Buddha Prayers
Thai people go to the “BOT” (โบสถ์ – main building in a temple) in order to pray and make good deeds (“THAM BUN” – ทำบุญ).
When praying and requesting a favor to Buddha, Thai people take three incense sticks (ธููป), i.e one pour the Buddha, one for the Sangha (สังฆ – Buddhist community), one for the Dharma (ธรรม – teachings of the Buddha), a flower (ดอกไม้ – orchid or lotus, which symbolizes the Buddhist teachings purity) and a small candle (เทียน – it symbolizes comprehension enlightenment). They lit the incense sticks and kneel three times and put the incense sticks in front of the statue.
Praying
For Buddhists in Thailand, incense is an important element of worship to pay respect to Buddha.
Buddhist prayer
“Prayer is an important practice that serves to internalize the ideals of the Buddhist path.”
Prayer should be part of our spiritual journey, transforming confusion into clarity and suffering into joy. However, some mistakenly believe that the Absolute is separate and/or different from us. Believing this, their prayers ask for favors, such as health, salvation, fame, victory or the winning lottery numbers. They use prayer in order to manipulate their God to work for their benefit. Wanting Him to play favorites, Read the rest of this entry »
PURPOSE OF PRAYER IN BUDDHISM
“It allows us to turn our hearts and minds to the beneficial, rousing our thoughts and actions towards Awakening.”
—- Senpai Sensei
Buddhist prayer is a practice to awaken our inherent inner capacities of strength, compassion and wisdom rather than to petition external forces based on fear, idolizing, and worldly and/or heavenly gain. Buddhist prayer is a form of meditation; it is a practice of inner reconditioning. Buddhist prayer replaces the negative with the virtuous and points us to the blessings of Life. Read the rest of this entry »
PRAYER AS SELF REFLECTION
As a result of practicing prayer, we begin to discover who we really are.
– Senpai Sensei
Many Buddhist prayers involve self-reflection, including a sometimes painful confrontation with our own deeply-rooted destructive tendencies. As a result of practicing prayer, we begin to discover who we really are. We recognize our inherent foolish nature (shadow side) at the same time awakening ourselves to the working of Great Compassion, symbolized as Amida Buddha. In essence, prayer practice is a process by which our intensely felt desires and sufferings are transformed into compassion and wisdom. Read the rest of this entry »
BUDDHIST PRAYERS OF LOVE
Universal Love Prayer
from the Metta Sutta
May all beings be filled with joy and peace.
May all beings everywhere,
The strong and the weak,
The great and the small,
The mean and the powerful,
The short and the long,
the subtle and the gross: Read the rest of this entry »
