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Worship and the example, of Buddhism
An Offputting Word
The word worship can be offputting. Explicit material on worship can make young people
‘switch off’. It evokes enforced quiet, prayers they do not understand, self-conscious piety they
do not share and the general feeling of being an outsider in a closely-knit group. Those young
people who are part of a worshipping community and who do have good experiences associated
with the word might be inhibited by the feeling that a particular style of worship is normative
and react negatively to expressions that are different.
Possible Starting Points
So I would suggest as a more general starting point some discussion of the way in which our
bodies express joy, despair, respect, affection, grief and well-being. This kind of exploration can
be built on examples from current newspaper photographs or slides of paintings and pieces of
sculpture supplied by both teachers and pupils and used as a basis
for discussion with questions such as
‘What do you think she is feeling?’
‘What has just happened to him?’
‘What is this child trying to say?’
‘Why do people - . . . open their arms, crouch in a corner, put their hands over their faces,
put their heads in their hands?’
The ideas and examples might usefully develop into movement and drama. Single emotions can
be expressed in still-life body positions or in movement, and the development of feelings can be
acted out in groups. The exploration can include music either as an accompaniment to and
intensification of movement or by itself as both an evocation and expression of emotion.
The last point is important. Can body postures not only express but evoke emotion? Can physical
movement influencehow we feel as well as communicate it to others? If a person is unhappy can
dancing cheer her up? Is this true of singing as well? Can what you see, do and hear physically
change your mood as well as express it?
The next interesting question is whether for all this to be meaningful there has to be someone
else there to see, hear and appreciate what is happening? Is it not true that human expression not
only does take place but needs to take place even without an audience. Music, poetry, dance and
the visual arts are first and foremost an expression of the artist’s understanding, need and
concerns, a celebration or a self-transforming interior dialogue and only secondly an effort to
communicate to others.
Relating This to Worship
All this links into worship in general and Buddhist worship in particular, in two ways.
1).
It is not necessary to be relating to a personal God to be worshipping. Worship defined as
‘the acknowledgement of what is of ultimate worth’ includes the Buddhist who
acknowledges not a personal God but a trans-personal state, the state of Enlightenment or
Nirvana. The seed of this Enlightenment is in all beings. Its flowering can be seen in the
Buddhas and Bodhisattvas who act as visual reminders in shrine rooms and temples of
the attainability of this state. Offerings, gestures, body-language, words and music (in
the case of Tibetan Buddhism) are not used to communicate with a personal being
but are there in celebration and acknowledgement of what is of ultimate worth. So
words such as puja, worship and even prayer are common terms for Buddhists to use.
2)
The words, thoughts and gestures of Buddhists at worship are intended not only to
express values and feelings but to have a transforming effect upon the person
speaking or acting in this way, and so help spiritual growth.
These two points are made by F. Wint in the Oxford Book of World Prayers. (Ed. G. Appleton).
‘The examples we give of Buddhist devotion are not prayers addressed to the deity, but aids in
strengthening and purifying the heart and fixing it on a noble purpose’. Interestingly L. Blue (To
Heaven With The Scribes and Pharisees.D.L.T. 1975 p.56)
makes a similar point for Judaism too. He says of the word prayer, “Some say its original
meaning is ‘to work on oneself’, others ‘to bore a hole in oneself’. . . A Jew prays so that he can
work on himself for the sake of God”. Prayer is “The work we have to do inside ourselves”.
I shall now turn to some of the most common elements in Buddhist worship.
The Theravada tradition
A Theravada shrine can be a high shelf in the corner of a room, a whole room in a private house
or a purpose-built part of a monastic complex. Buddhists like to do things together when it is
possible, but it is not obligatory to attend a place of worship on a daily or weekly basis. The fullmoon and new moon days in a month are the traditional times
for getting together and in England weekly meetings are common. A daily routine at home fits
within that.
The common elements in a shrine are an image (rupa) of Gautama Buddha. This should be set
high as a point of respect and ideally be above the heads of the worshippers. Any members of the
Sangha who are present sit on chairs or cushions raised above the other worshippers and often
sideways to the Buddha-rupa so that they can lead the meditation
and teach. There is a good diagram of the inside of a Thai Temple in A. Bancroft. The Buddhist
World (Macdonald. 1984). In front of the Buddha-rupa are put offerings of flowers, incense and
light. In the east the flowers are traditionally lotus buds, and this is sometimes continued here
with artificial lotuses, but any flowers are appropriate. The
incense is in the form of joss sticks. The lights are made of coconut oil in Sri Lanka, butter lamps
in Tibet and here are usually night lights or other candles.
Worshippers usually take off their outdoor shoes, which is practical and an eastern sign of
respect, and sit on the floor. Worship usually begins with words honouring and acknowledging
the importance of the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, and a recitation three times of the three
refuges.
I go to the Buddha for refuge.
I go to the Dharma for refuge.
I go to the Sangha for refuge.
The lay Buddhist will then renew her undertaking of the five precepts. If he or she wishes these
five can be extended to eight, for example during festivals or retreats or as an extra discipline in
life. Some lay people occasionally and all members of the Sangha undertake ten precepts*.
There are then often further words of honour to Buddha, Dharma and Sangha and the offering of
flowers, light and incense, accompanied by words like these.
Flowers
With diverse flowers, the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha I adore; and through this
merit may there be release
Even as these flowers must fade, so does my body march to a state of destruction.
Light
With lights brightly burning, abolishing this gloom, I adore the Enlightened One,
that light of the three worlds who dispels the darkness of ignorance.
Incense
With perfumed incense I revere the Exalted One, worthy of reverence, a
receptacle for offerings.
There are two interesting things about these words. Firstly that the offering is itself a piece of
symbolic teaching; e.g. the beauty but impermanence of flowers; the Buddha (and his teaching)
seen as a light in the world; and the sweetness of the presence of the memory of the Buddha. To
a Theravada Buddhist the Buddha is certainly dead and
gone (what Gombrich calls the cognitive doctrinal position) but affectively, in the love and
devotion of a follower of his teaching he is talked about (and even to) as a present reality.
Worship can also include the recitation of suttas and meditation based on them. One possibility
would be the recitation of the short and very popular Metta Sutta*, and the Metta practice linked
to it. This is an acknowledgement of the ultimate worth of loving kindness and a putting into
effect of that state of mind and heart (the word citta is translated by both English terms. Metta is
compared to. the selfless quality of love of a mother towards a child. It involves developing and
radiating unlimited friendliness to all beings without distinction. It is not an intellectual process
but has to be felt in the heart, a warmth which radiates outwards like a beam of light. It ranges
from the contemplation
of the dangers of hatred and anger to a clearing of distractions from the mind. Then friendliness
(another translation of Metta) is established towards oneself, a person dear to one, an indifferent
person, an enemy, all types of persons and finally to the six directions, north, south, east, west,
above and below.
The Mahayana Tradition
A Mahayana shrine will usually look more complicated than a Theravada one and the central
image might be of any of the Buddhas or Bodhisattvas. The Three Refuges and taking the Five,
Eight or Ten Precepts will have an important place, in worship as will the making of offerings.
Whereas Theravada Buddhists will show their respect during the saying of the refuges by
kneeling with their hands together at chest level, Tibetan Buddhists go into a position of
complete prostration, while putting their hands together at their forehead, mouth and neck, to
show their reverence with body, speech and mind. The offerings Mahayana Buddhists make are
those given to an honoured guest in India. They are water for drinking, water for washing the
feet, flowers, incense, light, water for having a bath and food. Music can also be added to this
and the whole is called the seven or eight offerings. They can be symbolised in seven or eight
bowls of water, which will be renewed daily. These offerings are followed by an
acknowledgement of unwholesome
thoughts or deeds, now that one is in the presence of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. There is a
joy at the goodness of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas and a desire that they continue to teach and
remain active in the world. Individual Buddhists want to share this work by taking or renewing
the Bodhisattva Vow. One translation of this vow is ‘May
I not enter Nirvana till I have brought all beings to supreme enlightenment’. Any merit that has
been made during this puja is then given away to other sentient beings.
As well as their bodies, speech and minds, Buddhists also use prayer beads and prayer wheels in
their devotions. The practice of mindfulness also means that all activity has the potential of being
meditation and therefore worship in the sense in which we have defined it. It is also difficult to
put many of the activities involved in pilgrimage and festivals in a separate category.
This material is expanded for example in the following . . .
A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life Shantideva, Tr. S.Batchelor
Dharmasala
Ceremonial in section 4 Zen is Eternal Life J. Kennett
Dharma Publications
Worlds of Faith (Esp.Chs.3.4, & 6) 1983 J. Bowker
BBC Ariel Books
Buddhism and the Spirit Cults of N.E. Thailand S.J.Tambiah
Cambridge
For the classroom:
Our Buddhist Friends
J. Ascott
Denholm House Press
Ananda in Sri Lanka
C. Barker
Hamish Hamilton
Buddhist Stories
P. Morgan
(Available from Westminster College.
North Hinksey, Oxford. 0X2 6TN @ £2)
Peggy Morgan
Westminster College, Oxford
Note:
*
The Ten Precepts can be found on page 31 of Six Religions in the Twentieth Century W.
Owen Cole with Peggy Morgan (Hulton 1984), which is reviewed in this Mailing. The
Metta Sutta can be found in What the Buddha Taught
W. Rahula (Gordon Fraser 1959, 1967) p.97.
(Editor)