The three major religions in the world have their own religious ceremonies, and Buddhism naturally has many ceremonies. The so-called "3,000 prestige, 80,000 fine lines" are all rituals and the like. Nowadays, worshipping Buddha is also one of many Buddhist rituals.
I. Commemorative nature
We worship the Buddha in memory of his kindness and greatness. Throughout the ages, all the great men who made contributions to the world in the cause of learning morality have statues to commemorate them after his death. For example, China used to have statues of Confucius, Mencius and Guan Yue, but now there are sculptures of Sun Yat-sen and others. Other nations in the world also have statues of their heroes and great men. Buddha Sakyamuni, on the other hand, founded Buddhist culture more than 2,500 years ago, aiming at helping the world with compassion, breaking the unequal class of India's four surnames and saving many suffering people, not only freeing them from the suffering of social ties, but also saving them from the suffering of life and death. For centuries, I have heard its name and respected it. Therefore, sculpture Buddha statues have been established all over the world. Some irrational superstitious people think that Buddhists worship Buddha and idols, because they are completely ignorant and ignore the significance of establishing statues and praising virtues.
Add to Agama Volume 28: In order to repay his mother's bow and support, Buddha Sakyamuni enlightened the story of the Virgin of Moya in the Heavenly Palace, and did not return it in March. Udayana, who was detained in China at that time, was full of admiration for the Buddha and made a statue of the Buddha with sandalwood, about five inches high, as a memorial. This is the beginning of Buddhist statues, and its significance lies in commemorating the Buddha.
Second, the faith center
The purpose of building Buddha statues is nothing more than to make people worship and establish the center of faith. If there is no center of worship, then his confidence must be illusory and vacillating, and the power of faith will not happen. If we want to make our faith strong, we must first build a solid faith before we can produce other good deeds. The steps of learning Buddhism are belief, enlightenment, action and proof. Faith first is the source of Tao and the foundation of virtue. If a tree has roots, it can grow branches and leaves, blossom and bear fruit. Buddhism can only learn from Buddhism if it is solved by faith, solved by action and proved by action.
A walker who studies Buddhism at a deeper level does not need to hold mud prints to ask for Buddha statues. Therefore, the Diamond Sutra said, "If you see me with color and beg me with voice, you will do evil and not see the Tathagata." Therefore, in the Tang Dynasty, Danxia, a Buddhist monk with a deep understanding of Zen, moved all the Buddha statues in the main hall to make a fire to keep warm in the cold winter. His master came back and said he was crazy. Why did he burn the Buddha statue? He said he would burn the relics to support him. His master also accused him: What remains are there in the wooden statue? He replied: since there is no relic, it is better to burn what he is doing. It means burning a statue conveniently, which is not real, in order to get rid of the illusion and show the real Buddha. If everyone holds the image of this fake Buddha, then the real Buddha will never be seen. Therefore, seeing the color and hearing the sound in order to see the Buddha is an evil way, not a right view.
However, it is necessary for beginners to establish an image to show respect. Without image, you can't gain respect and trust. At the same time, it also means that "meeting each other is a blessing." When you see the solemn Buddha statue, your kindness arises spontaneously, which invisibly increases your blessing; Otherwise, you didn't see the Buddha statue, which is far away in the west and has nothing to do with you, and you wouldn't come to recite Buddha and worship Buddha.
Third, be vigilant.
Worshiping Buddha can improve our Buddhist vigilance. The Buddha said in the Nirvana Sutra: "All sentient beings have Buddha nature, and those who have Buddha nature are regarded as Buddhas." . In this way, there is a true Buddha in the self-nature, so why worship the virtual image outside? This is only through the help of worshipping the virtual image outside, causing the vigilance of "from the heart to the Buddha, from the heart to the Buddha". If you don't lose your original Buddha nature, you won't recognize the thief as your father and beg for it, so as not to go further and further and never return.
When the Buddha became a monk under the bodhi tree, he found from his understanding of nature that "all beings in the world are wise and virtuous, but they are obsessed with delusions and cannot prove them." We ordinary people are hurt by this delusion, which makes us homeless and unable to return to our roots. This delusion, that is, our sixth consciousness, is like being in a spirit, running around all day and never stopping; But there are many ways to stop it, and worshipping Buddha is one of them. We always worship Buddha, or read Buddha, and put our hearts in the position of Buddha. Over time, we will stop trying to climb. Like an active monkey, it keeps jumping. If we tie it to a stake with a rope, it will turn and turn for a long time and then stop. This stake is like a Buddha, this rope is like a Buddha's name, and troubles and delusions are like jumping monkeys. Bound with Buddha's name, if you think about it for a long time, it's like tying a monkey with a rope. If you tie it tightly for a long time, it's useless and it stops invisibly. This is also a meaning of worshipping Buddha and doing work.
Fourth, cultivate kindness.
Buddhism originated from the Buddha's mindfulness. From this mindfulness, there is a kind of compassion for people, so it is convenient to establish Buddha by language. The main idea is to help the world with compassion and benefit others with self-interest. So he said in "Six Mind Methods": "Why do you care about Buddha? The merciful teacher died. " It can be seen that the reason why the Buddha is a Buddha is to give love to the people.
There are three kinds of compassion: one is innate kindness, and seeing that all beings are suffering is innate compassion to save all beings. Second, Buddhism is kind. I pity all sentient beings who don't know Buddhism, are confused and sink, and suffer all kinds of hardships in vain, so I launch compassion and help them. Third, without kindness, this kind of kindness is deeper. Not because all beings are suffering, or because all beings don't know Buddhism, they get up and save themselves; But from the time of enlightenment, I have experienced that I am the same as all beings, and I have the same Buddha nature. I am a sentient being, and all sentient beings are me, regardless of people and me, and there is no mutual heart. All beings are bitter and happy, because I am bitter and happy, so I don't care. Although I live for all beings, I don't think all beings live for me. As the Diamond Sutra said, "All beings are extinct, and no one is extinct." In this state of mind, the unity of life and Buddha, the unity of holiness and universality, is to show the Buddha's "no great sorrow, great sorrow and the same body."
We worship Buddha and recite Buddha, which is the compassion of reciting Buddha and learning Buddha. Always study and worship, and the invisible center will be merciful. If everyone practices Buddhism and is merciful, there will be no killing in the world, and human beings will not have to go bankrupt and be displaced because of the impact of war killing, so that the old and the weak will be scattered everywhere and fill the gullies!
Verb (abbreviation for verb) turns a fool into a wise man.
To worship Buddha and recite Buddha means to be close to Buddha often, and to be influenced by the compassion of Buddhism will inevitably make our hearts kind. Meanwhile, worshipping Buddha can not only cultivate compassion, but also seek wisdom. Wisdom and compassion are the crystallization of Buddhism, which is based on wisdom and compassion. Now let's end today's speech with a story, which is that worshipping Buddha can turn ignorance into wisdom:
Once upon a time, an elder took a little novice monk as an apprentice. This novice monk is dull by nature and always can't read the scriptures, which makes the elders almost angry. Therefore, the elder thinks that this son's karma is too heavy for him to remember when reading Mahayana classics. Only by teaching him to worship Buddha and eliminate karma can he gain wisdom. So he told the novice monk to worship Guanyin Bodhisattva every night and shake the palm of Guanyin Bodhisattva's hand, telling him to stop worshipping and go to bed. It turns out that behind Guanyin Buddha is the Presbyterian Hospital. He pierced a small hole in the wall and tied a thread on the palm of the Bodhisattva. When the novice monk arrived at the scheduled time, he pulled the thread out of the room, and the bodhisattva's palm shook a few times. Shami thought it was to tell him not to worship again, so he went to bed. One night, the elder came home late because of something, and then forgot to pull the cord. Bodhisattva's palm swings out automatically, and Shami goes to sleep. The next morning, the elder asked the novice monk why the Bodhisattva didn't shake her hands last night, so she stopped worshipping. The novice monk said that the Bodhisattva really shook his hands and went to bed. The elder was very surprised and thought, "I didn't pull the string." Did the Bodhisattva really wave his hand? " ? I'm skeptical, not sure. The next night, I asked Misha to worship Buddha, and then I went to see the bodhisattva's hand. It really swung automatically without pulling the rope. Therefore, I am overjoyed to know that Shami has been sincerely and diligently worshipping Buddha and has worshipped Bodhisattva. Later, the novice monk enlightened wisdom and preached Dharma, which was very prosperous. This is the advantage of the wisdom of worshipping Buddha, so I advise the world not to regard worshipping Buddha as a superstition of idolatry!
Excerpt from a collection of Buddhist speeches