First, the Buddha: enter the temple to worship the Buddha and offer incense, flowers and candles to the Buddha. It is superstition for western gods to say that we are idolaters. In fact, the Buddha is our leader, and he is a saint who has achieved perfection through human progress. The Great Bodhisattva is also a person who is about to become a Buddha. This is our refuge and our leader. Respect for buddhas and bodhisattvas should of course be expressed, as if respect for parents must be polite. When the Buddha was alive, there was no problem. You can pay tribute to him directly, but now the Buddha has entered nirvana. There are buddhas and bodhisattvas in other worlds, but none of them are in our world. They have to use paper paintings, clay sculptures, wood and stones to carve their images as respected objects of worship. Because this is the image of Buddha and Bodhisattva, we should worship him respectfully, not because he is a paper stone. If we love our country, how can we show our respect? Use colored cloth to make the national flag. When raising the flag, respectfully salute the national flag. Can we say this is superstitious behavior? Catholicism also has images; Although there is no God in Christianity, there are crucifixes as objects of worship, and some of them kneel down to pray. What's the difference between this and worshipping Buddha?
As for the fragrant lanterns and candles? When the Buddha was alive, these things were used to support the Buddha in India. Lights and candles mean light, and fragrant flowers mean fragrance and cleanliness. Believing in and respecting the Buddha, on the one hand, is to use these things to support the Buddha to show piety, on the other hand, to get light and purity from the Buddha. Instead of offering flowers and burning incense to let the Buddha smell incense, light candles to let the Buddha see everything. Don't western religions, especially Catholicism, use these things? This was originally a ritual in general religion. Buddha should be respectful and pious; When you worship Buddha, you should visualize it as a real Buddha. If you worship while thinking about the East and the West, or talking, it is disrespectful and loses the meaning of worshipping Buddha.
2. Ritual: Every time a Buddhist recites a sutra, pagans and unbelievers often mistake it for superstition. "Repentance" in India means "repentance", which means admitting your mistakes after you have made them. Because one person, past lives, everyone has done all kinds of wrong things, committed all kinds of crimes, and left nothing but suffering. Karma that hinders monastic liberation. In order to alleviate and eliminate obstacles and painful karma, we should admit our mistakes in front of buddhas, bodhisattvas and monks to eliminate our karma. Buddhism has rituals and repentance, which is equal to Christian repentance and is very important in religion. Repentance requires repentance, and the true confession in the heart is in line with the meaning of Buddhism.
Most people don't repent. What do we do? The ancient ancestors arranged the confession ceremony, taught us to recite sentence by sentence, recited our thoughts, knew the meaning inside, and confessed our sins. In repentance, we are taught how to worship Buddha, ask Buddha and Bodhisattva for mercy, admit our mistakes, know what killing, stealing and doing evil are, and make a vow to regret. These are the rituals that our ancestors taught us to repent in the past (Christianity also has the ritual information demonstrated by Jesus), but we should mainly express genuine repentance from the heart.
Some people have never recited ready-made ceremonies and let their families lead them; Slowly, I didn't know how to confess, so I invited my family to confess for myself. Some parents and family members have passed away. In order to get rid of the sins of parents and family members through Sambo's charity, family members will be invited to attend the ceremony to publicize the deceased. However, if you don't know the original intention of Buddhism, asking a few monks to make a confession in order to decorate the facade and decorate the folk customs is only a matter of a few dollars, but you either don't believe in Buddhism or don't sincerely repent, then you lose the meaning of etiquette.
When Buddhism arrived, the meaning of confession was blurred. Those who study Buddhism do not repent. They ask monks to do anything, big or small, and keep them busy with Buddhism. Today, they will do good for this family and tomorrow. In some temples, Buddhism is the only reason every day, and the main reason for becoming a monk is being abandoned. No wonder Buddhism has declined. Therefore, repentance is mainly for yourself. If you really repent, even for an hour, it is better than asking many people to do Buddhist work for a few days. If you understand this truth, you should be filial to your parents, then you will have greater merit to your parents, because the blood is interlinked and closely related. Don't treat etiquette merits as a family occupation, which will not only be useless, but also increase secular slander and misunderstanding.
Third, chanting: people who study Buddhism recite scriptures in the morning and evening, which is called chanting in Buddhism. Christians pray in the morning, at night and at meals, while Catholics chant in the morning and at night. There is nothing wrong with this religious practice. However, for this matter, several people asked me: it's okay not to learn Buddhism. Once you learn Buddhism, the problem will be big. My mother does her homework in the morning and evening for an hour or two, as all Buddhist students do, and there is no way to promote things at home. In some lay people, this situation does exist, which makes people mistakenly think that Buddhism is a leisure Buddhism for the elderly and is not suitable for ordinary people to learn. In fact, reciting in the morning and evening does not necessarily mean what to recite, what to recite, or how long to recite. You can decide the time according to the actual situation as you like. Mainly talking about "three transformations"; Ten wishes are also important. Pure Land Sect, Tiantai Sect, Tantric Sect, etc. From China to Japan, everyone has his own class, which is very short and doesn't need much time. This is the situation of Buddhism in the Tang and Song Dynasties. Our modern recitation in China, first, is used in the jungle; There are hundreds of people living in the jungle, and it takes a long time to gather once. In order to adapt to this special environment, the lecture time is longer. Second, since the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, Buddhism has tended to be mixed, so the contents of chanting rituals compiled are diverse and suitable for the study of different sects. Actually, the head of household doesn't have to be like this. Once upon a time, Mahayana pedestrians in India performed five confessions six times a day. It doesn't matter if the time is shorter, the frequency may increase. In short, learning Buddhism is not just a chanting ceremony; Studying Buddhism at home must not affect the work at home because of the long homework.
Burning paper: In ancient China, there was a custom of burning silks and satins for ancestors to enjoy. Later, in order to save money, paper was used instead; Later generations will make money, ingots, banknotes, even houses and cars to burn. These are all customs and habits since ancient times, not all of them are from Buddhism.
Another advantage of these things is that children show a little filial piety to their parents. Eating by yourself reminds me of my parents and ancestors; Dress yourself up, settle down for yourself, think about your ancestors, and never forget the kindness of your parents and grandparents, which is of great significance to the prudent pursuit of the future. Buddhism was introduced into China, adapted to China, and was convenient to combine with chanting and worshipping Buddha. However, under the Confucian ethos of "death is a great event" and "reburial", it is inevitable to be extravagant and wasteful, and the more you burn, the better, which has aroused criticism from modern people, and Buddhism is also considered a waste of superstition. Buddhists understand this meaning, and it is best not to burn paper and tin foil, which is not found in Buddhism. If we want to commemorate our ancestors, we should burn less symbols and don't take them to temples, lest Buddhism suffer for us.
Verb (abbreviation of verb) draw lots to ask Bufu: In some Buddhist temples, there are some behaviors such as drawing lots, playing tricks and even helping the blessing, which cause social ridicule and refer to them as superstition. In fact, pure Buddhism does not allow this kind of behavior (whether it is effective or not is another matter). Those who really study Buddhism only believe in cause and effect. If you have bad karma in past lives, you can never avoid it by seeking good fortune and avoiding evil. Good deeds will be rewarded, and evil deeds will inevitably lead to bad consequences in the future; To get good results, you have to do more meritorious deeds. Buddha disciples only know how to do good deeds; Everything can only be done in a reasonable way, and never use opportunistic and inferior styles. None of the above has anything to do with Buddhism. If you really believe in Buddhism, you must absolutely avoid these low-level religious behaviors.