Why do Buddhists pray? Who are they praying to?

Hello,

My name is Faisa and I have been watching your videos.
I'm really fascinated by this whole Buddhism religion. You seem to be really at peace and content. I'm just confused by one thing.....I don't understand who you pray to. As I understand it (please correct me if I'm wrong) is that Buddhists believe that there is no god and everyone has the power to great their own world right? But yet Buddhists pray. So how does that work? I'm sorry that I'm ignorant I'm just curious.

hope that you are in good health and hope to hear from you

kind regards
Faisa

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hi Faisa,

Thank you for your message.

Please do not be sorry, it is good to ask questions. There are no bad questions, only bad answers! :-)

You have asked a very good question, who or what do Buddhists pray to?

In Christian faiths and religions where a deity is concerned people put their hands together and pray to their god or gods. Most people adopt a position of begging for help or forgivness or assistance for the lifes sufferings.

In Buddhism we do not believe in god, but a universal force that governs the universe, we are different to Christians because we believe that each and every human being is in control of their own destinies, this is all done with the direction of karma.

Good and bad karmic events occur in a persons life due to choices, words and thoughts made in this life and in others.

So when we are chanting, we are connecting with the part of our consciousness that stores the karma, the 8th conciousness or the alaya consciousness.

When we pray at the end of our chanting, it is a way of sealing off the chant or practice and wishing well our family, our friends, our communities and the world around us.

You could say that becuase buddhists believe that every living thing or every THING in the universe is connected, when we pray we send out positive vibrations.

The whole point of a religion is to lift people out of suffering and to help the transcend suffering.

All religions were created or manifested in to the world with the intention of helping people, well I would say all, but recent religions like Scientology dont seem to have hte best interestes of the people at heart.

Nichirine Buddhism is a religion of the people, it is about people and the lives of these people. The lotus sutra teaches that every single person is capabale of buddahood. this is a never ending supply of courage, goodwill, strength, compassion and wisdom.

But it teaches that this power is inside us, always. All we need to do is chant nam myoho renge kyo and connect with this higher state of being, that resides in the 9th level of consciousness. When we do this, our buddah nature comes forth and we are able to battle and win against any kind of suffering.

I hope all this makes sense. And if it doesnt please feel free to ask me some more questions.

All the best my friend

Robbie