting than it does "praying".
Perhaps the label was just a little misleading.
Jason
I can see that. Maybe I should just call it chanting instead of praying. But it still seems very much like a prayer. Saying "May such and such happen" can be chanted but its still asking for something to happen. Whether your asking a god or just in general it sounds very much the same, to me at least.
However I dont want to confuse anyone by using words like prayer when they might be interpreted other than how I intend. So, in the end chanting may be more appropriate. Thanks for talking about it with me.
Keith
No problem.
Jason