Are Buddhists Idol Worshippers (under progress) (FD15102023-01)

 Are Buddhists Idol Worshippers

K.Sri Dhammananda

BMS PUBLICATIONS

Wisdom Series no.41-1984

In loving memory of the Late Mr. & Mrs. Lee GIM KANG

And

the Late Mr. * Mrs. Lee GIM GUAN

ISBN 967-9920-18.6

Are Buddhists Idol Worshippers?

By K. Sri Dhammananda

Objetcs of Veneration

    In every religion, there are certain objects or symbols for purposes of veneration. In Buddhism there are three main religious objetcs for this purpose:-

(i) Saririka or the bodily relics of the Buddha;

(ii) Uddesika or religious symbols such as the BUddha image, chetiya or pagoda;

(iii) Paribhogika or the personal articles used by the Buddha

    It is customary for Buddhists all over the world to pay homage to any of these objects of veneration. It is also a Buddhist tradition to erect Buddha images, chetiya or pagodas and plant a Bodhi tree in every temple to serve as religious objects of veneration.

    Many people are under a misapprehension that Buddhists pray to idols. This is due to a lack of knowledge of the teaching of the Buddha and Buddhist customs and traditions.

    Idolatary generally means erecting images of certain gods and goddesses in some theistic religions in various forms by devotees for prayers, for seekibng blessings and protection, and for bestowing upon the supplicators health, wealth and prosperity. Some supplicators even pleaded with the image for the fulfilment of various personal aggrandisements even to the extent of successful performance of nefarious deeds. They also sought forgiveness for sins committed by them.

    The worship of the Buddha statue is quite a different aspect. Even this word 'worship' is also not quite appropriate from the Buddhist point of view. Paying homage should be the correct term. Buddhists do  not normally pray to images and idols, what they do is to pay homage to a great religious teacher who is worthy of honour. The images are erected as a mark of respect and appreciation for the highest achievement of enlightenment and perfection by an extraordinary religious teacher. To a Buddhist the image is merely a token, a symbol, a representation which helps him to recall or to remember the Buddha.

  Buddhist kneel before the image and pay their respects to what that image represents.

Page 2

They are not to seek worldly favours from the image. They reflect and meditate to gain inspiration from his noble personality. They try to emulate his perfection by following his noble teachings.

 

    Buddhists respect the great virtues and sanctity of a religious teacher as represented by the image. In fact the followers of every religion created the images of their respective religious either in visual form or in the form of a mental image for veneration; hence it is not quite correct not justifiable to criticise Buddhists as idol worshipers.

     this act of paying homage to a holy man. the buddha, is not an act based on fear or an act to supplicate for worldly gain. Buddhists believe that it is meritorious act and a blessing if they honour and respect the great virtues of their respectable mentor. Buddhists also believe that they are responsible for their own salvation and that they should not depend on a third party. However there are others who believe that they can gain their salvation through the intercession of a third party and these are the very people who pass caustic remarks inferring that Buddhists are idolatoers and are praying to the image of a man 

page 3

who was long dead and gone. A person's physical body may disintegrate and dissolve into the four elements but his great virtues remain forever. Buddhists appreciate and respect those virtues. Therefore the allegation against the Buddhists is very unfortunate, entirely wrong and uncalled for.

 

    When we study the teachings of the Buddha, we can understand that he has said that the Buddha was only a teacher who has shown the correct path for salvation and that it was up to the followers to lead a religious life and purify their minds in order to attain salvation, without dependng on their religioius teacher. According o the Buddha, there is no God or any other religious teacher who can send people either to heaven or hell. Man creates his own heaven and hell through his own thoughts, words and actions. Therefore praying to a third party for salvation without removing the evil thoughts from the mind is not of much use. Nevertheless there are people even amongst Buddhists, who whilst performing their traditional prayers in front of the images, would pour forth their troubles, misfortunes and difficulties begging the Buddha to help the, sort out their problems. Although this is not a real Buddhist practise, such devotional 

page 4 

acts do achieve some form of emotional relief and inspiration to the supplicants enabling them to gain courage and resolution to resolve their difficulties. This is also a common practice in many otehr religions. But for those who can understand the real basic cause of their problems, they need not resort to such practices. When Buddhist pay respects to the Buddha, they honour him by reciting some verses that expound his pristine virtues. these verses are not prayers in the sense of asking a God or a deity to wash away their sins. The verses are not prayers in the sense of asking a God or a deity to wash away their sins. The verses are simply a means of paying homage to a great teacher who had enlightened and emanicipated mankind to a specific way of life for the good of all humanity. Buddhists honour their religious teacher out of gratitude whilst others pray and make pleadings for their benefit and gain. Buddha has also advised us to honour. THerefore BUddhists can pay respects to and honour any religious teacher who is worthy of honour.

In place of prayers, Buddhists practise meditation for mind-training and self discipline. For purposes of meditation, an object is necessary ; without an object to hold on to, it is not easy to concentrate. Buddhists sometimes use the

page 5

image or picture of the Buddha as an object on which they can concentrate and to control their mind.

    Amongst the objects of meditation, visual objects have a betetr effect on the mind. AMongst the five senses, the object which we grasp through eye-consciousness has a greater influence over the mind than the objects that are grasped through any of teh other senses. the eye organ can influence the mind more than any otehr organ. Therefore the object grasped through the eye organ helps the mind to achieve better and easier concentration.

    The images are the language of the subconscious. If therefore, the image of the Enlightened One is reflected within oone's mind as the embodiment of a perfect man, such reflection will penetrate into his sub-conscious mind and if sufficiently strong, will act as an automatic brake against evil impulses.

    The buddha image as a visual object has a good impace on the mind: the recollection of the achievements of the Buddha produces joy, invigorates the mind and uplifts man from a state of restlessness, tension and frustration.

page 6

    One of the intentions of "Buddha-mussati" meditation on the BUddha is to create a feeling of devotion and confidence in the Buddha by realising and appreciating his greatness. Therefore, the worship of the Buddha image is for concentration. The worship of the image of the BUddha, where there are no prayers, vows or rituals should not be treated as idol worship, but as an ideal form of worship.

Salutations

    Some of the verses that Buddhists recite to remember their great teacher as a mark of respect in gratitude and in praise of the BUddha, are as follows:-

Namo Tassa Bhagavato Arahato Sammasambuddhasa- Honour. to Him, the Blessed One, The Worthy One, the fully enlightened One.

Further they recite some verses that explain the great qualities and virtues of the Buddha such as:-

"Iti pi so Bhagavan Arahant Samma sambuddho vijja carana-sampanno 

Sugato Lokavidu Anuttaro Purisa dammasarathi Sattha Devamanussanam Buddho Bhagava ti"

page 7

 

    These recitals are in the Pali language. If you are not familiar with this language, you can recite the verses in any language in which you are familiar. The English translation is as follows:-

 

    Such indeed is the Blessed One, Exalted, All-knowing, endowed with knowledge and virtue. Well-gone, knower of the worlds, A guide incomparable for the training of individuals. Teachers of gods and men. Enlightened and Holy.

 A Buddhist Story

    Here is a story that will help us to understand why the Buddha image is important to inspire our mind and to recall the Buddha into our mind. This story is found in Buddhist sciptures; but not that in the Pali Thripitaka.

 

    A couple of hundred years after the Buddha, there was a devout monk in India named Upagupta. He was the most popular preacher at that time. Whenever he gave a sermon on the Dhamma , thousands of people would flock to listen to his preaching.

Page 8

    One day, Mar, the tempter , became jealous over Venerable Opagupta's popularity. Mara knew that Upagupta's popularity was helping to spread the teaching of the Buddha. He was not happy to see the words of the Buddha filling the minds and hearts of the people. So he used a cunning method to influence the people. He made a plan to stop the people from listening to Upagupta's sermons. One day as Upagupta began his sermon, Mara orgianised a drama next to the place where Upagupta preached. There were pretty dancing girls and lively musicians.

    The people soon forgot about the sermon and crossed over to the show to enjoy the performances. Upgupta watched the people slowly drifted away. Then he also decided to join the crowd. AFter that he decided to teach him a lesson.

 

    When the performance ended. Upagupta presented Mara with a garland of flowers.

 

    "You have organised a wonderful performance," said Ven. Upagupta.

 

    Mara, of course was happy and proud of his acievement. He gladly accepted the garland from Upagupta and held his head high in the air.

page 9

    Suddenly it happened: the garland changed into a snake-like coil. Slowly the coil tightened until it choked his neck. So painful was that coil gripping his neck, that he tried to pull the coiloff. No matter how hard he pulled, he could not take the coil off his neck. He decided to ask help from Sakra, the King of the gods. Hw went to see him for help to remove the coil. Sakra also could not remove it. " I cannot remove this coil, " said Sakra, " Go sna see Maha Brahma, who is the most powerful one."

    So Mara went to see Maha Brahma and asked his help: but Maha Brahma also could not do anything. " I cannot remove this coil, the only one who can remove this coil is the person who put it on you," said Maha Brahma.

    So Mara had to come back to Venerable Upagupta.

 

    "Please remove this coil; it is so painful," he begged.

    "Yes, I can do that only under two conditions," said Upagupta. " The first condition is that you must promise not to disturb Buddhist devotee anymore in the future . The second condition is that you must show me the real

page 10

 

image of the Buddha. Because I know that you have seen him on many occassions, but I have never seen him. I would like to see the real Buddha image exactly like him, w ith the special thirty-two characteristics of his physical body".

 

    Mara was so happy. He agreed with Upagupta. " But one thing" pleased Mara, if I change myself into the image of the Buddha, you must promise that you will not worship me, Because I am not a holy person, like you".

    " I will not worship you", promised Upagupta.

     Suddenly Mara transformed himself into an image that looked exactly like the Buddha. When Upagupta saw the image, his heart was filled with great inspiration; a deep devotion arose in his heart. With folded hands, he at once worshipeed the Buddha figure.

    " You are breaking your promise," shouted Mara, "you promised you would not worship me. Now why do you worship me?"

    " I am not worshipping you, you must understand I am worshipping the Buddha" Said Venerable Upagupta.

page 11