Expert: Joe McSorley - 11/18/2005

Question
I am taking a class called world religions and writing a paper on buddhism.

1. What goes on in a Buddhist Temple? I here of people bringing in fruit and other items that seem to be sacrafices.

2. Do Buddhists pray, and if so who do they pray too? If not prayer is it Meditation?

3. Buddhists seem to be very involved with environmental porblems. Is this required through the teachings or strictly voluntary?

4. It is a common misunderstanding that the Buddha is to be worshiped. What is the role of the Buddha, and how is he seen by the members of the religion?

Thank you for your time, the answeree to these questions will be a great help to me. Sorry about the spelling.

Answer
Hi,
 There are many sects of Buddhism, Zen, the one I write about does not have the traditions and practices of the most well known sects.  Here is a little about Buddhism in general to help you:


Technically speaking Buddhism is not a religion; it is not theistic and does not have an external means of salvation.  In Buddhism one's awakening and redemption is all through self-effort alone.  Historically speaking Buddhism came about because of the life of the Prince Siddhartha, who when coming upon suffering, sickness and death, wanted to find an answer to the cause of suffering for humans.  He tried to lose himself in the pleasures of the world but found no solace.  He then became an ascetic and this too yielded no answers.  After many years of searching and frustration he finally sat under a tree and declared that he would not move until he understood the solution.  According to legend, several days later as he glanced up at the morning star his mind became clear and he was enlightened.  From this he postulated the Four Noble truths of Buddhism:
Life (human) is dukkha . (Suffering, with no apparent cause), There is a cause for the suffering. ( avidya or ignorance.), the cause can be abated, and there is a path ( Margo yoga).  What the crux of this is that our minds do not see reality clearly, we do not know who we are, both to ourselves and in relation to the universe.  The cause for this is ignorance of ourselves as egos that blinds us to seeing beyond ourselves.  This can be remedied.  And there are many ways to do this, such as yoga, contemplation, self-examination, etc.  When one realizes the true nature of reality, often called ‘seeing things as they are', one has an identical experience to the historical Buddha so there is no hierarchy.  The word ‘buddha' means ‘awakened one' so anyone can become a buddha.  As Buddhism evolved through the centuries there have been many different sects arising.  Therevada is not unlike western religions as they revere the historical buddha as godlike and pray to him.  They have many rituals and prayers, gods, saints and icons.  Mahayana and Zen Buddhism do not ascribe to these practices and strive for a direct awakening.



1. What goes on in a Buddhist Temple? I here of people bringing in fruit and other items that seem to be sacrifices.

It's according to the sect.  In many Asian countries Buddhism is intertwined with other cultural practices like ancestor worship.  It is common at many Chinese shrines to burn incense and to offer fruit up for your ancestors.  It's not a sacrificial thing like the Old Testament where an animal is slaughtered for God.

2. Do Buddhists pray, and if so who do they pray too? If not prayer is it Meditation?
Theravada and Pureland Buddhists would pray to the historical Buddha for help and guidance but Zen and Mahayana do not have any deity figure in their practice.   The historical Buddha was never meant to be deified.  Meditation is a big part of most sects of Buddhism in an attempt to quiet the mind and to see reality here and now.




3. Buddhists seem to be very involved with environmental problems. Is this required through the teachings or strictly voluntary?

There is no dogma in Buddhism so there is no authority telling Buddhists what to do.  If you believe all life to be interconnected and interdependent than it would be natural to care about the environment.  If life is here and now then you should care about here and now.  If your religion teaches that salvation is somewhere else then there is little motivation to take care of the here and now.

4. It is a common misunderstanding that the Buddha is to be worshiped. What is the role of the Buddha, and how is he seen by the members of the religion?

Again, there isn't one religion called Buddhism so there isn't one view.  However, it can be easily argued that the historical Buddha never intended to be a god but to show people what he had realized.  He was one of many Buddha's through history and any reliance on him as a savior totally misses the point.  There is a famous saying in Buddhism that goes, ‘ if you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him'.  Though this sounds harsh what it means is that any Buddha outside of you is not Buddha.  To see something and to proclaim it as Buddha is not Buddha but an illusion.  We are all to become awakened, to become Buddha's; no one is greater than the other.
  Take care,
          Joe