Sunday 15 January 2012

The Rites and Ritual

In Buddhism, they are many activity that could be practice by follower to reached enlightement step.


Do Pūjā,
Pūjā are expressions of "honour, worship and devotional attention.".Acts of puja include bowing, making offerings and chanting. These devotional acts are generally performed daily.


When bowing before a sacred object such as a Buddha statue, one usually bows three times, recalling with the first bow the Buddha, then the Dhamma and then the Sangha. One may simply offer a head-lowered bow with palms-together hands held in front of one's heart or forehead, or one may move one's hands in a single flowing movement from the head to the lips to the chest (representing thought, speech and body). More formally, one may bow with a series of head-to-floor prostrations.


Pray with Mala,
Prayer beads, or Japa Malas is used so that one can focus on the meaning or sound of the mantra rather than counting its repetitions. In Tibetan tradition, If more than 108 mantra repetitions are to be done, they grains of rice are counted out before the chanting begins and one grain is placed in a bowl for each 108 repetitions.

Each time a full mala of repetitions has been completed, one grain of rice is removed from the bowl. Many Tibetan Buddhists have bell and dorje counters (a short string of ten beads, usually silver, with a bell or dorje at the bottom), the dorje counter used to count each round of 100, and the bell counter to count 1,000 mantras per bead.

Various type of materials are used to make mala beads such as seeds of the rudraksha tree, beads made from the wood of the tulasi plant, animal bone, wood or seeds from the Bodhi tree or seeds of the lotus plant. Semi-precious stones like carnelian and amethyst is also used.


Pradhaksina with Khor,
A prayer wheel is a cylindrical "wheel" (Tibetan: འཁོར་, Wylie: 'khor) on a spindle made from metal, wood, stone, leather or coarse cotton. Traditionally, the mantra Om Mani Padme Hum is written in Sanskrit on the outside of the wheel. Also sometimes depicted are Dakinis, Protectors and very often the 8 auspicious symbols Ashtamangala.

Installing a prayer wheel has the capacity to completely transform a place, which becomes "...peaceful, pleasant, and conducive to the mind." Simply touching a prayer wheel is said to bring great purification to negative karmas and obscurations.


Reciting Sutras,
Sutras are ancient Buddhist texts, which are very auspicious to recite everytime, many of which are regarded as records of the oral teachings of Gautama Buddha.

PS : The Picture is monks activity at Mahabodhi Temple Bodhgaya India

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