Mahayana Buddhist Rites

Mahayana Buddhist Rites

Today, it is common to see a Buddha image or a picture of the Buddha installed on the family .iliar of Buddhist homes. Those belonging to the Mahayana school usually have an image of Kuan Yin and an image of Sakyamuni Buddha placed side by side, but for those who honour Kuan Yin, her image is given greater prominence. In the homes of the syncretic religious followers, there are also images of various deities displayed. It is for this reason that detractors of Buddhism always condemn Buddhists as idol-worshippers. Thanks to the dedicated missionary work done by Buddhist monks and nuns, as well as upasakas and upasikas, most Malaysian Buddhists of Chinese descent understand well the purpose of ' worshipping' at the Buddha's image. They understand that worshipping the Buddha really means paying homage, veneration and devotion to Him and what He represents, and not to the stone, metal or wooden figure, which in no way can grant any favours or bestow blessings on the worshippers. At home, the older generation of the Buddha's followers practise this worship of the Buddha twice a day, once in the morning, and again in the evening. Flowers and fruits are offered on the altar and an oil lamp is burned. Three joss-sticks are also burned, and the devotee first prays to the God of Heaven, followed by prayers to the Buddha and Kuan Yin. Although the main purpose of these prayers is to pay homage, but very often, the devotee also makes silent requests to protect the family from evil spirits, and to bestow blessings.

Some chant suttas in the Mahayana fashion and count the beads in a rosary, while silently calling upon the names of Amitabha Buddha, Sakyamuni Buddha and Kuan Yin. The beads -sometimes called seeds of enlightenment - of the rosary change colour and become shiny through long use, owing to the sweat of the devotee's hand. The purpose is to count the number of times the mantras are silently uttered, and this may be taken as a form of practice half-way between devotional exercise and meditation. In reality, the devotee, while so doing, gradually withdraws the mind from the world of the senses and concentrating it on the purity and silence within. Normally, a rosary contains 108 beads, with 10 or more bigger beads attached to the head; each of the 10 beads is slided after each time the 108 invocations of the mantras has been completed. In this way, a tally is kept. The use of a rosary for the invocation of mantras is not i < Mifined only to followers of the Buddhist religion; it is also used by those of other religions. It is i tali icularly useful for elderly devotees to pract ise this form of devotional exercise since it keeps their minds from wandering and causing the minds to become polluted. After sometime, it is not unusual for some devotees to be able to remain at this form of meditation for long periods, thus gradually increasing the purity of the mind.

On New Moon and Full Moon days, the same ritual is followed, but on a more elaborate scale. Larger candles are burned and the prayer joss-sticks are also of a bigger size. In the past, offering of wine and food was made, but today, this practice has been more or less abandoned, in view of the teaching of the importance of observing moral precepts. Thus only fruits and flowers are offered on the altars. The more pious devotees take vegetarian food on these special days, while some are unable to refrain from meat-eating owing to social obligations. While Mahayana Buddhist monks and nuns are obliged to be vegetarians, no such obligation is imposed on lay devotees; Buddhist tolerance allows each individual to decide such matters for himself. On these days also, many devotees flock to their temples to pay homage to the Amitabha Buddha, Sakyamuni Buddha and Kuan Yin, depending on their personal beliefs and inclinations. At the temples, monks and nuns usually lead in community recitation of suttas, while perambulating the main shrine hall. Prostrations to the images of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas are made, humbling themselves and expressing great devotion and reverence. After the festivities are over, vegetarian food is served to the monks and nuns as well as to all devotees and worshippers.
In Chinese Mahayana temples, the chanting of suttas or recitation of passages from Buddhist classics or Sacred Books plays an important role in the religious life of the devotees, whether in their daily prayers at home or in temples, and also during special occasions such as New Moon and Full Moon days, important Buddhist festival days, birthdays of Kuan Yin and other important Bodhi-sattvas. The chanting usually takes the form of representation of sounds of words of original Sanskrit, by the use of Chinese characters. The Prajna-Paramita ('Perfect Wisdom') and the Sadd-harma-Pundarika (Lotus of the Wonderful Law) are two major Mahayana Suttas which are frequently chanted in the temples, while the more dedicated devotees who have learned them find great joy in reciting them in their daily prayers at home, followed by prostrations in front of the images of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. In most Mahayana temples, rites are conducted by the monks and nuns in their respective places twice a day, before dawn and in the latter part of the afternoon. For these daily morning and afternoon rites, lay-people are seldom present, though they can attend if they wish. Chanting of the suttas takes place to the accompaniment of cymbals, small drum and bell. These sounds rapidly induce a mental state, and the monks walk in a single file around the altar, intoning the name of Amitabha Buddha, Mnddhas and Bodhisattvas, which are the personifications of purity, wisdom and compassion. On festival days, lay worshippers come to the temples, make their prostrations and attach themselves to the tail of the procession of the monks and nuns in prayers.

Thus, in their daily devotions and religious services, at home and in the temples, the fundamental objectives of the Mahayanists is the performance of meritorious deeds, to avoid doing evil, to do good, and to purify the mind. Through this, it is their belief that they will be able to have a better life in the hereafter, and finally, after having sufficiently purified themselves to be reborn in the Pure Land (Sukhavati or Western Paradise), where conditions are conducive for the attainment of Nirvana. The lofty Bodhisattva ideal is indeed praiseworthy but in the final analysis, salvation for the individual still has to be achieved through individual efforts, while the role of the Bodhisattvas is to assist and guide. Bodhisattvas are said to delay their own attainment of Buddhahood out of compassion for suffering humanity, and vow to be reborn on earth in order to help others, taking an interminably long period of time to achieve this noble purpose. The ordinary pious Chinese Buddhists practise and observe popular Buddhism in their daily lives by adopting a simple form of worship. For many of them, their simple beliefs and practices could lead to restraint, compassion, tolerance and inner serenity, qualities which often result in quicker eradication of mental defilements than those who are engaged in abstruse scholastic studies. Their simple minds, which are not cluttered with much knowledge, are more amenable to faster purification. Followers of the Vajirayana Buddhism practise their daily chanting in much the same way as the Mahayanists except that their recitations are all in the Tibetan language. Nevertheless, they also hold chanting lessons occasionally during which Mahayana Suttas are recited in Mandarin, the characters used being made to sound like the original Sanskrit words.