Pray
Once upon a time in ancient China, the emperor told his ministers that he wished to visit a temple to offer prayers to the Buddha.
One of the ministers, who was particularly adept at flattery, said: "Your Majesty does not need to visit the temple."
"Is that so?" The emperor was surprised at being contradicted. "Why not?"
The minister bowed deeply: "The essence of the Buddha is the compassionate heart. Your Majesty is constantly worried about the common people out of pure compassion. Therefore, Your Majesty is already a living Buddha and does not need to visit the temple."
"Interesting," said the emperor. "That reminds me of a story. Let me share it with you. It goes like this:
There was a devout Buddhist who had only one wish in life, and that was to see the Guan Yin Bodhisattva. He traveled to many places and studied many sutras, looking for a way to find her.
After years of effort, he finally succeeded. At a holy place far from home, the Bodhisattva appeared before him in a blaze of heavenly glory. He fell to his knees in awe.
Guan Yin asked him: 'Why have you come such a long way to look for me?'
The man said: 'Merciful Guan Yin, I only wish to ask you a question.'
'Very well,' Guan Yin said. 'Go ahead and ask.'
'When I am in trouble, I pray to you and ask you for help. Do you also pray when you feel troubled?'
'Yes,' Guan Yin replied.
'To whom do you pray?'
'I pray to the Guan Yin Bodhisattva.'
'But… you are the Guan Yin Bodhisattva! Why do you pray to yourself?'
'Because it is better to ask yourself for help than to ask someone else,' said Guan Yin with a smile. Then, she disappeared in a blaze of heavenly glory.
"What I have learned from this story," said the emperor to his ministers, "is that the Buddha lives in the heart. When we visit the temple to pray, we are in fact praying to ourselves and asking ourselves for help. That is why I shall override your objection and proceed to the temple today."
Once upon a time in ancient China, the emperor told his ministers that he wished to visit a temple to offer prayers to the Buddha.
One of the ministers, who was particularly adept at flattery, said: "Your Majesty does not need to visit the temple."
"Is that so?" The emperor was surprised at being contradicted. "Why not?"
The minister bowed deeply: "The essence of the Buddha is the compassionate heart. Your Majesty is constantly worried about the common people out of pure compassion. Therefore, Your Majesty is already a living Buddha and does not need to visit the temple."
"Interesting," said the emperor. "That reminds me of a story. Let me share it with you. It goes like this:
There was a devout Buddhist who had only one wish in life, and that was to see the Guan Yin Bodhisattva. He traveled to many places and studied many sutras, looking for a way to find her.
After years of effort, he finally succeeded. At a holy place far from home, the Bodhisattva appeared before him in a blaze of heavenly glory. He fell to his knees in awe.
Guan Yin asked him: 'Why have you come such a long way to look for me?'
The man said: 'Merciful Guan Yin, I only wish to ask you a question.'
'Very well,' Guan Yin said. 'Go ahead and ask.'
'When I am in trouble, I pray to you and ask you for help. Do you also pray when you feel troubled?'
'Yes,' Guan Yin replied.
'To whom do you pray?'
'I pray to the Guan Yin Bodhisattva.'
'But… you are the Guan Yin Bodhisattva! Why do you pray to yourself?'
'Because it is better to ask yourself for help than to ask someone else,' said Guan Yin with a smile. Then, she disappeared in a blaze of heavenly glory.
"What I have learned from this story," said the emperor to his ministers, "is that the Buddha lives in the heart. When we visit the temple to pray, we are in fact praying to ourselves and asking ourselves for help. That is why I shall override your objection and proceed to the temple today."
In order to understand why this is better, it is important for us to think about exactly what happens when we pray to a deity – any deity of any religion. We may not be consciously aware of it, but when we pray to a deity we are actually acting with many unspoken assumptions:
1) We assume the deity exists. If the deity does not exist, the prayer would go out to no one, and the praying would be rather meaningless and pointless.
2) We assume the deity can hear us. If the deity exists but cannot hear us for any reason, then praying won't do us any good.
3) We assume the deity is actually listening. Even if the deity exists and has the ability to hear prayers, it is still conceivable that the deity isn't listening.
4) We assume the deity cares about our problems. What if the deity does exist, can hear, is listening, but doesn't care? We think we are praying to a caring deity, but what if that isn't true?
5) We assume the deity will help. What if the deity does care deeply, but will not do anything about the situation? Suppose the deity, for whatever reason, wants to let events unfold of their own accord?
6) We assume the deity's help will be timely. What if the deity provides assistance too late, after the problem is over and the disaster has already run its course? If so, then the prayer is still meaningless even if all of the above requirements are met.
In order for our prayers to be meaningful, we need all of the above to work. If just one of the assumptions turns out to be incorrect, then the whole thing falls flat. It is easy to see that this is like a chain where all the links have to be solid. If any one of the links breaks, the entire chain is broken.
How can we know that all the links are solid? We cannot. Of course, the conventional approach is that we must have faith. However, note that this does not mean one single belief or one single investment of faith. It is clear from our analysis that each link in the chain represents an unknown all by itself, and requires its own leap of faith.
Therefore, when you pray to a deity, you are not just assuming the deity exists, you are in fact making multiple leaps of faith well beyond the question of existence. This is something usually glossed over and not explicitly explained in religious practices.
Now let us examine what happens when we direct the prayer inward and connect with the Buddha nature:
1) Do we exist? Yes, we know that we exist.
2) Can we hear ourselves? Yes, we can hear.
3) Are we listening to ourselves? Yes, we are listening.
4) Do we care about our own problems? Yes, we care very much.
5) Will we do something to help ourselves? This is entirely up to us.
6) Will we help ourselves in a timely manner? Again, this is entirely up to us.
Suddenly, things look dramatically different. This particular chain has no weak links; it can be as strong as we want it to be. We are not at the mercy of any single link, because none of them can break unless we blatantly sabotage ourselves. The six great unknowns have become six great certainties, so we don't need to make any leaps of faith at all.
The two last links in this chain are choices that only you can make for yourself. Just like the Chinese emperor possessing absolute power over his subjects, you wield complete authority over your decisions. Will you make use of this authority to command assistance for yourself in times of trouble? Or will you give up the authority to depend on unknown factors that may or may not come through?
For full explanation: http://taoism.net/supplement/
