What are pujas about… do take a good read…
An expression of your Compassion: A teaching by H.E. Tsem Rinpoche
Tsem Rinpoche gave a really lovely teaching to a few of us yesterday about the significance of doing pujas (literal translation: a set of rituals and prayers done to remove obstacles). Here is the full, unedited transcript of his teaching, straight from the Buddha’s mouth!
~ Admin
Why do we learn and do pujas?
When we see people have problems, when we see people suffering and having difficulties, we ourselves do not have a lot of ability to help and to assist. We ourselves do not have much wisdom, we don’t have any power, we don’t have any effect, we’re not doctors, we’re not psychologists, we’re not healers. Right now we’re not. So it’s very hard when we see other people suffer from sickness, suffer from obstacles, suffer from pain or suffer from losing something, or suffer from a loss, a death of a pet or a family. We suffer a lot and they suffer a lot. But you see, this suffering is an energy. This suffering is an energy that can be lust, that can be hate, that can be anger, that can be giving, that can be helping. It’s just an energy and how we direct it is up to us.
So when we see someone that we love and we care about, or other people – a centre member, our friend or anyone – and they need help, our heart goes out to them. Our heart going out to them and our energy put into sorry for them can be directed better. It can be directed in a form of a puja.
What is a puja? I’m not giving you the literal translation. A puja is an expression of your compassion for another person, another being. A puja is an expression, an action, a direct initiative to do something for someone who has an obstacle, who has a problem, who has a difficulty, who has some kind of pain or sickness or fear. And so, to watch these people have fear and pain and suffering and difficulties, and we don’t do something about it doesn’t make us a better person, doesn’t help our spiritual practice, doesn’t make our minds become enlightened or open up.
To do something for them is very, very correct way of opening our minds up – practising emotional generosity, expressing compassion, expressing care. Why? Because the pujas that you guys are practising are not made up. They’re not ineffective and they’re based on an enlightened Being; in today’s case, Medicine Buddha and last time, you practised Tara. These days, Tara and Medicine Buddha really have a lot of effect, they really have a lot of blessings, they really have a lot and a lot of power to help.
So what happens is that we who do the pujas become a gateway, become a connection to help that person. So instead of just looking at someone and saying, “Oh, poor thing, poor thing; Oh poor this, poor that”, if the child is suffering from whatever reasons and they can’t do well in their studies, they’re going to fail and they can’t move on in their studies, if we do a Manjushri puja for them, it is an expression of our concern and our care; and it has energy and it will bless that person. If that person is very sick – same thing, we do a Medicine Buddha puja and we can expedite or quicken their healing.
So a puja is an expression of our care, our initiative and our sincere concern for another being. So when people ask you what is a puja, you say not the literal translation (because the literal translation is “to clear obstacles”). But the human definition, the human meaning of puja from my point of view is an expression of your compassion; an expression of your care.
So when you do puja in that way, it is very effective. Why? Any action that is preceded by or motivated by compassion or Bodhicitta has much more effect. Any action we do that is motivated by any form, any level, any amount of Bodhicitta or compassion has more power. Why is that? Two reasons:
(1) When it is motivated by Bodhicitta or compassion, you are tapping into your real mind, your Buddha nature. When you tap into your Buddha nature, you push yourself to become a Buddha – very effective for yourselves.
(2) A second reason is when you’re motivated by compassion and care, that is the main ingredient for Dharma practice. So for Dharma practice to have effect, our mind must be free of selfishness. Selfishness and Dharma does not match; selfishness and Dharma protector practice doesn’t match; selfishness and Medicine Buddha doesn’t match; selfishness and Manjushri doesn’t match. Selfishness and Dharma practice doesn’t match.
Why selfishness and Dharma practice cannot mix
Hence if we do selfishness with Dharma practice, even after 10, 20 years, there’s not much result. Why not much result? Because our mind is still selfish. So selfishness here is not good or bad. It is a ingredient that must be removed from the soup, until the soup tastes good.
Therefore, if you do Dharma work with selfishness, it’s harmful for yourself! It’s not effective for others. Why is it harmful for yourself? Because even though you’re practising something so good from great Lamas, after so many years, you have no results, very little result – it’s harmful because you waste your time. You receive something so great, but you cannot…
Like a hungry ghost who, even if you give them very good food, their mouth is the size of a pin. They cannot fit it in, even if you give them such nice food. It cannot fit. Even a little bit, they have to squeeze it in like that. That’s really a hungry ghost. And when the hungry ghost takes the food and it goes down their long, thin, grey neck, when it comes to their stomach, it burns like gastric. It burns and burns and burns – in fact, the food creates pain. Why? They have the karma to experience that.
So therefore, if you do Dharma work, Dharma practice, Dharma meditation, Dharma anything with selfish motivation or innate selfishness, the effect is very little. Why is it very little? Because Dharma and selfishness is the opposite.
If you have oil and you put a wick on top and you want to light it, but you keep putting water, it will burn out. Even if you have oil, it will burn out. Even if there is oil in the lamp, if you put water, the water mixes with the wick and the fire has to go out even if there is still oil. So oil is like Dharma – it can light up a room. You can open up the oil, you put a wick on top, floating (like in Chinese temples), and you light it; it lights up and you can see things in a dark room. But if you keep putting water, the light goes out, even if there is oil.
So water is like selfish motivation in this case; oil is like Dharma. Hence, if you have oil and you can light and you can see, why do you need to move around in the dark like this? Why you keep putting water? Similarly, if you do Dharma work, people think, “How come I do my sadhanas for so many years, I do my mantras for so many years and I do Tsok, and I don’t have any power and in fact, my mind becomes more lazy and worse?” Because you haven’t removed the main ingredient – selfishness.
If selfishness never gets removed, how many years do you have left to your life? How many years? Aren’t you afraid of your death? Aren’t you afraid to be alone and close your eyes and no one can help you? Aren’t you afraid of what you’re going to see after death? If you are selfish and you cover your actions, it means you’re afraid people know you’re selfish. But you know what? People knowing you’re selfish is quite scary but what’s even more scary is when you die and your selfishness comes back to you. That’s very scary.
So hence, if you’re selfish, your Dharma work cannot get results. So two options: (1) get rid of Dharma work and be selfish or (2) get rid of selfishness and do Dharma work. Of course, it has to be number 2. Very simple. The more selfish we are, the more ineffective our practice is. The more water we put into the oil, the less we can light.
So therefore, instead of thinking of how to get how to get rid of selfishness, instead of blaming, instead of hiding, instead of avoiding, we should just stop the selfishness. You see, if you just stop the selfishness, you win. Why? You don’t have to put energy to hiding, to avoiding, to defending, to protecting your ego. You don’t have to. Why? Put the energy towards cutting your selfishness out, not toward covering selfishness! Both ways is energy; both ways, you have to use your petrol.
So therefore, it’s time for us to wake up and do something now. Now! Why? What are we waiting for? What result are we waiting for? What time, what year are we waiting for? How many years do we need to wait? How many years? When we started Dharma 10 years ago, 20 years ago we said we’re going to do Dharma. And then we start and we go, “Oh, it’s difficult, I’ll do it next year. Oh, now I have work, I’ll do it 2 years from now. Oh, when I’m 30 or 40, I’ll do it.” And then we keep making time to delay the real, actual Dharma practice. And what happens? When we look back, 10 years, 15 years, 20 years are gone.
And a lot of these people who ran away from Dharma, they run away from themselves because they’ve been running and running and running, so when they face the real Dharma, they run again. Why do they have to run? Because they never create the causes to face themselves. Never. How do you know that? Where there’s smoke there’s fire. So you use an example like this: because they’re not successful in any part of their life. Because they’re not successful in any part of their life, you know when they’re running away from Dharma, they’re running away from themselves. If they’re very successful in other parts of their life and they run away, okay… maybe there is something else involved.
So let’s say that Beng Kooi just works a normal job, she cannot get married, she doesn’t have many friends, people don’t like her and then she joins Dharma. After 5 or 6 years, she runs away.She says, “Oh, Rinpoche’s bad, the Dharma students are bad, the Ladrang’s bad, KH is bad, Yoke Fui is bad, this is bad, that is bad.” They run and tell other people that. Fine. Stupid people listen and say, “Oh, maybe it’s true huh…” Smart people say, “Wait a minute… but you didn’t do much with your life. Your don’t have many things in your life.” So if you keep saying it’s bad maybe the problem is not Dharma; maybe the problem is you. Why is it you? Because why is it that you fail at everything? You can think that way. My point? This is not criticism for people who left. This is for us to examine by logic about ourselves – how we run away.
How pujas connect us to the blessings of the Buddha
Pujas is a beautiful expression of compassion, which is a key to open the Buddha’s heart to bring blessings for the person we’re praying for. So why do we do pujas? In order to show our concern, love and care for someone else. That’s why we do pujas. And pujas are effective because they’re based on an enlightened Being, rituals that collect merit and purify negative karma and aspirational prayers that are dedicated toward that person for their future.
And on top of that, that person might also sponsor the puja: maybe they cannot do the puja, maybe they don’t know how, or they’re too far away, or maybe they’re too sick or they have too many obstacles, so they cannot do the puja. So when they give you the money to buy the items, and you offer the Buddha, you make a connection for them. You represent them to the Buddha.
So therefore, the reason for sponsoring puja, or sponsoring Sangha to do pujas or sponsoring food is that you cannot do it or you cannot be there. So in spirit, you’re there by making offerings. So the monks represent you; or you, the Dharma Sangha, represent them towards the Buddha. And therefore, the pujas have that kind of effect.
So even people cooking in the kitchen…that’s why in the monastery, there are monks who don’t do the pujas; they cook and supply for the monks. They collect merit also and it is an expression of their compassion to help the person through the puja. So therefore, all work in the kitchen – serving, puja, whatever – is all Dharma work, it is an expression of compassion.
And also, when we do the pujas, we alone don’t have power. We alone don’t have attainments, we alone didn’t do our Dharma practice so we have power. So we need to invoke the Buddhas. So to say, “Oh, I don’t have power, I cannot do anything, I’m normal and I don’t do anything” – it’s just another expression of laziness, selfishness. Laziness is from selfishness. The mother to the laziness is selfishness. Laziness is the son to the mother. The mother is selfishness; the son is laziness.
So therefore, to sit around and say, “I cannot, I cannot, I cannot, I cannot,” is pure, 100% laziness. And to accept laziness and accept selfishness and to say, “That’s how I am” and to accept to do that is a very bad sign. Why is that a bad sign? Expect more problems, expect more obstacles, expect more suffering, expect more. Why? Buddha punishes you? No. Your own selfishess punishes you.
So therefore, when we do pujas, we should do it knowing we cannot do much but pujas is the way for us to care and love and help, even though we don’t have power. And to learn the pujas well and to learn the rituals well.
Learning the rituals well
Why do we need to learn the rituals well? Why? Because if we’re highly attained, we don’t need rituals, we can heal someone just by blowing on them. We can help someone by speaking Dharma. We can purify someone even if we beat them. We can purify their karma if we’re highly attained. If we’re highly attained, we can scare them. When we walk by, we shout, “rah!” and they jump, they’re very scared – their karma is purified… If we’re highly attained, we can do that to people. We can scare them. If we’re highly attained, we can scream and shout at them, and make them very sad, and make them angry and make them run away. We can even save their life if we’re highly attained. We can scream and shout at them, we can scare them, we can do many things to them if we’re highly attained. Why? Because we can do it directly, we don’t need puja, we don’t need the Buddha. We are the Buddha.
If you’re highly attained, you are the Yidam. You think or visualise, “I am Yamantaka”, so if I slap you, it is not me; it is Yamantaka slapping you. And the person will have effects: their life will be saved, karma purified, obstacles pushed away. So highly attained people don’t need to contact the Buddha to contact you. They are the Buddha, they are the Yidam. They themselves are the Yidam already. Remember a Yidam is not a God; a Yidam is something you can attain.
So a highly attained person can be a Dharma protector’s emanation, can be a Yidam or have become one with the Yidam or have gained some attainments close to the Yidam. So when they do it to you directly, they don’t need a puja. When Kensur Jampa Yeshe scolds us, or screams at us – he has screamed at me! – it is Yamantaka screaming at me. I don’t have any anger, I don’t have any negative thinking, I don’t run away. I listen and I say I’m sorry because I know he’s purifying my karma. Much better than a puja; quicker, faster and direct. Much faster.
When Kyabje Zong Rinpoche beat the monks severely, the monks live, their diseases are gone. Why? Because Kyabje Zong Rinpoche is already Heruka. When they scold us, and they tell us off and they shout at us and scream at us, we feel pain, we feel anger, we wonder, “Why like that?”, but if we feel like that and we let go and say, “No, it’s a blessing,” and don’t think anymore and let go, it becomes a puja. Even in a non-Dharma work, when people shout at you, it means they love you. When people tell you off, it means they love you. If you reject the love, you’re quite stupid. Even in a normal world.
So therefore, people like us – we don’t have that power so therefore, we need to invoke Yamantaka; we need to invoke Setrap, we need to invoke Tara and Medicine Buddha because we don’t have the power. But if we do Yamantaka well and we do Manjushri very well, we become Manjushri, we become Heruka, we become Yamantaka: “I am Yamantaka” Why? Then the power is directly from the power from the person. Why is the power directly in the person? Everyone can become Yamantaka. Everyone.
So therefore, ordinary people like us, we cannot directly affect people; we cannot do it directly. Hence since we cannot do it directly, since we cannot affect them directly, we have to do it indirectly. Indirectly can be pujas, indirectly can be doing Dharma work, indirectly can be studying Dharma, indirectly can be doing retreats, indirectly can be holding our samaya. Why? If we hold samaya, we gain attainments. If we do Dharma work, we gain merits to become better people. If we do pujas, we bless that other person.
You see, so indirectly we can do – through Dharma work, through charity, through pujas, through retreats, through holding our samaya. Those are indirect ways to help other beings. We help other sentient beings – that’s why we hold samaya. We wish to benefit other sentient beings – that’s why we have Guru devotion. We wish to have help others and benefit a certain person – that’s why we do pujas. We wish to be of tremendous benefit to others, therefore I become a monk and I hold my vows well so that I can study the Dharma with no distractions. That’s why we do Dharma action.
Every Dharma action should be motivated by Bodhicitta or an artificial Bodhicitta – then it becomes real. So therefore, if you have the power, you do directly. If you don’t, I don’t, we don’t, we do it indirectly. That’s the purpose of pujas.
Much care and prayers,
Tsem Rinpoche
Please support us so that we can continue to bring you more Dharma:
If you are in the United States, please note that your offerings and contributions are tax deductible. ~ the tsemrinpoche.com blog team
Clear and details explanation all about the significance of doing. To invoke the blessing of a Buddha we do prayers or puja to those who needed help. It is a kind of compassion expression helping people facing problems in life, clear obstacles, suffering, illness and so forth. Reading these post ,gives us a deeper meaning to pujas . Doing with a right motivation will be more effective. Puja is something very powerful and beneficial in long run. We are very fortunate to learn, practice doing puja from Rinpoche teachings.
Thanks you Rinpoche for this profound teachings
From this article , I have a better understanding now the purpose of pujas. For the puja to be powerful and effective one must have a good motivation and compassion mind to benefit others.
As usual, Rinpoche’s teaching is always simple yet has a deep meaning in it. For someone lazy and slow like me have to read a few times to understand and remember.Thank you very much for sharing this post
Before I came to Kechara I always had the this silly question wandering in my mind, why on earth monks only focused on prayer after prayer but not doing anything physically that benefit mankind/animals ? This question has a solid ground in secular world whereby we are all very focusing onto “action” part for creating the desire result that we are trying to achieve. Sitting there long hours chanting something that I cannot even digest what it means is just something I am not able to accept.
Now, having a better clarity on the meaning of Puja has somewhat open up my mind on the meaning behind it. Very meaningful indeed. A specified Puja that is being dedicated to a specified sentient beings is an act of Great Compassion because Puja is intended to remove obstacles by creating good karma and merits from invoking the power of Buddhas, Boddisattvas and Dharmapalas (enlightened wisdom, compassion and skillful means).
The best part is, we all have the opportunity to do it on daily basis at the convenience of our home. The late 25th Tsem Rinpoche had taught us the fundamental manual which is the Diamond Path Daily Sadhana. It has helped me in both my personal life and also career wise therefore I sincerely encourage all of us to try practice this on a daily basis.
Thank you Rinpoche for this profound teachings and explaining all about doing pujas. Reading this post , I have a better understanding now the purpose of pujas. For the puja to be powerful and effective one must have a good motivation and compassion mind to benefit others. Doing pujas is a beautiful way to express oneself of compassion, which connect us with Buddha and others who need the blessing and protection. Interesting read.
Hello Pastors, Your Eminence, and Everyone.
I would like to ask, can I do pujas even though I don’t have a guru or someone to guide me? If I can, how can I start doing it correctly? I am trying to learn more about Buddhism.
I was having thoughts about Puja’s just the other day and today I am reading everything that I need to know. Thank you Rinpoche for explaining to us the purpose of doing pujas, which are the indirect way of helping others motivated by Bodhicitta or compassion to invoke the blessing of a specific Buddha or Buddhist deity in order to alleviate other’s pain, suffering, illness, sadness, difficult situations, anger, obstacles in spiritual practice or problems in life. Puja is something very powerful and it is to benefit everyone that is having obstacles. Thank you Rinpoche and blog team for sharing this simple and easy to understand about doing Pujas. Something which came up at the right moment for me to post on my FB with my network for their benefit and knowledge. ????
Thank you Rinpoche for explaining to us the purpose of doing pujas, which are the indirect way of helping others motivated by Bodhicitta or compassion to invoke the blessing of a specific Buddha or Buddhist deity in order to alleviate other’s pain, suffering, illness, sadness, difficult situations, anger, obstacles in spiritual practice or problems in life. There are certain times when we also need to carry out puja within a very short notice, where someone could be in dangerous or critical condition during the emergency situation that require immediate blessings and protection from the specific Buddha so that the obstacle can be cleared and follow by solutions coming towards the person. Hence, during that hour, it serves as an opportunity for us to practise our sincerity and altruism in Dharma practice whether we can let go our comfort zone, personal time and self-priority in order to help others without further delay instead of clinging to our self-grasping and selfish mind.
As what I understand from Rinpoche’s teaching about puja, before we start to perform puja, we have to set our motivations purely and compassionately with concentration and focus for the benefit of others so that the puja will be effective and able to lessen the suffering of others or to manifest the virtuous wishes such as the growth of Buddhadharma, seeking for world peace and sharing the Buddhadharma teachings to others. During the puja, we should continuously focus the pure motivations until the end of puja with completion dedication. Puja can connect us with Buddha as well as others who need the blessing and protection from Buddha through our form of body, speech and mind where we use our body to prepare, set up and carry out the puja, we use our vocal cord to recite prayers and mantras and we focus our mind to benefit others during the puja.
May more people connect to Buddha through pujas and able to learn and practise Buddhadharma until samsara ends.
Thank you with folded hands,
kin hoe
never have negative wishes in a puja – eg the wish to kill Hitler, a better wish would be for WW2 to have ended quickly and peacefully
unskilled attempts at Highest Yoga Tantra practice can result in the worst kind of selfishness & narcissistic delusions – being a deity for one’s own sake alone & then thinking all of one’s actions are without consequence because it’s all the enlightened activity of a deity – killing others becomes “liberating” them, drunkenness becomes “enjoying divine nectar” etc etc etc – please tell us more
This is very clear explanation on what puja really is. Before I approach to Kechara , my understand on puja is only just a prayers but now I know more details on what is puja. It is a kind of compassion expression to others sentient beings.
By doing puja, it will train us to be more compassion which is needed in our dharma practice.Besides that, Rinpoche also very emphasized on selflessness when we practice dharma work.Dharma work should be free of Eight Worldly concerns.
Compassion and selflessness are the two factors we must take into consideration when we do dharma works.
Thanks Rinpoche for wonderful sharing.
With folded hands,
Jason
Thank you for sharing this beautiful article on Puja. This teaching and explanation of Puja is really of great help to me as i am new. At least i can understand better and i do enjoy doing Puja. to express my care for others.
Its all about Dharma work and expression of compassion.thats what was said in the article.
With folded hands thanks again
Dear Rinpoche ,
Thank you for sharing this article. This is what I have learnt from this article.
1. Puja is not just a set of prayers and rituals. It is an expression of compassion towards those that needed help. When we see those that are in dire need of help and usually we wont have the necessary skills to help them directly. By doing a puja and dedicating the puja to them, we can help them with the buddha’s blessing. Alot of people like to post sad stories and depressing pictures on social media and leave comments like ” I wish I can help” or ” May god bless them”. To me, this is just an act. If they really want to help those people or animals, they would had taken initiative to help them with action.
2. Compassion is the key in dharma work. When we do dharma work with compassion as our motivation, our work will flourish. The pujas or prayers that we do will be more effective as we are tapping into our buddha nature.
3. Selfish and dharma do not mix. If we do dharma with a selfish mind, we will acheive nothing and even becoming worse.
4.Highly attained practitioners can purify our bad karma directly. Sometimes the Guru might scold or even hit us. We must not be angry or turn away from our Guru. A good Guru will have compassion as his motivation when he hit or scold us and his action can purify our bad karma directly.
Chris
Thank You Rinpoche for sharing the definition of puja to us. I like Rinpoche’s quote;”the human meaning of puja from my point of view is an expression of your compassion; an expression of your care.Any action that is preceded by or motivated by compassion or Bodhicitta has much more effect.So when you do puja in that way, it is very effective.” and there are explanation of the reasons behind. Selfishness and Dharma practice is matched at all. In fact, it is conflicted. It is just like cancer and good cells are not matched, good cell might eventually be eaten up by cancer. I still have selfishness in me and I am trying hard to get rid of it as long as I aware it by following teaching from Rinpoche faithfully.
Puja,Retreat or any Dharma work assigned by Rinpoche are powerful, to be honest, I do feel it. You will feel it if you do it sincerely and with the selfish-less/to benefit others mindset.
Thank You Rinpoche.
Sincerely,
Soon Huat
Thank You Rinpoche for sharing the definition of puja to us. I like Rinpoche’s quote;”the human meaning of puja from my point of view is an expression of your compassion; an expression of your care.Any action that is preceded by or motivated by compassion or Bodhicitta has much more effect.So when you do puja in that way, it is very effective.” and there are explanation of the reasons behind. Selfishness and Dharma practice is matched at all. In fact, it is conflicted. It is just like cancer and good cells are not matched, good cell might eventually be eaten up by cancer. I still have selfishness in me and I am trying hard to get rid of it as long as I aware it by following teaching from Rinpoche faithfully.
Puja,Retreat or any Dharma work assigned by Rinpoche are powerful, to be honest, I do feel it. You will feel it if you do it sincerely and with the selfish-less/to benefit others mindset.
Thank You Rinpoche.
Sinceerely,
Soon Huat
Dear Rinpoche,
I thank Rinpoche for this post as it gives a deeper meaning to pujas beyond “puja is a set of rituals and prayers done to remove obstacles”. Am a great fan of pujas as my family and friends have benefited much from them. Grateful to be able to lean on Kechara’s Puja Team in times of crisis where a spiritual solution is probably the only thing we can do to help the person suffering.
With folded hands.
Thank You Rinpoche for the holistic teaching of Puja. Puja is not merely a set of ritual that helps remove obstacles; it is the embodiment of compassion to help another person by invoking the power of the Buddhas.
I also find this statement “Dharma work and selfishness don’t mix” resounding, and contemplated a little bit on it.
When we do dharma work, we hope to gain enlightenment or develop Bodhicitta or be a better person at the least. But if every of our good action is tainted by selfish intention, what do we gain at the end of the day? Will our mind transformation progress closer to any attainments? Since we have spent some of our energy on dharma work, it is silly to let the energy and effort be wasted due to selfish intent. To “reap the benefit” of Dharma work, it is really important to block out selfishness i.e. the 8 worldly concerns out of all aspect of our dharma work.
Therefore I am very grateful for this teaching. While I work on developing Bodhicitta motivation, I will remind myself to not perform Dharma work with selfish thoughts :- I do dharma work not in hope for any material gains or avoid material loss. I do dharma work not to seek praise or avoid criticism. I do dharma work not to improve my reputation or avoid a stained reputation. I do dharma work not to experience pleasure or avoid displeasure.
Thank you very much Rinpoche.
With my head to your feet,
Stella
Good afternoon Rinpoche,
I was having thoughts about Puja’s just the other day and today I am reading everything that I need to know. What are puja’s , why are we doing it, why Puja, etc etc. But after reading your article today. I know what I’m doing and why I am doing it. Puja is something very powerful and it is to benefit everyone that is having obstacles.Yes we can’t help someone when they have trouble,we don’t have super powers but puja’s can help. A very good read and definitely this article will benefit more sentient beings.
With folded hands, May Rinpoche live long and continue to spread the Dharma.
Thank you Rinpoche for your wonderful explanation on the purposes and benefits of doing Puja. As the saying goes, asking for help when we are in trouble is a sign of strength (or wisdom), not weakness. Then what more can we say when we ask the Buddhas, who have infinite power, omnipresence and compassion, to come to our aid when we are in trouble? Om Benza Wiki Bitana Soha!
Thanks you Rinpoche for giving us this Dhrama teaching, I fully agree we are not Buddha so we do have to act as a Buddha this way is to force us to act for others to work for others do not think about ourselves I think this way is work for me .
I am totally agreed that we ourselves do not have much wisdom or ability with any special power to help especially when we see people in suffering or difficulties because of the sickness. As such, we hope by doing or sponsor puja as a connection to help the person.
By holding the clean samaya, the puja is more powerful and effective to help the person in suffering. For example, the pujas such as Setrap and Dorje Shugden puja could help to eliminate the obstacles so that he/she might able to meet a qualified & capable doctor for better treatment. Whereas, the pujas for healing and long life are Medicine Buddha puja and Namgyal Tsechog puja.
Thank you Rinpoche for this sharing and I am more understand and clear now about the benefits of puja and motivation behind it.
It is extremely interesting to the learn the fact that when your Lama scolds you or smacks you really hard or makes you angry or chases you away or simply teases you and make you feel small, it is a form of purification. In fact a very quick form of purification. Also , if that happens to us we have to learn to see it in the positive light , as a blessing.
I totally agree !! I am not highly attained or anywhere close to it, but if I were to take the effort to scold someone it is because I truly care.
However, having the opportunity to be scolded and smacked etc by a highly attained Lama needs great amount of merits too. How many who are sick or have obstacles or passed away has/had the merits to meet a High Lama ? Requesting/participating/sponsoring a Puja is a great act or solution in times of crisis. It has great results and my family and I have had this experience.
Thank you Rinpoche for making the Puja House and team available for all of us. Also thank you to all those who worked so hard day and night in the Puja house to help alleviate our problems !
GREAT SPEECH.
Thank you Rinpoche for explaining the vastness benefit of pujas. Although some situations are beyond our assisting capabilities as karma ripens or possible lacking of merits to help, as least we know now that puja can help as it is form of expression of compassion to the person/animal/sentient beings that we care and love.
And also I always keep in mind of below advise from Tsem Rinpoche that we shall not waste time further.
“So therefore, to sit around and say, “I cannot, I cannot, I cannot, I cannot,” is pure, 100% laziness. And to accept laziness and accept selfishness and to say, “That’s how I am” and to accept to do that is a very bad sign. Why is that a bad sign? Expect more problems, expect more obstacles, expect more suffering, expect more. Why? Buddha punishes you? No. Your own selfishess punishes you”.
OM BENZA WIKI BITANA SOHA _/|\_
I like Tibetan pujas to buddhas. In fact in my own life and families’ lives, I have experienced very good benefits from pujas to the buddhas. I guess the traditional method to invoke the buddha’s blessings is immensely helpful to normal folks like us. When me and my sisters were in school from primary until end of secondary school, we attended a boarding school in another country. This involved travelling for a day or two and the idea of being in a foreign country was scary enough for girls aged 4-8. So my mother had contact with Tibetan monks and they would kindly grace our house and do day long pujas for us. I believe it was the effect of these pujas that we were very successful in our academic careers. lol. It sounds very pretentious ”academic careers” haha but the reason I am saying this is, after we were done with school there we moved back to our native country. We enrolled in local colleges and I’m pretty sure we hadn’t done pujas for studies in those years because our grades became supremely average. When we were in this boarding school our grades were like A-A+ not only that we excelled in extra curricular activities too and got esteemed prizes at our annual prize distribution days. But it’s also most likely due to our efforts too though. Nevertheless the pujas were great for us. So thank you buddhas 🙂
Thank you Rinpoche. For me personally, I think doing Puja can keep my motivation on the right track. It reminds me of being persistent in becoming a better person and stay out of non virtues deeds.
Thank you Rinpoche for the teaching.
I’m really blessed to be able to learn more about Pujas from Rinpoche. Thank you so much.
I am new, this is good basics for me to know since I had started attending puja for the last 3 weeks.thank you very much, Teacher.
i will remember this “The mother is selfishness; the son is laziness.” We cannot gain any result although work for Dharma or Dharma practice if we still keep this type of habits. Sponsor a Puja for your family or friends to help them remove obstacle, always healthy and be blessed by three Jewels, now we can offer a puja to anyone for blessing via this link http://vajrasecrets.com/pujas-1.html , is very convenience for you.
Nice Information.
Book your holiday with http://www.oobooking.com
i, personally, have experienced the power, effect and beneficial result from pujas. I would also describe a puja as an ancient form of healing and removal of inner and outer obstacles, obstacles created by self. As Rinpoche wrote here, we can have pujas done for our loved ones to show our love and to practice compassion.
法会是慈悲与力量的展现。克切拉的法会都是依据格鲁派甘丹寺的传承。既然是慈悲与力量的展现，我们就必须在法会前后，法会中都保持一样的爱心，耐心，和专注的心，这样我们才能完完全全的把法会的力量发挥出来，帮助到需要的人 ：0
当然我也会抱着一刻感恩仁波切的心，因为这所有美丽的法会修行，都是仁波切给予我们教导与开示的
How incredibly fortunate, blessed and privileged we at Kechara have such powerful and authentic pujas to learn from and to benefit others. It is through the blessings of Rinpoche that we can even begin to contemplate the positive effects it would have on the lives of people in Malaysia and the region!
The significance of Puja is said to remove obstacles or to expedite and quicken their process to provide solutions. Their effectiveness are said to depend on our earnest motivation, compassion and bodhicitta with our mind freeof selfishness. Just like Rinpoche said in his teachings, “Every Dharma action should be motivated by Bodhicitta – the wish to benefit others – or to be of tremendous benefit to others, therefore, I become a monk and I hold my vows well so that I can study the Dharma with no distractions. That’s why we do Dharma action!” In all earnesty, we pray that we will be able to be bestowed with the blessings of such powerful motivations to transform our mind to do our Dharma work, pujas, retreat and holding samayas just as well, to be of benefit to others!
Thank you Rinpoche for the sharing. It let me understand the true meaning to having a puja and what attitude we should have when doing puja.we should keep in mind and share with other.
其实会法也可以说是天籁之声和祝福之音，每个法会都有它独特的力量，法会就像我们跟佛菩萨的心灵沟通。每当我们做法会，首先我们要依据上师的仪轨，然后思维和意识都要保持正面能量。我们所念的经文和三宝都会化成很美妙的声波在整个宇宙传送。所有的宇宙众生或佛菩萨都会感应到我们的美妙祝福之音而转化成一种神奇力量来净化我们的负能量。所以法会是可以消除我们所面对的障碍。谢谢仁波切的分享
Thank you, Admin for putting up this article again. Just 2 days ago a very close friend spoke to me about his problems and all I could think of was to call Pastor Yek Yee and do some pujas for him. Then I explained that I will do pujas for him, to help remove obstacles.
I have seen the effects of pujas and believe they work wonders and it has become my form of expressing kindness to someone’s problems which is truly beyond me to help.
I had always admired and like the thought behind what puja represented and the purpose it was for. Always sponsoring for pujas for the aid of someone in need always felt so special and exclusive to be helping someone indirectly. We may not be Buddha’s but to help someone in any way we can even indirectly through puja’s is a great benefit to the purpose of the person or thing it is for. I always found it very therapeutic after each puja, you feel a lot happier and a lot lighter. Listening to all the monks or anyone involved in the puja reciting together is beautiful and can sometimes get very intense and interesting. I agree with Rinpoche that selfishness and dharma clearly do not mix with each other but instead completely contradict one another. Thank you Rinpoche for precisely explaining to us in four sections to the significance and purpose of what a puja is.
Pujas are really beautiful. Different pujas have their own hand mudras which are absolutely beautiful as well. It’s like hand-dancing. Besides, pujas can really really benefit and help a lot of people. Our very own Kechara Puja House has done lots of pujas on behalf of people who are needed. I love using the vajra and bell. The sound of the bell ringing is so nice and in a particular rhythm as well. How wonderful. Incorporating music with prayers and a bit of hand dancing
法会是慈悲的展现。克切拉的法会都是依据格鲁派甘丹寺的传承。既然是慈悲的展现，我们就必须在法会前，法会后都保持一样的爱心，耐心，不然所念的法会虽然还是会有佛菩萨的加持，但效果可能没如此的强大。做观音法会，却不吃素，就有点说不过去了。。
The reason i step into Kechara House is because of Tara Puja. Before that, i only visited Kechara Paradise to invite holy items. And a staff in Kechara Paradise told me about Puja.
Thanks to the Puja, that is the reason why i came and continue to learn dharma here.
The correct view of a Puja is an expression of compassion for another person or being who is suffering. It can be action or help that we can do for a friend or someone who has obstacles or sickness, or to someone that has passed away.
Puja can be very effective when we care and have compassion or Bodhicitta to that person. If we do not have Bodhicitta now, at least our mind is free of selfishness while doing puja.
When we stop our selfishness, we safe all the energy to cover our ego, hiding, defending etc. We will become a hungry ghost if we die being selfish. Selfishness manifest into many form such as laziness, sleepy, giving up, giving excuses etc.
Sponsoring puja is very good cause it is to make offering to the Buddha. It can also be cooking and supplying for the monks who do prayer for you.
For highly attained lama to scream and even slap us is already a way of purifying our karma. we should not get angry when our guru did that but thank our guru for doing that. It’s the faster way of purifying our bad karma. Hence let go and think it is a blessing from our guru who is one with His yidam such as Yamantaka.
As usual, Rinpoche’s teaching is always simple yet has a deep meaning in it. For someone lazy and slow like me have to read a few times to understand and remember. Thank you Rinpoche.
Dear Rinpoche, for Puja that is being done for someone we don’t know and not even seen them, will it be still as effective? Is there any kind of indication that we can know we are on the right track when doing Puja?
Hi Khoo,
Nice to see you asking this question here on Rinpoche’s blog. We can always dedicate the merits of any puja to just about anyone and it does not matter if we know or not. What matters is our motivation and the power of the sacred words that we say. However, having said that, it is still better if loved ones do the actual puja for that person.
Their karmic affinity and connection makes the blessings more potent for that person. Hence, for funerals, Rinpoche always ensure that the loved ones recite Om Mani Padme Hum 10 malas for the 49 days because of this reason. There are times they are not open to doing prayers, other people can substitute of course. Also if the person has merits to dedicate would also be extremely beneficial like the fact that the person has been doing Dharma work as well. When we do the prayers, the merits is a very powerful dedication to propel the loved ones to a good rebirth. That’s as far as I know through the years of hearing Rinpoche explain about pujas during crucial moment of death.
In any action we do , for it to be effective to bear positive fruit, it must be performed with sincerity and with pure motivation.By sincerity it means we go all the way with it whole heartedly and without twist and turns or excuses.
Although our minds are not pure like an enlightened being’s, we must do things without imposing conditions and selectiveness for self gratification.If we stick to above, we will realize the real miracle is a mind transformed.
Now I know what makes a puja powerful, it is because of the good qualities we are practising. By doing a puja for another person, we are practising care, compassion, generous. Since these are some of the good qualities Buddha wants us to develop, when we apply them we will definitely get the blessing.
Puja at the personal level helps us to calm our mind and be more opened. This is from my personal experience.
Thank you.
Some of us really wish to help others but do not have enough dharma knowledge or skills to be a teacher.When we see someone in need of help and there is no other way to do so, puja is the expression of this strong urge to help.
Rinpoche has kindly established a system whereby local Malaysians received authentic training from monks . Now in KH we have a permanent Puja House for people who wish to sponsor pujas any time of the day. Becoming a member of Kechara’s puja team gives you the opportunity to put your compassionate energy into effective use.
As I review Rinpoche’s post on the power and benefit of pujas, I feel recharged with compassionate energy to go on doing pujas and dedicating them to someone who seems not likely to recover, who continues to be in a coma, and now seems to be getting worse.
In the greater scheme of things, when karma determines the nature of our experiences in this life as well the shape of our future lives, if there are seemingly no clear quick answers to our prayers and pujas now and in the immediate future, surely the compassionate energy that we are seeking from the Buddhas must be directed towards some peaceful outcome for the one we are praying for in a distant future.
If it seems that we cannot see a peaceful outcome in this life, then it must be a peaceful outcome in the next life. Whateever pujas we do must be creating the merits for that person for a future good rebirth? Mightn’t it be that way?And as long as they still live,we should not stop collecting merits for them this side of life.
Dear Madam Lim, i agree with what you shared here. Any offerings made to the Three Jewels is never wasted. Even if we do not see the immediate tangible result due to very heavy karma of many of us, it is ‘stored’ in our merit bank.
I have come across several cases whereby a person’s heavy karma is manifesting ie terminally ill, big financial difficulty, etc and they do not understand the workings of karma and merit. They ask to do a small puja and expect to be healed immediatley. When they dont get their expectation, they get disappointed.
It is likened to a person has very big bank overdarft, credits afew dollars into the account and expect the account to go back into black. Hence, it is important that the sponsor of a puja understands this.
生活的一切都是法，法也是生活。
更意料不到的是，你以为法会这样一个议题将会是沉闷的，内容肯定围绕在法会而已。但是，仁波切就是如此善巧，可以把惰性与修行成果，无私与修行成果结合在一起。它不仅告诉了你关于法会的一切，还告诉了你法会以外，但是又跟生活密切相关的佛法教诲。
感谢仁波切的教诲。
GREAT teaching! A true “Dummies’ Guide” that boils down the “What and Why” of doing Pujas to a few simple, easy-to-understand points:
– doing a puja is an expression of your compassion for another person or being;
– when you do something that supports a puja, even if you’re not doing the puja itself, you’re already doing Dharma work and is an expression of your compassion;
– BUT, do it with the right motivation and do it without selfishness, i.e., when doing a puja for someone, think of and for that person/being wholeheartedly;
– when we are motivated by Bodhicitta or compassion, we tap into our real mind or Buddha nature, thus pushing ourselves to become a Buddha, and so when we help others selflessly, we help ourselves. A win-win situation!
If I missed out any key points, that makes me the King of Dummies but so what? I’m still learning!
Thank you, Rinpoche, for yet another effective teaching!
Paris, thanks for transcribing. Loved your comments from July 8, 2010!
Likheng, thanks for sharing this blog.
Sean
Thank you Rinpoche for this teaching and explanations. Thank you Paris for transcribed it. This teaching is especially important for Puja House staff and volunteers as we do pujas everyday for people who need helps. We must set right motivation and do the pujas correctly, then our pujas will be effective. This is the great way for us to practice and to develop compassion.
Wow, this teaching took my breath away! So humanly to the point, making something as ‘foreign” as puja easy to relate to and understand.
It is true, whenever we know of someone’s suffering, we have the natural desire to offer a helping help. As said, that is the instinct of the Buddha within each and everyone of us. However, in many situations, we struggle with finding an effective method to alleviate the suffering experienced. Perhaps this is why we buy flowers and fruit basket for the sick and dying.
Thank you Rinpoche for showing us another offering we can make to express our care for others in their time of need: offering of Puja.
Hi Rinpcohe and Paris,
Thanks for the sharing on the good article on Puja. Not in all situations, we will have the wisdom of speech and mind and physical ability to help to ease the suffering of our loves one. Thus, Puja will serves as a great outlet to direct our compassion/love/healing/protection and healing power from the Buddha/Protector invoked in a intangible energy to help the individual in suffering. Furthermore, by entrusting the individual to the 3 Jewels, we are rest assure that they are in good hands.
Puja is a great way to accumulate greater stream of merits better in group than individual.
Thanks again for the sharing. The article is timely in strengthening my effort to attend Puja and work harder for benefits of more sentients beings.
Problems arise from the karma we created long ago. When they ripen and manifest, what else can we do but to brave the storm? If we have to go through it one way or another, the least we can do is to try to lessen the effect. Pujas open up a direct line of communication with all the Buddhas from whom we can receive their blessings. The resultant merit from performing these pujas can help to reduce or in some cases resolve the problem. All depends on the inevitability of karma and accumulation of merits. Whatever the outcome, it would only be for the better though we may not see it like that immediately. We usually want a quick fix and doubts may arise when we don’t get the miracle we expected. But would it have been good for us in the long run? Having said that, it would even be better if we stop doing negative deeds that come back to bite us later, and do lots of these pujas before a problem occurs because if successfully purified, it may not even manifest. The problem is, we normally wait till problem ripens, then seek a miracle cure. If we don’t know how to do these pujas, Puja House of Kechara House can come to our rescue.
This teaching is so beneficial to the puja team members, people that join our weekly pujas and all those who seek spiritual help.
Sometimes we feel so helpless watching others suffer and we don’t know how to help them.With the correct understanding on why we pray and the right motivation, isn’t it wonderful we can help others by activating our inner energy?
Thank you Rinpoche for the teaching & clear explanation.
Great explanation of Pujas and other indirect activities we can do to help others as well as our self. Very detail, informative, meaningful and easy to understand. Rinpoche, thank you very much for the teaching and now I have clearer mind and motivation to do dharma practice particularly on pujas.
With folded hands, thank you and appreciate your selfless and compassion in guiding us.
With love,
VP
My! The photos here are so old! Everyone looks so young and slim. Haha. Like Paris i was also not really fond of pujas. But, here I am two years later doing pujas and torma everyday; sometimes up to 5 pujas a day and making torma till 4am. It is all well worth it when people see you and tell you ‘thank you so much for praying for me, the puja really helped me overcome this and that’. Deep down when you ‘feel’ the pain and suffering of the people you do pujas for I guess that itself is the essence of the right ‘motivation’. Am not perfect neither extremely compassionate because initially I did have selfish reasons for doing pujas all the time; I figured out that at least some good will ‘spill out’ and benefit me and my loved ones if I keep doing pujas. After a while all these does not really matter as I realized the pain and problems some people have when they request for pujas to be done for them. My problems became small at times when compared with these poor people. I will continue to do pujas with what miserable abilities I have and hopefully when the time comes I will die while doing puja. Haha.
Hey bro David, I also want to die while doing puja… wow… if that happens, the last thing I do before I die is doing something beneficial for others, rather than doing any other selfish things for myself.
Yes when doing dharma works, especially performing pujas for others, it is very important that we reflect on their pains and sufferings, like that we can set our motivation right to request Buddha to help them 🙂
Just want to say : Thank you Rinpoche _/\__/\__/\_
Thank you Rinpoche for this powerful teaching.
Thank you Rinpoche for your ever active love and compassion! I learned a lot in few months what I haven’t for decades through Your
Eminence’s blogs, video teachings…etc. I feel my veil of ignorance being peeled off layer by layer. May Rinpoche’s teachings and activities touch the lives of many sentient beings far and wide… With Great Reverence,Deki Yangzom.
Thanks, Paris, for sharing this precious teaching. It is quintessential Tsem Rinpoche and I can even hear how he would be delivering this. Thank you, Rinpoche, always for your generosity and courage.
Dear Rinpoche,
I continued ruminating what I explained in the comment posted above.
I will use this experience as a reminder that the Dharma is more than beautiful words. I took refuge and I pray the guru due to the same reason. This should strength my faith and devotion in the Three Jewels and the Three Roots. If I sincerely trust, I will feel their protection and their compassion in all circumstances.
I will not worry anymore even though I still feeling different. Maybe, somehow, it is a blessing; I was developing a thin attachment and an untold pride because I had some sensations. I understand it is an error, also to speak about it with other than the Guru. I try to keep this in mind but I was concerned this time. I would love to understand more about what happened and the consequences but this should not be a distraction. I will focus on my practice, to grasp and follow the teachings in order to practice properly.
Thank you for being open to questions and sorry for wasting your precious time with small questions.
I pray for a humble and pure motivation, in action.
Dear Rinpoche,
I practice Riwo Sangue Tcheu sometimes at home. I share the practice by inviting all those dead or alive that could fit into my imagination, “we” are offering together. This week it was particularly beautiful, with every mantra prayed by us, someone in Avici was freed in a rainbow body (well, we lacked of equanimity, priority was for those suffering there for the longest period).
A feeling of energy was moving, especially on the left side of my body, but it was concentrated on my chest. It was intense and beautiful so I felt as sharing it. Following the feeling, I made a pause with the text in order to visualize a friend. I opened my arms to him and offered what I had on my chest. Immediately, the energy sensation completely disappeared. I was surprised but I continued giving that present (…whatever left) to other friends.
When I finished the puja text -and starting thinking more- I worried a little bit since the sensation that the energy vanished was physical and so real. Additionally, I remembered that in some ceremonies we ask spirits and creditors to “gave us back” the vitality / energy that they took from us. Is it really “my energy”? Is that why we ask them to give it back? and ask goddesses to find it when it has been lost? Is it important to recover that particular energy? in such case, should I ask my friends to give my present back?
In what cases we better ask the raw natural elements for brand new energy?
Even thought in this practice I did not visualized myself as Péma Theuthreng Tsel , I felt as something happened, if that is the case, I hope all my friends are safe and my negative energy stayed with me. I thought that I should have offered the positive fruits that my energy could produce instead of my energy itself. No karmic links or debts?
As history, months ago, before I met this particular friend for the first time, I felt something behind me, when I looked behind I realized I was feeling his heart chakra (never before or after I felt someone else’s energy).
The two days after the puja I was a little bit weak so I practiced another one, this time no presents. Today, after 4 days, I feel as recovering but my chakras are calm. Before, it happened to me to feel vibrations, waves and occasionally the hip moving softly in 8’s like an Arabic dancer. Is that some kind of purification in progress?
Would you please help me to clarify these thoughts? THANK YOU
May this New Year bring spiritual prosperity.
PS – It seems that I am attached to samsara 🙂 🙁 apparently to touch the front with Chang bou removes merit and of course I did it + as soon as I recover some energy I offered it.
Pujas are linked with compassion and generosity. Without the motivation for these two qualities, you won’t be able to help people by doing pujas alone. You must also know the meaning why and how to do the pujas. Generosity does not mean you can only give in monetary. Giving your services by doing and participating in pujas is another way of showing you are not selfish when you pray for other people. I believe Pujas done with compassion and selflessness will definitely invoke the Buddhas or Deity to help the person we are praying for. Combined energies in doing pujas are very effectve. I understand a lot of people in the weekly Setrap Puja had been helped and their problems solved.
This is a beautiful writeup of what pujs is. The phrase ‘puja is an expression of one’s compassion’ was drummed me into me by ngeow who highlighted to some of us how when a realized being speaks the dharma from realisation it differs from someone teaching/speaking just based on pure intellectual understanding. The more dharma we know the better will be the effects of the puja that we participate in.
Really a great read. Thank you Wan for showing this to me.
Dear Joyce,
Rinpoche’s blog has a wealth of information and knowledge and is a source of the teachings Lam Rim. Take your time to go through it has all kinds of topics some serious, some fun and all interesting.
Tonite Setrap Puja end with Mr Ngeow’s brief explanation on Puja. I’ve never look at Puja at a compassionate and caring level. I attend puja with some motives eg: to learn and practice Dharma and also to transform my mind. I guess i havent got the right mindset to dedicate the puja practice and benefit all other sentient beings..all along it is just me, me and me when it comes to puja maybe sometimes i get to do some dedication to fellow devotees family member or etc, but still the main focus is gaining something for myself. The Dharma practice should be motivated by Bodhicitta and i shouldnt expect any spiritual gain for myself only. I have bookmarked this page and will review it whenever I feel I have deviate from the practice from time to time so I can be on the right track together with the Setrap Puja team.
I would like to thank Mr.Ngeow for reminding that of Rinpoche’s teaching are available on line for our daily reflection. I do appreciate the Q&A session whereby we need to look up for the answer from Rinpoche’s blog!
Great way to learn since we might not be able to see Rinpoche personally but thru the blog we can learn so much from him.
For many years many people especially of the Thervarda tradition, as well as atheists disprove of pujas and rituals as nothing but belief and blind faith due to lack of explanations on how they work and their importance. This is a very important article in Buddhism as not many people can provide such a clear and logical explanation of what pujas are especially in english that appeals to the intellectuals.
Now that i understand the main purpose of Pujas, i find myself more willing to go through them. I used to be not able to go through long pujas as it will aggravate my back problem and cause me to get dizzy due to the chanting and sitting. Now i still get them but its no longer a reason for me to not do any or particpate in them.
I’d also like to offer some advice that Rinpoche gave us for when we are doing pujas, especially when we are doing pujas in dedication of a particular person or situation:
1) Take refuge sincerely and deeply in the Three Jewels, with the trust that they can take us all the way to enlightenment
2) Visualise the yidam/deity (e.g. Tsongkhapa, Medicine Buddha, Setrap) as one with our Lama, as it is from and by our Lama’s kindness that all our attainments will arise
3) focus strongly on the person/ situation that this puja is being dedicated for. This also trains our mind to focus outwards on others, instead of just on ourselves, as we have always been used to doing.
Hope this helps and here’s wishing everyone many meaningful, beautiful, effective, beneficial pujas!
I agree that a puja is a means to an end and not the end in itself. At the end of the day, if we’re still nasty horrible people who aren’t putting any effort into transforming our minds, or becoming kinder people than the pujas just become another means for us exert our selfish egos and become attached. (Instead of the puja becoming a means for us to expression our compassion, we become puffed up with pride and think, “I’m so special, everyone should respect me for my mastery over puja”.
As with everything we do in Dharma, our motivation is most important. A puja can be the holiest act in the world if done with the purest and most sincere intention of helping to relieve someone’s suffering and bring them happiness; then again, if the same motivation is generated, the very same benefit could be created by a simple “mundane” action like having a cup of tea to a distressed friend for a cup or paying off someone’s loan.
As Rinpoche frequently reminds us: that one hour per day on the meditation cushion is well and good, but what is more important is what we are doing & how we are acting the other 23 hours in the day.
Hi Paris,
I love your comment on “puffed up pride”! I think we should come up with a Badge of (Dis)Honour with a picture of a strutting peacock that we can give to ourselves as a “gentle” reminder every time we submit to our ego! 🙂
I also liked Rinpoche’s “1-23 hours” reminder. So simple yet so powerful!
Cheers, Sean
This article answers all my questions about why dharma practice sometimes does not bring result. It is not the fault of the Dharma, as in our case the Dharma is pure and received from pure Lamas and pure Lineage. So what then could possibly go wrong if we have been reading or listening to all the dharma teachings we can get our hands on, do our Dharma work, do all the possible pujas available and recite all the mantras we can possibly recite. Still we have very little or no results. Why is that? The crux of the matter is that the basis for any positive result to arise from any Dharma action is selflessness. Therefore, there is really no secret formula for a successful Dharma practice except to practice with the motivation of selflessness and compassion to benefit others. As such, Dharma practice and selfishness resembles water and oil. They cannot mix.
This teaching demystifies what prayers in Buddhist context is all about. Different religions have different connotation affixed to the word “prayers”. In Buddhism, we do not pray to some God as in the Christian faith. If you noticed, not ones is it written in this blog post that Buddhist pray to some God and definately not to some man-made brass statue. How I wish non-Buddhist will be open and seek to understand what statues and prayers in Buddhism is all about.
What I also like very much about this post is how Rinpoche always emphasize on our motivation in everything that we do. Yes, samsaric deluded beings like us can be screwing up in the midst of ringing our bells and chanting away some mantras while sitting in the lotus posture! Rinpoche is very kind to point out to us that what’s very important is our motivation else, in short…it’s just another look good, waste of time activity which Rinpoche does not wish for us to be engaged in.
Very often when someone we know falls sick or meets with an accident, we feel so helpless and anxious. We would very much like to help but we are unable to do anything.
Rinpoche teaches us to direct the energy of wanting to help out of love and care for that person into doing a puja for him or her.
I have heard of many “miracles” that at very crucial moment, the family request all their friends to pray together and then the patient recovered miraculously.
For dharma students that have studied so much on how to generate bodhichitta through logical reasoning, put into practice what you learnt intellectually by taking part in pujas. If you can’t even leave the comfort of your home to do puja at KH
( http://www.kechara.com/kechara-house/pujas/) how else can you be of benefit to others?
Yes you are absolutely right when you mention ‘I have heard of many “miracles” that at very crucial moment, the family request all their friends to pray together and then the patient recovered miraculously’. I myself have so many personal testimonials on the positive effect of pujas.
Whenever someone is sick or in trouble, not only do we give moral support, lend them a shoulder to cry on or be the punching bag or bring them gifts. All that will heal them temporary. But encouraging them to do a puja or sponsor a puja, that will help them to heal spiritually. Both must be done.
We are so fortunate that our Lama has set up the infrastructure for Kechara to help others in all ways.
Mr. Wu,you write with depth and understanding.
Rinpoche’s talk on pujas is absolutely incredible in that it is so clear,relational and heartfelt. For the casual Buddhists, it will definitely clear a lot of questions and doubts in their minds by its simple directness and clear examples.
For serious practitioners,it will improve their knowledge and understanding by its profoundness and depth that can only come from the mouth of one who is realized.
I have never figured out why Buddhists always engage in pujas because I have never read such clear explanations before .All we ever learn if we check on the word puja is its literal definition which says very little of what it really is and how it actually benefits.
I do agree with what rinpoche said in his blog. When there is nothing you can do about the situation, a good way to send your compassion is through puja; If you can help directly then just help.
However, one shall always keep in mind that puja is a skillful mean and it is not the dharma if not driven by bodhicitta or without knowing the meaning behind the rituals. This is principle can be applied to all rituals and even sadhana, remember the rituals and sadhana are tools that help you to reach liberation, they are not the actual path. So do not be attached to rituals until the point that you totally give up on practicing and studying the dharma from the sutra and great work like the lam rim.
To properly learn puja also include the understanding of the meaning of each steps of the puja ritual, integrating them with the actual dharma. Only then, the puja or sadhana become meaningful and will have the power to transform your mind, and through transforming your mind, your behavior and eventually your situation.
I love this writeup. very informative. Jamie used to share that she was never really fond of puja. And now, she really is a puja queen! I think understanding the benefits will propel people to be engaged in the deed.