Prayers In Buddhism
By: Dipankar Khanna

It is commonly believed that Buddhism involves long hours of meditation and is devoid of elaborative pujas (prayers) and ceremonies associated with prayer-offerings. People also think that Gautam Buddha was against an organised religion and propounded Buddhism minus the offerings and ceremonies to undermine the priestly class who exploited the common masses with religious superstitions.

But the fact is Buddhism has elaborate ceremonial prayer offerings, especially its Mahayana and Vajrayana forms. Before investigating the principles and content of pujas , it would be appropriate to understand and attempt at defining what constitutes the act of puja. Broadly speaking, puja or prayer offering is categorised as a form of devotion and offering to God, higher power or source leading to a higher spiritual plane, which can be generally termed as enlightenment.

It also involves invoking the enlightened beings like the Buddhas, bodhisattvas, yodams or tutelary deities, cho-kyongs or dharma protectors, dakas and dakhinis or celestial beings, nagas or wisdom beings and other dharmapalas or guardians of the precious wisdom.