Worshipping the Buddhist Way
To worship; to pray; to venerate. These are all things that are done by people the world over in some form or manner when it comes to their religious dealings. However, since Theravada Buddhism is not a religion, then it must follow that there is no form of veneration or even prayer when following the teachings of Buddha, and this is true in the strictest sense of the word.
More Detailed Information
An introduction to the very basics of Theravada Buddhist Gaatha.
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>> Achieve Peace of MindFind out how to achieve this contented frame of mind
Food for thought
Although it has, as of late become all the rage to translate these Suthra and Gaatha into Sinhala form for people to say them in Sinhala, the fact remains that there is no need to understand the meaning of every word.
The only requirement is that your thoughts must be on the actions being done by you, with an overall understanding of what is being done and why.
No one alive is truly qualified to change Buddha’s words to make life seemingly easier for people today.
No student or follower of Buddha’s teachings to date have managed to reach his level of enlightenment.
It is therefore rather foolish of these individuals to believe that they are able to do full justice to Buddha’s words and translate them to another language to be chanted as if they were the original Gaatha and Suthra.
Of course there is nothing wrong in translating Buddha’s teachings – indeed this is the only way in which most people will be able to understand what Buddha was saying.
The fact remains however, that these translations should not be made to replace Buddha’s own words in the minds of the people and make people forget the original words.
It should be remembered that the power of the Suthra and Gaatha comes from speaking/ chanting Buddha’s words in the same manner that he spoke them.
Buddhists follow a form of worship quite different from other religions. You do not worship to praise or ask for favors or relieve you of your bad Karma.
Adherents of the Buddhist way of life and of living do not, in the strictest sense of the word – pray. They do not pray to a God or any other almighty being who has the power to shape or change their lives.
Buddhists know they are totally responsible for their actions and their lives from beginning to end. Anything and everything they do will have an impact on their life, with every action creating a karma, which brings good or bad effects for them.
This is why Buddha rejected the idea of people praying to him to help put their lives to right and to get them out of any troubles they might be having. Neither he nor anyone else had such powers. Instead, he showed them the way to help themselves out of their problems, and he showed them the path they could tread to be able to live a contented and peaceful life.
At no point did he ask for or accept, worship of himself as an all-powerful God with the ability to wipe out bad karma and bestow good karma on a person. The ability to do this according to Buddha, lay only with the individual himself.
To this end, you will find that adherents of Buddhism and its way of living, do not pray to or worship Buddha to get out of their Sins. Instead Buddha gave a number of Suthra (සුත්ර) and Gaatha (ගාථා) as “guidelines” for people to say and follow in their day-to-day lives which would help them to stay on their chosen path towards attaining Nirvana.
These Gaatha (ගාථා) (or ‘chants’ if you will), are not prayers or a form of worship towards a God. They are Buddha’s own spoken words, given as guidance. Their purpose is to help you to do Ping (පිං) (good deeds), and to avoid doing any Pauv (පව්) (bad deeds).
They help to focus your mind on Buddha and his principles, and if followed through (such as starting each day with the Pan Sil (පන්සිල්), five basic principles to adhere to in living), they can help you to refrain from committing any bad deeds – even if only for those few moments when you are going through them.
To Theravada Buddhists, the words uttered by the Buddha when chanted out loud have certain special powers which are completely lost when saying translations of these words instead.
For your own chanting of Buddha’s words to give you the maximum benefit, you should know that there is NO replacement to Buddha’s own words.
Understanding the meaning of a Sutra through a translation will help you to know what you are saying, but chanting a translation of these gaatha will not bring any of the numerous good effects that saying the original Sutra will bring.
To assist individuals in following these guidelines, certain self-disciplined practices are observed by Buddhists. Amongst these are things to be done and things to be refrained from doing.
As a Buddhist, your aim should be to live a happy and contented life, and to proceed on the path to attain Nirvana, the only state where there is no suffering.
To assist in continuing on this path, certain practices have evolved through time and continue to date, starting from the times of the Buddha himself.
One of the practices is to worship the Buddha, the Dhamma and the Sangha. You can do this worshipping either by going to a temple whenever possible, or even at home if you can keep a special place for this.
Most Buddhist homes have such a place where you devote some time of each day, even a few minutes, to worship.