Prayer and Buddhism

-

Pulsus , pulsus , sententia hiberna ventus Sententia professio secus unkind , Ut man's ingratitude.......

I have found a pressing need to give thanks. Many of my meditations have begun with my palms together, placed upon the crown of my head, to my forehead and then to my chest, leading to three bows of respect.

Thanks to whom? Bow to whom?

There are prayers to be found within the bounds of Buddhism. In the west, with our foundation so steadily built over several generations upon Christianity, prayer has for us strong Christian connetation. It is not so with many Buddhist traditions, spared by our belief of a great God upon a throne with his mediator, Jesus Christ. I have struggled with this, as my 9/25 post appears to indicate. So I posed this question to some of Buddhist colleagues at http://www.lioncity.net/buddhism/index.php and found this little gem, among others; http://www.thebuddhadharma.com/issues/2003/spring/forum_do_buddhists_pray.html

What say you?

Comments

They call him James Ure said…
Thank-you for this offering. In my practice I agree that "prayer" (say to Avalokiteshvara) is really a call to that Buddhanature within myself to emerge and clear away the duality spell cast by my ego.

I also like the idea of saying things such as, "May all beings find peace" as a form of dedication in my life. To remind myself to work to help other beings find peace, etc. And hopefully when they find peace then they will pass the good energy and help back to me.

And in turn reminding myself to work toward peace in my own life.

The whole idea of interconnectedness being that we rely upon each other so that we can all realize enlightenment, Nirvana and beyond to parinirvana. Om.
5:48 PM
Kathy Trejo said…
I love this photo! so beautiful. I'm on my way to ead the links provided i n this post.
Thanks
6:29 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

TaoSpring - pallet chicken coop

-
Image
I had less than a month to build a suitable coop and chicken run. I had very little money to work with. Having seen many coops and out buildings that people have assembled using scrap pallets, I thought that I would give it a try. Starting with two 4 x 8 pallets as the floor, I assembled all the available pallets that I could find. This is the frame of the coop. It will measure approximately 8ft x 8ft. Saltbox style roof will be 9 feet at the front and will taper down to 8 1/4 feet in the back. My inspiration is drawn from the bottom photo   seen here. I varied the plans to accommodate the unevenness of available pallet size. In a perfect world a 4' x 4' pallet would make pallet building as easy as playing with Lego's. Unfortunately downsizing has effected everything. Most pallets now measure 48" x 40" and the solid 4' by 4' pallets are usually reclaimed by their owners. Oh, they're out there, but I am looking to build for as little
Read more

Seasons - garden update

-
Image
This summer has been very unusual. But I've seen it all before. There are times that the seasons act according to form and there are times that they don't. There have been more days of rain and clouds than sunny summer days. In point of fact, we had warmer days in May. We got started rather late but as you can see things are progressing in spite of all the wet weather.
Read more

I hate bad news

-
Image
Sunday morning......Saturday night was spent around the fire with about ten people, little scotch, little beer, good conversation, shrimp, cheese & crackers, sliced apple and smoked gouda. So, getting up this a.m. was a little difficult and then the phone rang. It was my oldest daughter. My niece's baby died. Her father was holding her on the couch and gave her a bottle at 11 p.m. When he awoke, she was beside him on the couch dead. They don't know if he slept on her and she smothered or died from natural causes. She was 2 months old. We don't see as much death in little children as we once did. We have very old cemetaries tucked in throughout New England with many little children, sometimes from the same family that died from disease. This kind of death is different. How does anyone deal with this? If it is ruled an accident due to smothering, how does the father manage? How does my neice ever be able to look at him? Damn, I hate bad news......
Read more