What is Dharma and what is superstition

Master Hongyi Donglin Temple in Huaying City today Buddhists practice confession, and pagans and non-religious people often mistake it for superstition _

_p0 The temple worships the Buddha and offers incense, flowers, lamps and candles to the Buddha. Western gods believe that we worship idols and are superstitious. In fact, the Buddha is our leader, a sage who is a human being and attains ultimate consummation. The great bodhisattvas are also people who are about to become Buddhas. This is our refuge and our leader. Respect for Buddhas and Bodhisattvas should be expressed, as if respecting parents must be polite. There is no problem when the Buddha is alive, and you can directly show respect to him. But now Sakyamuni Buddha has entered Nirvana, and the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas of other worlds are not in our world. They have to use paper paintings, clay sculptures, wood, and stones to carve their images as objects of respect and worship.

Because this is the image of the Buddha and Bodhisattva, we have to respectfully worship him, not because he is paper, earth, wood, or stone. If we respect and love our country, how can we show respect? Use colored cloth to make the national flag, and salute the national flag respectfully when the flag is raised. Can we say that this is a superstitious behavior? Catholicism also has images. Although Christianity does not have statues, there are crosses as objects of worship, and some even kneel down to pray. How is this different from worshiping Buddha? Saying that Buddhism worships Buddha is idol worship. This is because Western Christians do not fully understand the meaning of worshiping Buddha.

As for the incense lanterns and candles? When the Buddha was alive, these things were used to make offerings to the Buddha in India. Lamps and candles represent light, and fragrant flowers represent fragrance and cleanliness. Believing in the Buddha and worshipping the Buddha, on the one hand, use these things to make offerings to the Buddha to show devotion, and on the other hand, it means to get light and purity from the Buddha. It's not that the Buddha can see everything by offering flowers and burning incense to smell the fragrance, lighting the lamp and candles, don't Western religions, especially Catholicism, use these things? This is a common ceremony of general religions. You must be respectful and pious when you worship the Buddha, and you must visualize the true Buddha when you worship the Buddha. If you pray while thinking about things or talking, it is disrespectful and loses the meaning of worshipping Buddha.

2. Repentance

Buddhist ritual repentance is often mistaken for superstition by pagans and non-religious people.I don’t know "confession". It is called confession in Hindi. It means confessing one's mistakes after making a mistake, because a person has done all kinds of wrong things and committed all kinds of sins in the past and present lives. In order to reduce and eliminate the karma that hinders suffering and suffering, it is necessary to admit one's mistakes in front of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas and the monks in order to eliminate their own karma.

Buddhism is a method of courtesy and repentance, which is equivalent to the repentance of Jesus, and it is very important in the study of religion. Confession requires confession by yourself, and sincere confession in your heart, it conforms to the meaning of Buddhism.

Most people don't repent, what should they do? The ancient ancestors compiled the rituals of repentance and taught us to recite sentence by sentence, reciting the mind by mouth, which means knowing the meaning inside and repenting of our sins. What kind of rites are taught in the confession to the Buddha, ask the Buddha and Bodhisattva to be merciful, admit our mistakes, know that killing, stealing, adultery, etc. are not, and make a willingness to change to practice. These are the rituals taught by the ancestors in the past to repent. (The Christian religion also has a prayer text demonstrated by Jesus), but the main thing is to express a true heart of repentance from the heart.

Some people can't even recite the ready-made rituals, so they ask the monks to lead them. Gradually, they don't know the confession, so they specially invite the monks to pray for themselves. Some parents and relatives have passed away. In order to take advantage of the Three Treasures to eliminate the sin karma of the parents and relatives, the monks are also invited to come and confess for the exaltation of the deceased. However, if you don’t understand the original meaning of Buddhism, in order to lay out the facade, and for folk customs, just spend a few money to invite a few monks to confess and do merits, and you may not believe in the Buddhism, or you have no sincere sincerity in repentance, that is a loss of confession. Makes sense.

After Buddhism arrived, the meaning of confession was blurred. Those who study Buddhism don’t confess themselves, and ask for monks regardless of how big or small they are. It can be concluded that the family members are busy with Buddha’s affairs. They will confess to this family today and do meritorious deeds for that family tomorrow. Some monasteries take Buddhism as their only career every day, and the main career of the monks gives up. , It’s no wonder that Buddhism is declining. So confession is mainly one's own, if one's true confession, even one hour of confession, it is more meritorious than inviting many people to do Buddhist deeds for a few days. To understand this truth, such as filial piety to one's parents, then it is a great virtue to confess to one's parents, because of the blood and close relationship. Don’t treat confession and meritorious deeds as family occupations. This is not only useless,Only increase secular slander and misunderstanding.

3. Lectures

People who learn Buddhism chant the sutras in the morning and evening, which is called Lectures in Buddhism. Christians have prayers in the morning and evening and when they eat, and Catholics have to chant the sutras sooner or later. There is no problem with this religious practice, but for this matter, a few people asked me: it’s okay if you don’t learn Buddhism. NS. It takes an hour or two for my mother to do her homework in the morning and evening. Like those who study Buddhism, there is simply no way to promote things at home. This situation is true among some lay persons, which makes people misunderstand that Buddhism is the Buddhism for the elderly and leisure, which is not suitable for ordinary people to learn.

Actually, morning and evening recitations are not necessarily required to recite what sutras or Buddhas, nor do they need to chant for as long as you want. You can set the time as you like according to the actual situation. The main thing is to recite the three refuges, and the ten vows are also important. Japan's Buddhism passed down from China, such as the Pure Land Buddhism, Tiantai Buddhism , Tantra Buddhism, etc., all have their own homework, which is brief and does not take much time. This is still the situation of Buddhism in the Tang and Song Dynasties.

Our modern class recitations in China: 1. It was used in the jungle. There are hundreds of people living in the jungle. It takes a long time to gather once. In order to adapt to this special environment, the recitation is longer. 2. Since the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, Buddhism has tended to be mixed, so the compilation of the ritual rules has various contents and is suitable for the study of different sects. In fact, it doesn't have to be the case for laymen. In the past, Indian Mahayana pedestrians practiced the Five Repentances six times a day. In short, studying Buddhism is not just about reciting ritual rules. Studying Buddhism at home must not affect the work of the family because of the long work.

Fourth, the custom of burning paper is not Buddhism

In ancient China, there was a custom of burning silk and burning silk for ancestors to enjoy. Later, for the sake of simplicity, paper was used instead, and later generations made money, ingots, banknotes, and even house and car for incineration. These are the evolution of customs and habits from ancient times, not all of Buddhism.

These things also have some advantages, that is, children who are children show a little filial piety to their parents. Eating and eating by oneself, thinking of parents and ancestors; living in a house and dressing, thinking of ancestors: not forgetting the kindness of fathers and ancestors has the meaning of chasing farther away carefully.

Buddhism came to China and adapted to China, it was convenient to combine with the chanting and rituals of the Buddha. However, under the atmosphere of “death is a major event” and “thick burial” in the Confucian ,It is inevitable to be extravagant and wasteful. The more burned the better, this has aroused criticism from modern people, and Buddhism is considered a waste of superstition. Buddhists understand this meaning, it is best not to burn paper foil, etc. There is no such thing in Buddhism. If you want to commemorate the ancestors, the symbolic ones should be burned less, and don't burn them in the temple. Lest Buddhism suffer for us.

Five lottery, divination, and support are not Buddhism

In some Buddhist temples, there are lotteries, divinations and even support, etc., which have caused social suspicion and referred to as superstition.

In fact, pure Buddhism does not allow such behavior. Whether it is effective is another matter. Those who truly study Buddhism only believe in cause and effect. If you have done bad karma in the past and now, you can't avoid it by seeking good luck and avoiding evil.

Cultivating good will get good results, and doing evil will not avoid evil rewards in the future; if you want to get good results, you must do more meritorious things.

Buddha disciples only know to do more good deeds, do everything in a reasonable manner, and never use opportunistic bad styles. None of these things have anything to do with Buddhism. Buddhist disciples who really believe in Buddhism should absolutely avoid these low-level religious practices.

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