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Buddhist Ritual
johnathan
Canada Veteran
I am looking for examples of rituals Buddhists partake in (little or small) through out the year, daily, weekly, monthly...
I have only recently added rituals to my practice... The first was for Buddhist New Years which was a 3 day Burning Bowl ceremony...
For those who don't know what that entails: The basis of this ceremony is to let go of negative energy and feelings, and create some new life goals in the process. On the first day we wrote down all of the negative feelings we perpetuate and feel that hold us back in life, and the second day we create new goals and ambitions that we want to manifest for ourselves. On the third day we meditated on our first page (the negative things) then burn the paper in a burning bowl and then meditated on the second page (the positive things) then mail it to a friend. Once the year is up, we mail back the second page and revisit those goals and see where we are at and what we have brought positive into our life.
And the second ritual, not really much but for Visakah Puja I just took out a Buddha statue, placed it on a small table then lit a candle (representing the birth of the Buddha), meditated in the dark using the soft glow on the Buddha Statue as a visual focus while contemplating the Buddha's path to enlightenment, then after a long while blew out the candle (representing the Buddha's death).
I have also created a personal tradition, a celebratory day called Assurra Pudja... Now some back story to this is that after meeting my first Buddhist friend we chatted on a chat board for some time about Buddhism and life in general... anyways, one day I meant to write friend and instead wrote fiend... ever since then we have called each other fiends... As in best fiends... well, at one point I decided to create a holiday to honor our friendship and called it Fiends Day to be held every year on the first full moon of April (about the time we became fiends)... I had done some googling to find a Chinese substitute for the word fiend but the only fiends i could find mention of was devils and demons and one of the translations for devil (or demon, i can't remember) was Assurra (or something similar)... For the life of me now I can't find the translation I'd found months ago and can't be sure on any of the translation... regardless, it doesn't truly matter as we have discussed it and agree that Assurra Pudja is its name and to us it means fiend (AKA: friend)... We plan to create some kind of ritual to commemorate its passing that reflects the respect and gratitude that we have for one another.
I am quite curious as to the rituals other Buddhist perform for just about any occasion.
I have only recently added rituals to my practice... The first was for Buddhist New Years which was a 3 day Burning Bowl ceremony...
For those who don't know what that entails: The basis of this ceremony is to let go of negative energy and feelings, and create some new life goals in the process. On the first day we wrote down all of the negative feelings we perpetuate and feel that hold us back in life, and the second day we create new goals and ambitions that we want to manifest for ourselves. On the third day we meditated on our first page (the negative things) then burn the paper in a burning bowl and then meditated on the second page (the positive things) then mail it to a friend. Once the year is up, we mail back the second page and revisit those goals and see where we are at and what we have brought positive into our life.
And the second ritual, not really much but for Visakah Puja I just took out a Buddha statue, placed it on a small table then lit a candle (representing the birth of the Buddha), meditated in the dark using the soft glow on the Buddha Statue as a visual focus while contemplating the Buddha's path to enlightenment, then after a long while blew out the candle (representing the Buddha's death).
I have also created a personal tradition, a celebratory day called Assurra Pudja... Now some back story to this is that after meeting my first Buddhist friend we chatted on a chat board for some time about Buddhism and life in general... anyways, one day I meant to write friend and instead wrote fiend... ever since then we have called each other fiends... As in best fiends... well, at one point I decided to create a holiday to honor our friendship and called it Fiends Day to be held every year on the first full moon of April (about the time we became fiends)... I had done some googling to find a Chinese substitute for the word fiend but the only fiends i could find mention of was devils and demons and one of the translations for devil (or demon, i can't remember) was Assurra (or something similar)... For the life of me now I can't find the translation I'd found months ago and can't be sure on any of the translation... regardless, it doesn't truly matter as we have discussed it and agree that Assurra Pudja is its name and to us it means fiend (AKA: friend)... We plan to create some kind of ritual to commemorate its passing that reflects the respect and gratitude that we have for one another.
I am quite curious as to the rituals other Buddhist perform for just about any occasion.
0
Comments
I have actually done the opposite and use very few rituals. I do however do the three refuges before meditation and if I am recieving a teaching.
Metta:)
http://www.amaravati.org/abm/english/documents/RitualsObservances.pdf
http://www.buddhanet.net/pdf_file/ceremonies-srilanka6.pdf
In Zen someone chants and rings the evening bell ending in...
Om gara ji ya sabha ha
Om gara ji ya sabha ha
Om gara ji ya sabha ha
Then we chant the refuges and pay homage to Buddha Dharma and Sangha
Then we chant the heart Sutra in Korean and English
Then finally we chant the great Dharani ( a tongue twister)
In the Theravadin lay Sangha we chant as follows... This one I chant alone as well before practice.
To the blessed one, the lord who fully attained perfect enlightenment.
To the teachings which he expounded so well, and to the blessed ones disciples who have practiced well. To these the Buddha, the Dhamma and the Sangha, we render with offerings our rightful homage. It is well for us that the blessed one, having attained liberation, still had compassion for later generations. May these simple offering be accepted for our long lasting benefit and for the happiness it gives us....
The Lord the perfectly enlightened and blessed one, I bow to the Buddha.:bowdown:
The teaching so completely explained by him, I bow to the Dhamma.
:bowdown:
The blessed ones disciples who have practiced well, I bow to the Sangha
:bowdown:
NAMO TASSA BHAGAVATO ARAHATO SAMMA-SAMBUDDHASSA
NAMO TASSA BHAGAVATO ARAHATO SAMMA-SAMBUDDHASSA
NAMO TASSA BHAGAVATO ARAHATO SAMMA-SAMBUDDHASSA
:bowdown::bowdown::bowdown:
There are others if you are interested but you can probably look them up.
in particular the "Metta Sutta" and "Dedication of merit"
The ritual element of practice takes around half an hour and is done as one. It sets the tone and has no magical properties. The point is to rouse aspiration and centre the mind, and to share. It is beautiful.
Absolutely none, if I can avoid it.
Since I am not at all into rituals, I enjoy the fact that practicing Buddhism doesn't require me to perform them. However, living in Thailand, this is easier said than done. I do on occasion join my wife (and family) in conventional Buddhist rituals, mostly merit making ceremonies plus the occasional wedding/funeral/house warming, but mainly for social reasons. Visaka Puja days often involve the traditional "vien tien", circumambulating the temple with burning candles, placing offerings at Buddha images, such as lotus flowers, candles, and incense, etc. While it is all quite lovely and agreeable, I find it also rather boring, but that's just me.
Cheers, Thomas
Asura would be the term you are searching for.
As a Nichiren Buddhist, there are many rituals associated with our practice. Daily meditations are often done in a ritualized format, although this is not an absolute requirement. Temple services are formal rituals, of course; but daily practice generally consists of reciting a portion or portions of the Lotus Sutra and reciting the Odaimoku (our mantra). Depending on the school and the individual, there may be additional readings, prayers, vows, etc., incorporated into the service.
The goal of Buddhism is to essentially retrain our hearts and our minds, and the more thorough the learning, and the deeper the learning and the more quickly it progresses.
Rituals employ all three recognized learning styles: visual, auditory, kinetic (body movement). So how much more "thorough" can one get when we are using all our senses ...
visual (images/visualization),
auditory (chanting/bells),
kinetic (prostrations),
tactile (hands together/mudras/etc), and
olfactory (incense/flowers)
I would also like to suggest that offerings work much the same as aphorisms or cognitive self-statements, and help set imprints for generosity and reducing our perceived self-importance.
I may not be right, but that's my story and I'm stickin' to it!
Interesting.
I wonder how this works. I have experimented with small ritual performances, such as lighting incense and candles in the morning, and Pali chanting. I gave it an honest try, learned a dozen Pali stanzas, but I got tired of it after three weeks. My wife claims chanting has a calming effect, and she does it often, but it didn't seem to work for me. I get much better results from just closing my eyes and watching the breath for a few minutes. I wonder if I am missing anything, since other people seem to enjoy these little rituals so much, but for now I simply gave up on rituals.
Cheers, Thomas
I hear you ... my sister adores chanting, but I find it a bit of a bore.
One important point is that we don't do our practice for the sake of short-term effects, but rather for the long-term effect of freedom ... so whether we find any particular aspect of our practice calming or boring has no real significance. In fact, I would suspect that boring practice gives us more "meat" for our progress on the path because it forces us to observe more than "happy" results do.