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Bowing before buddha statues
anataman
Who needs a title?Where am I? Veteran
If you bow before a statue of a buddha, when and why do you do it?
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In bowing to others, I bow to Buddha (what is not Buddha?). I used to bow to my cat every time before I did zazen.
For myself, bowing before the Buddha is first and foremost a sign of gratitude for the teachings and the embodiment of those teachings-- not merely the embodiment by the individual referred to historically as Shakyamuni (i.e. the nirmanakaya) but Buddha as manifested anywhere and everywhere (i.e. the dharmakaya). Bowing is one of the most beautiful of Buddhist practices I think.
Here's a great article on bowing: http://www.existentialbuddhist.com/2011/04/why-do-buddhists-bow
of course I would do it initially because that's just what everyone did, I didn't want to "offend" anyone. But there was this one night in the meditation hall, during a retreat full of struggling meditation, where I had a breakthrough, I ended up being the last person in the hall and after I put out the candle I looked up at the Buddha statue, went to my knees and bowed..I thanked the Buddha for bringing the dhamma to us. it was a crazy deep emotional experience that was just one point on my path that continues to validate what the buddha taught.
I still feel for myself personally, that if I am to bow I think it should really mean something, I still feel that most of the bowing becomes a form of habit. but when I do the prostrating and I bow the 3 times for the buddha , dhamma, sangha.. this is what I say..
Honor to the awesome dude(yes I say awesome dude) sidharta, who showed us dhamma
honor to the dhamma, the truth and reality of all things,
honor to the sangha, the keepers of this truth.
Ajahn Brahm bows to virtue, peace, and compassion (i think those are the three) when he does the 3 bows.
Sorry! Any opportunity to make a Big Lebowsky reference...!
also @cvalue I have heard the explanation of bowing as part of lessening the ego. Can't say I've been able to see that quite yet with my own ego blocking the way, but it does make sense to me in a way. It reminds me of the practice I do of letting people get in front of me on the road when i see my ego start to get annoyed at them hah,
http://dudeism.com/faq/
:bowdown:
I took an extended break from Ngondro and and when I started back up a while back, I was only able to do 27 P's and had to go to visualized P's instead. My legs hurt for a week afterwards.
I'll get back up to 108 soon enough
The thought of bowing to a statue of the Buddha makes me squint, but I 'bow' all the time, in that head-inclining way, and I do it clearly to express my respect and willingness to help.
Maybe that Judeo-Christian proscription against idol worship really got to me, bowing to a statue, even if it is the veritable savior of humankind, just doesn't seem like something I'd FEEL like doing.
But I really hear you @Jayantha, I recognize that experience you shared. I totally get it. Perhaps I am just not 'feeling the bow' YET.
Physical, ritualistic religious 'humility' acts have always eluded my understanding, I honestly don't get it. That said, I'm open and willing, not opposed, just . . . :shrug:
Gassho
When I go into a shrine, I don't bow to the form of the statue, I bow with the mindfulness that the form of the statue is inherently empty, and emptiness is its form.
When I bow to the emptiness within it and in each and every one of us, I am stimulated to take refuge. It brings the 4NT's to life and motivates the pursuit of the path that is the middle way.
Bowing before the image of the buddha enables me to respect and have compassion for myself, and others.
When I was younger, foolish and sceptical I regarded it as a nonsense, and for religious fanatics. Now I see it as a powerful and inspirational practice for mindfulness.
Mettha
A dharma friend of mine was a non practicing Jew. In deference, in effect bowing, to his historical lineage, he would at the time not bow to statues. Many of us have associations of enslavement, dharma aristocracy and idle Idols from our past, perhaps from attending rock concerts, church or temple.
Sometimes people forget when they bow to the ideal, rather than the idol, a thousand Pure Buddhas bow back . . .
first I think we need to understand the concept of bowing from the eastern perspective, which appears to me to be more of a sign of respect and not necessarily anything more.
I think with regards to idols and the like, that there are various levels of worship with the Buddha statue. There are those in some traditions that seem to revere him more like a god or at least a supernatural being and bow to the statue for reasons related to that. Then there are those who revere him only as the awesome dude who found a way out of suffering and use the statue as a way to ground themselves and remind themselves of the teachings.
now of course we know these days the whole buddha statue thing was actually an invention of the west... there were no statues of the buddha before Greek influence some 500 years later, which coincidentally is also about the time the teachings started to be written down. Did you know that there were Buddhist schools and viharas in Alexandria? who knows what Buddhist knowledge we lost when the great library was destroyed(in addition to it setting the human race back 1000 years).
Before the Greek influence brought in statues, the symbol of the buddha was a footprint with the dhamma wheel at the heel
so of course what is lost, or what is unknown, is whether there were any sort of bowing or devotional practices in those first 500 years.
For the purposes of hope and belief, those instigators of action, it is good practice to bow. But with practice comes experience (the experience that trumps hope and belief) ... at which point hope and belief are no longer so necessary.
And at such a point, bowing is just bowing and spitting is just spitting ... same stuff differently expressed.
Yes, 'bowing' as simple respect is no hurdle for me. Bowing in simple respect to another person is no hurdle, either. Bowing at a statue or image doesn't resonate as much. I don't think I even know what a puja is nor have I seen someone do one (that's what YouTube is for!). It makes perfect sense, in a heart-sort of way, for there to be physical movement expression of respect, and it makes sense that the prayerful 'bow' or puja is a heckuva lot more powerful and meaningful as a doing than me trying to understand it on an internet forum.
"Gassho" is Japanese, and basically means your hands together before you, at face level, and a kind of small bow. It's a gesture of bodhicitta, and the hands-together is a mudra, I believe. These are the things I am least knowledgeable about. I picked up "gassho" in an instant of recognition, what it meant to me when I discovered it. You could use 'sincerely' or 'love' or 'with metta' after a post to acknowledge your respect for those who will read it, kind of the same thing
Gassho
Well instead of bowing, we might be kissing feet as they do in some lobsterian visualisations and ritual enactments . . .
When the Temple guardians of the future become roboticized we may just shake hands with a guarding Garuda or cyber sangha.
for now . . .
:bowdown:
Well instead of bowing, we might be kissing feet as they do in some lobsterian visualisations and ritual enactments . . .
When the Temple guardians of the future become roboticized we may just shake hands with a guarding Garuda or cyber sangha.
for now . . .
:bowdown:
The new pope is a Franciscan, oddly enough growing up in the catholic church I always had a strong affinity to Franciscan Monks.. might be because they are about as close to a Buddhist monk as anything Catholic will ever be haha.
humility and humbleness are good qualities in a human, regardless of religion.