Buddhist Rituals

Buddhist Rituals are ceremonies performed by Buddhist to honor Buddha and to express their deep faith. Rituals exist since the existence of humanity. They are actions performed alone or shared with others who have the same believes as us. These Buddhist Rituals help people to express their faith, feelings and support. They can lead to a state of mindfulness and awareness by bringing our attention to the experience we live when performing the ritual. Rituals bring people together with the same feelings and believes. They create communities and help us to feel mutual support one for another.

Buddhist Rituals

Prayers, contemplation and chants are some kind of Buddhist Rituals. They help us create a connection, find peace and balance. But there are also long rituals with a beginning, a middle and an ending. These are like journeys of faith. And they fill you with experience and faith.

The most common ritual in Buddhism is the Ritual Of Going For Refuge. It is the oldest of the Buddhist Rituals. It survived every Buddhist tradition, making millions of people to practice it every year. Buddha is every Buddhist’s Refuge. He helps us to escape the pain and suffering. The Ritual of Going for Refuge helps us to find our refuge in Buddha. We tend to find our refuge in material things to feel happiness and security. But these are false refuges. This ritual helps us to connect to Dharma, the collection of every teaching, wisdom and traditions that Buddha left us.

Offering homage and respect to Buddha and also to the Buddhist teachers, Buddha’s teachings and his wisdom. This homage is the appreciation and respect we feel for the Buddha. This appreciation can be expressed physically (bow down), verbally (reciting, chanting, praying) and mentally (reflecting and contemplating on Buddha’s qualities).

Rituals

The next one in our Buddhist Rituals list is the Practicing of Dana. This Dana is an offering from the heart. When you make this offer, you do it from your heart, not as a payment. You don’t wish for a payment for your offering. Dana means giving, offering, alms. It is the material prove of your appreciation for the priceless Buddhist teachings.

There are many more Buddhist Rituals such as Precept Ceremonies, Dedication of Merit, Rites of Passage, Initiations, Confession of faults, etc. These rituals help us to get deeper in our faith and appreciation of the Buddha and its teachings. They help us to have a balanced spiritual life. Buddhist Rituals bring us closer to the wisdom and knowledge we need to achieve enlightenment. They also give us peace and help us get disconnected from this world full of pain and suffering. When we perform these Buddhist Rituals we get closer to the Buddha.