Expert: Laurie McLauglin - 2/14/2011

Question
Hello, I Was Wondering How To Pray To Buddha (My Type Is Tibetan Mahayana). I Have Recently Became Buddhist, And I Want To Do All Of My Effort To Worship Him. Sincerely, Kenny P.S. I'm Vietnamese.

Answer
Hello Kenny -

Thank you for letting me answer your question.

Sorry it took me so long to respond.  I was getting ready for a retreat I was co leading.

I rejoice that you recently became Buddhist.

To the best of my knowledge, Buddha never asked to be prayed to or required that his followers pray to him or worship him.

However that said we should certainly pay homage to the Buddha, have devotion and seek refuge in the Buddha.

And the great Nyingma Teacher of the last century Mipham Rinpoche wrote a text called "The Treasury of Blessings - A Practice of Buddha Shakyamuni".  Reading and practicing this is one of the best ways I think to pray to and honor the Buddha.

Notice I did not say worship him - although we should venerate him, from my side what we should do more than to worship him is to emulate him. And the best way to do that is to read the sutras, study them and the commentaries and meditate.  From what I have learned that would be the greatest form of paying homage to the Buddha.

Again from my side, worshiping someone tends to get me thinking that the object of my worship is inherently real when in fact the Buddha himself is empty of inherent nature.

And when I pray to the Buddha it is for him to show me the way to become like him and to help me clear my karmic obstacles.

I hope this belated answer helps you a bit.  If you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to let me know and I will answer in a much more timely manner.

In the mean time I wish you much happiness in your Buddhist pursuits.

Namaste - Laurie