Pray Tell Me, Who Does The Dalai Lama Pray To?

by Anura Guruge

From “USA Today”. Click image to access original.

The notion of in general confuses me, and seeing so called ‘Buddhists‘ pray really confounds me.

Very simple, from my understanding of prayer, you pray to a ‘higher being‘ that can in someway intercede in matters down here on Earth. OK?

Who is that ‘higher being’ when it comes to Buddhism? That is my issue.

Please do not tell me that it must, of course, be the Buddha. But, it cannot be, by definition. The Buddha is no longer around. He is gone. He reached ‘Nirvana‘. The state of NOT being here, there or anywhere else. So the Buddha is not like God. The Buddha was adamant that he will cease to be. So you can’t pray to Buddha — at least in a meaningful way. He can’t intercede. He is not there. Bit like an imaginary friend.

Yes, Buddhists do pray — but to gods (small ‘g’) from other religions. My adoptive mother, who believed that she was a model Buddhist, was renowned for her prayers, which people, around the world, claimed worked. [I have one rebuttal. If her prayers were that good how do you explain ME?] But she prayed to everybody and anybody. Though claiming to be 100% Buddhist she prayed to the Christian God, Hindu gods and whoever she could rustle up. She had more Holy Water from different parts of the world, Lourdes her favorite, at her apartment in Paris that soda. It would always be ‘would you like some Holy Water? Got some special from Lourdes, last week’. But that was my adoptive mother (who birthday it was today). Not the Dalai Lama.

He is said to be a Buddhist leader. So who does he pray to — because that is the religion you should check out. SMILE.

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by Anura Guruge