Buddhist
Worshiping Ways & Pujas
Buddhist
pujas are different than god's pujas. Buddhist pujas are done for
respect the wisdom of Lord Buddha, Dhamma & Noble Sangha. But god's
puja are done to make happy gods or as offer foods to them.
Buddhist people doing different types of pujas. Here after we discussed
puja means only Buddhist pujas. Puja means show our respects,
acceptances & refugees. In theri & thera apadana pali &
vimana vattu verses in sutta pitakaya tells these kind of pujas help to
attain or close ourselves towards nibbana or drop us into heavens after
our death. Also these pujas help to reduce our negative kamma &
invite past did positive kamma. Some people think pujas only effected in
next life, but actually doing pujas help to success in this life with
money & wisdom. In psychology these type of pujas help to reduce
stress, make our mind calm & increase wisdom. Buddhist Pujas help to
rebirth in heavens, cause in heavens have following good incomes...
- Human world we born
after staying in ugly place with dirty in womens body, but gods born
without any dirty as mirror creation with seeing beautiful
environments.
- As inborn child can't
do his own works, but inborn gods can do every things as soon as they
birth.
- Gods and goddesses
birth in youth age with own cloths, houses & ornaments.
- Humans live in every
short period of time which not enough do his liked works, but gods
have huge lifetime so he can do lot of things & practice Dharma in
his heavenly ages.
- God's don't get old
with bad skin colors or body sicknesses.
- God's houses and
properties no need to maintain or refresh as human world, cause they
don't decays.
- In heaven there have
gods & goddesses who saw & talk with Lord Buddha, we can meet
such gods and learn Dhamma. Gods can see many thing by using
Devine-Eye such as pains in hells.
- Heavens don't have
big possibilities to do sins as big as human world.
Sri Lankan Buddhist
pujas can be categorize as :
- Offer smell &
colorful flowers for virtue powers of Lord Buddha, Dhamma & Noble
Sangha
- Light sweet smells
& offer odors for infinitive precepts & concentration of Lord
Buddha
- Light oil lamps or
colorful bulbs for wisdom of Lord Buddha
- Foods (drinks &
meals) pujas for Lord Buddha & Sangha
- Offer & put flags
with calm colors for Lord Buddha near the stupas or Bodi tree
- Offer cloths &
other important things for sangha or temple
- Bodhi pujas as
respect to wisdom of Lord Buddha near Bodhi tree
- Stupa pujas as
respect to enlighten monks & Buddha
- Visiting temples
& meditation centers for calm our minds
- Help to maintain or
build new temple or meditation rooms
- Visiting places
related to Lord Buddha's life incidents for calm our mind
- Datu puja as respect
Lord Buddha & Sangha
- Wisdom puja for last
exited 28 Buddhas
- Blessing puja for
Mitree Bodhi Sathwa, as future Buddha

Bodhi Puja
This is
common merit work done by very Buddhist for respect of wisdom of Buddha.
Hence we decide to tell you how we can do right Bodhi puja. Before do
body puja you must wash your body, clean your body & mouth. You must
prepare fresh pure water mix with some sweet smells or flowers like
jasmine into pitcher. also you need flowers, incense sticks & oil
lamps for do Bodhi puja. This puja done for as respect to unlimited
wisdom of Lord Buddha, this wisdom attained near the Bodhi three. It is
good you choose temple with lack of people. After you prepare those
goods & you must wear white or yellow color cloths. Firstly you must
offer flower basket in front of Bodhi three, light oil lamps &
incense sticks. After that little time you must do simple meditation.
Then you can say Buddha worshiping verses or you can recall nine virtues
of Lord Buddha on your mind. Then you must take water pitcher into hand,
go around the Bodhi tree & while recall nine virtuous sentences of
Lord Buddha, you want to put little water drops to roots of Bodhi tree
in four directions. Till water pitcher become finish you must recall
virtue powers of Buddha. After that you can sit down and say loudly
Buddhist sutta such as KaraniyaMetta, Ratana, MahaMangala,
AnattmaLakkana, DamsakPawatum, etc... for this puja you can used
Buddhist books. Then again you must meditate some time such as 15
minutes then want to transfer did merits to gods. While do Bodhi puja it
is good concentrate sounds of leaves of trees & feel the
environmental calmness. You must use at least one hour to do right Bodhi
puja.
Stupa or Datu Puja
This also
same as Bodhi Puja but you don't use water, only uses flowers, incense
sticks & oil lamps. Stupa is building which have noble relics of
Lord Buddha or noble Sangha. Every Bodhi tree, temple or stupa protected
by particular god therefore while you do such puja, you can get
attraction of this god too. This is powerful merit work can done by
every one without waste money. Datu means Buddha's or enlighten monk's
used goods, body part, signs, marks or symbols. Popular datu is Lord
Buddha's left foot mark on the top of mountain called Siripadha in Sri
Lanka. Other world famous datu is Lord Buddha's left tooth in temple of
tooth in Kandy. In Kalani temple have gem chair which Lord Buddha used
to sit when visiting Sri Lanka once time. White RumanWali stupa in
Anuradhapura which was built by king Dutugamunu, have relics of Buddha's
& enlightened Sangha's body parts. Cause of that Buddha & Noble
Sangha got rid from every pains, sufferings & rebirthing hence we
respect to those stupa & datu.
Offer Flowers, Oil Lamps, Incense Sticks & Foods
Buddhist people offer flowers for
Buddha, Dhamma & Sangha for their virtue powers. These flowers must
be small flowers such as jasmine. Flowers can be different colors. But
normally not include heavy & big red flowers. These flowers must be
put into basket made from woods, plastic, brass or gold. For datu pujas
we only use white small flowers. Red, white & blue water flowers
also used as such puja. When we keeping flowers we understand
unsteadiness via seeing flowers are faded after some time. As well as
flowers, we worship Buddha from oil lamps as respect to ultimate wisdom
of Lord Buddha. Oils must made from coconut, king coconut or sandalwood.
Lamp used to light oils must made from brass, gold or mud. Incense
sticks used for as respect of great precepts & Samadhi concentration
of Lord Buddha. Incenses must be flowers or sandalwood smells. Buddha
puja room can made in neat room or tall table with Buddha statue, Bodi
leave & small stupa where you can offer flowers, odors & oil
lamp to Lord Buddha in your home. People used to offer meals for Lord
Buddha in home because it is said merit incomes of this puja is as same
as offer meals to living Lord Buddha. It is good to keep in mind that
hard foods such as rice & curry offer only morning 5am to 8am &
11am to 1pm only. But soft drinks, juices & porridges can offer any
time in day but perfect times are 10am & 3pm to 7pm.
Visiting Places related to Buddhism
Lord Buddha said in
Parinirvana sutta that, visiting historic places & relics of Buddha
or fullly enlightened sangha help to gain powerful merit incomes till we
get nibbana. Buddha especially said that four places where related to
buddh's life incidents are very helpful to visit & gain merits.
Those are : place where Buddha born (Lumbini Sala park), location where
Buddha enlighten (BuddhaGaya), places where Buddha preach first sutta
called Dhamma Circle (Migadaya) & location where Buddha passed away
(Kusiranawa) Apart from these places other places in India are very
important such as temple which Buddha said lot of suttas & stay
longtime such as Getawanaramaya & Isipatanaramaya. In Sri Lanka
there have lot of places & temple where have Buddha's datus,
branches of Bodhi trees, stupas & temples. When seen these places
our mind become calm & relax, this is noble feeling which help to
gain merits. All Sri Lankan Buddhist must worship these places such as :
Temple of tooth where have left tooth of Buddha, Kiriwahera temple where
Buddha stayed in Nirodha Samadhi in seven days, Kalaniya temple where
Buddha preached Dhamma in Sri Lanka, Sri Padha mountain where have mark
of Buddha's left foot & Sri Maha Bodhi tree where have first branch
of Bodhi tree. Another bid merit which help gain bid merit powers &
give unlimited luxury in every rebirths are offer cloths & other
important things for sangha or temple, help to maintain or build new
temple or meditation rooms for monks who do meditations.
Puja For Past 28 Lord Buddhas
Another puja done by
Buddhist people is wisdom puja for past passed away 28 Buddhas.
Some temples in Sri Lanka have stupas for 28 Buddhas, but some temples
haven't. Hence we can do this puja near any Bodhi tree or temple or
stupa. In this puja we offer & light 28 oil lamps for unlimited
wisdom, knowledges & skills of past exited 28 Buddhas. As well as
you can light 28 incense sticks for their precepts & Samadhi around
the Bodhi tree. Our Lord Buddha also did this puja in his Bodhi Sathwa
lives for gain merit for wisdom. Especially this puja help to gain merit
for take right decisions & get rid of wrong decisions or ideas in
our current life. This is very powerful puja therefore good to do in
every months. Here are names of last 28 Buddhas :
Tanhankara - Madankara - Saranankara - Dipankara
Kondanghagha - Mangala - Sumana - Rawathi
Sohitha - Anomadassi - Paduma - Naradha
Padumothtara - Sumadha - Sujatha - Piyadassi
Athtadassi - Dhammadassi - Sidhartha - Tissa
Pussha - Vipassi - Siki - Vessabhu
Kakusandha - Konagamana - Kassapa - Gautama
Blessing Puja For Mitree Bodhi Sathwa
Mitree Bodhi Sathwa is
gaining merit for to be a next Lord Buddha. He is living in Tusita
heaven or 4th heaven as powerful god. He said to be god of
gods. He is the one who had ultimate merit powers among all other living
beings in universe. In Mahayana Buddhism, people give first place to
this god. But Teravada people can ask for blessing, protection
& helps from this mitree bodhi sathwa god. This god is different
than other gods, cause he get rid from luxury life in heaven & do
meditation, observe precepts & preach Dhamma for other gods. He is
wear only grown color robe as monks cloths. Hence we don't do same
Buddha puja as our Lord Buddha the great Gautama. Instead we offer milk
rice without curries, pure water, fruit juices & only one fruit for
this god in our homes. Also not as Buddha puja, we want to offer meals
in morning, lunch & night for this god & drinks can offer
anytime. Only flowers, incense sticks & oil lamps offer for mitree
bodhi satwa in morning times. Flowers offer to mitree god is basket of
white small flowers or as water flower three white lotus only. You want
to light incense smells of sandalwood & oil lamps from king coconut
oils or sandalwood oils only. You want to do this puja after the main
Buddha Puja. After that transfer merit of Buddha puja for mitree god
then do puja for mitree bodhi sathwa. As we know every other gods also
offer flowers & worship this mitree bodhi sathwa god cause his
ultimate merit powers.
Merit Incomes of
Some Buddhist Pujas
- Worshiping
triple gem or Lord Buddha : Increase lifetime, body color, attain
properties, gain luxury life & gain powers in this life and next
life. Any unlucky person become lucky
one, if he or she correctly worship Buddha every days.
- Offer flowers :
Become popular and nice person to everyone in heavens & human
world. Offer white flowers especially help to attain Devine-Eye.
- Offer & light
lamps : Get Devine-Eye, attain wisdom, radiate body color and attain
healthy eyes.
- Offer & light
incense sticks : Become popular and nice person with good precepts to
everyone in heavens & human world. Attain good Samadhi
concentration.
- Offer water : Become
leader with nice body color, lifetime, luxury, followers, powers and
can satisfy all body feelings or likenesses.
- Offer evening drinks : Attain long
lifetime, body energy, wisdom, body color, followers, luxury, get rid
from enemies, get rid from natural disasters, get respect from others
and get rid from losing liked things.
- Offer meals : Attain
long lifetime, body color, gain luxury life, gain powers & wisdom.
- Offer porridge :
Attain long lifetime, skin color, gain luxury life, gain powers,
healthy body, understand Dhamma easily, wisdom, & get every meals
easily in anytime.
- Offer flags : Rebirth
in higher societies among heaven or human world, can learn music or
dance or other art related subjects easily & become popular
person.
- Offer five music
sounds : Can learn music or dance or other art subjects easily &
become popular person.
- Cleaning areas in
temples, stupas & Bodi trees : Rebirth with full healthy body
organs, get gold color skin color, soft skin, strong body, long
life time, popularity, get rid from skin sicknesses, gods become
attract to you, get rid from things which are you don't likes and
develop wisdom.
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