Expert: Bodhicitta - 6/11/2006

Question
I'm a bit hurt to know about this. In Buddhism prayers are not used to tell how your feelings are to Buddha, rather its just to cultivate yourself. In other religions there are prayers to tell their respective God how they feel, but in Buddhism, no. Thats what hurts.

Is it really like this? Do the Buddhas ignore you and just let you cultivate yourselves? What if you have something to tell, to ask, and you have noone to share with, can you use prayers and tell Buddha about this? Or its just a useless act?

I don't know. I pray, and ask for. But when I learned that prayers are actually cultivation, I screwed up. Please guide me. I want to feel that the Buddhas actually hear me.

Answer
Dear Ler
According to the Buddha sutras
Buddha's and Bodhisattvas exist throughout space. If we pray sincerely in a heart felt way the Buddha's and Bodhisattvas must help us.

According to Buddhism we are confused and filled with greed, hate and delusion. By meditating (cultivation) we can cut through this confusion from our own side. By cultivating our own hearts we make our prayers more powerful and clear. We then allow space fot eh buddha's and bodhisattvas to help us.

Moving from confusion requires two movements. Prayers to
the Buddha's and Bodhisattvas to help us. The second movement is meditation to clear the confusion in our hearts and minds.

You might ask why can you not just pray to the Buddha's why do I need meditation? Well it depends on your level
of faith really. There are some schools of Buddhism that
reply completely on prayer - the pure land schools.

So anyways hope this litte explanation helps.

Bodhicitta