Sogyal Rinpoche on Prayer in Buddhism

My understanding in the Vajrayana is that there are Wishing Prayers, and Aspiration Prayers. Wishing prayers are for others to be relieved of suffering and can be prayed to Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. Aspiration prayers are strong aspirations on the bodhisattva path.

Some Zen people may not pray in the West, but a visit to Japan or China will quickly demonstrate that the large majority of Zen practitioners do in fact fact pray. All Zen temples hold daily prayer services, Zen laypeople are instructed by the headquarters to pray daily at their home altars, Zen temples are littered with statues that are prayed to, and Zen temples do a brisk business is selling prayer tablets and good luck charms. Zen priests cannot be certified as lineage holders until they demonstrate mastery of the prayer services of their traditions. Hakuin, Dogen, and other major orthodox figures specifically encourage their followers to pray. Most Zen people (i.e. people living in Asia) would be baffled to learn that they do not pray.

Jeff — I think we’re experiencing semantic confusion. Western zennies also have liturgy services that involve chanting, bowing, and putting our palms together, and it looks a lot like praying. We just don’t call it “praying”; the word “prayer” is not exactly forbidden but is considered inaccurate, since there is no God involved. Our liturgies are adapted from Japanese liturgy services, although they are partly translated into English. So we’re doing pretty much the same stuff they do in Japan; we just don’t call it “praying.” You have to be careful when translating Japanese into English, because sometimes the English words used in translation really don’t have the same meaning. They’re just kind of approximate.

It might indeed be semantic confusion. But I’m not sure. What most Asian Zen people–clergy and laity alike–do is pray to specific buddhas, bodhisattvas, deities, saints, and ancestors that they believe are supernatural beings and can provide them with a range of direct services, from faith-healing to salvation in the Pure Land to enlightenment. They also venerate these figures in devotional prayer as powerful, superior figures worthy of worship and love. Certainly Soto Shu headquarters is not shy about using the word “pray” in its English language texts, and uses the equivalent term in Japanese texts, telling followers to pray to the Buddha and to their ancestors, to go to the Zen temple in order to pray for the safety of the family, and so on. Indeed, these prayer activities are far more common and widespread than silent meditation in Zen. But you’re right that they do not pray to a monotheistic God, so if we restrict our definition of prayer in that way, then this would not be prayer.

What most Asian Zen people — clergy and laity alike — do is pray to specific buddhas, bodhisattvas, deities, saints, and ancestors that they believe are supernatural beings and can provide them with a range of direct services, from faith-healing to salvation in the Pure Land to enlightenment.

Again, we have liturgies that invoke the buddhas and bodhisattvas, but we don’t pray to them as “others,” since nothing is really separate, and Dogen’s writings agree with that. So much of what we’re discussing here isn’t so much the practice but how we conceptualize practice. The way Sogyal Rinpoche talks about buddhas and bodhisattvas as if they were separate, self-autonomous beings is not something you hear in Zen in the West. but it may not be something you’d hear in upper-level Kalachakra, either. What’s said in front of beginners and what’s said in front of advanced students can be two different things.

pray   [prey] verb (used with object)
1. to offer devout petition, praise, thanks, etc., to (God or an object of worship).
2. to offer (a prayer).
3. to bring, put, etc., by praying: to pray a soul into heaven.
4. to make earnest petition to (a person).
5. to make petition or entreaty for; crave: She prayed his forgiveness.

Prayer, extreme praise or requesting.

I think the Western part is the key here. In Japan and China, the clergy and laypeople I’ve talked to affirmed a belief in these as real entities, separate from themselves, who come to people’s aid when prayed to. In the West, converts don’t like these ideas, so they choose instead to ignore official Soto Shu Shumucho teachings that clearly depict these as supernatural beings. I say converts, because Japanese-American Zen practitioners whom I have interviewed likewise affirmed these as real, living beings. In other words, there isn’t one Zen answer on this issue. The mainstream, majority answer is that Zen people do pray and do receive miraculous help from supernatural entities. The minority position is that Zen people do not pray, they merely “venerate” or “invoke” beings that are actually aspects of their own nature. Both are Zen approaches.

In the West, converts don’t like these ideas, so they choose instead to ignore official Soto Shu Shumucho teachings that clearly depict these as supernatural beings.

It’s not a matter of choosing. According to Buddhist doctrine, there can be no separate beings, supernatural or otherwise. You and I are not really separate beings, either. I realize that in parts of Asia animistic beliefs linger and get mixed into Buddhism, but strictly speaking the iconic beings are not separate from us.

Again, the difference here is not in practice, but in conceptualization, nor is it a matter of what western students “choose” to do. We follow the teachings of the Asian masters, including Dogen.

Perhaps then the crux of the matter is the idea of “separate.” On a philosophical level, Zen Buddhists in Asia are able to affirm that everything is connected, so you are not separate from I. On a practice level, however, Zen Buddhists in Asia act as if there are separate entities called Shakyamuni Buddha, Amida Buddha, Kannon Bodhisattva, Jizo Bodhisattva, and so on. And, when asked, they say they believe in these entities and pray to to them, expecting to receive miraculous benefits. When they receive these miraculous benefits (for example, when a Zen priest performs faith-healing and the recipient gets better, or when a Zen layperson prays at their temple for a better job and they receive a promotion), they explain that their prayers made it happen through the supernatural intervention of the buddhas and ancestors. In the same way, they register for passports, sign marriage licenses, report for their own jobs, and so on–they can philosophically affirm that there is no real “I” and that others are not separate and so they could just as easily switch places with one another, but on a practice level in everyday life they do in fact act as if they are discreet individuals (rather than a formless mass) and when asked they say they believe they are real people, with specific individual names, specific individual passport numbers, specific jobs, and so on.

Western Zen students do not pray nearly as much as their Japanese counterparts (or as much as Dogen and Keizan Zenji did, for that matter). This causes many to assume that prayer is marginal in Zen, whereas it is without a doubt the most common of Zen activities. Just read any Japanese ethnography of a Zen community, or, better yet, spend some extended time in Japan observing the regular practices of Zen people. Few Western Zen adherents seem aware that faith-healing, exorcism, sutra-chanting in order to receive magical benefits, and prayers to directly alter the afterlife fate of the dead are common, mainstream Zen practices that stretch back all the way to the founding days of Zen in Japan. Again, when Western converts pray they claim they are not praying, which causes many to believe that prayer is not really something other Zen Buddhists do, even though when asked the average Zen cleric or layperson in Japan affirms that they do pray, to beings they believe are real and more supernaturally powerful than themselves, and from whom they hope to receive tangible and spiritual benefits.

My point isn’t that people who do it the Western way are wrong or not Zen. I don’t believe that and would never support such a view. Zen is a diverse religion with room for multiple approaches. But as someone who has lived in Japan, who speaks Japanese, who has done zazen at Japanese temples, who visits Zen temples in Japan regularly, I have to affirm the basic fact that Japanese Zen people pray, they pray a lot, and they really do mean it. This may be hard for Westerners to swallow based on the prayer-shorn traditions that have been transmitted to us, but all of our disbelief won’t cause Japanese Zen to stop being chock full of prayer. In Zen, seeing things as they are is highly prized, and for that reason I believe we have to see Zen for what it is–a tradition with lots of prayer, and a minority Western strain that feels queasy about prayer and seeks to minimize it. If that works for us, OK (and I really mean that). We should at the same time have the respect to acknowledge what works for them and not try to explain it away in ways that do not in fact fit the actual self-understandings of most Japanese Zen practitioners.

Jeff — it is perilous to assume how people understand things based on how they act. Zen in particular is extremely difficult to understand; the surface meaning of words and acts can be very deceptive. As I said in my original post, we invoke, and the difference between prayer and invocation is extremely subtle. So our western sangha chants the same invocations to Shakyamuni Buddha, Kannon Bosatsu, etc. that are chanted in Japan — some of it in Japanese — and we go through very similar forms of bowing, incense lighting, etc., and if you were to come and watch us you might assume we were praying, because that’s what it looks like. And some might call it prayer, but I think most of us prefer not to call it that, because “prayer” to us connotes addressing an “other.”

As far as the separation thing is concerned, this is not a matter of debate. This is bedrock, foundational Mahayana Buddhist teaching — all phenomena are empty of essential self; how can there be “this” or “that”? The delusion of a separate self is the fundamental ignorance of the Three Poisons. You cannot get more basic in Buddhism than this. We read over and over again in the ancient texts that there are “not two.” However, because language doesn’t function unless you break things up into nouns and verbs, we cannot speak of reality without breaking it up into pieces.

I am not trying to “explain away” or disrespect anything. I’m saying you don’t understand Buddhism.

BTW, there’s a nice panel discussion on prayer in Buddhism here.

I agree, it is perilous to simply go on observations of how people act. That is why I am asserting that Zen Buddhists pray to entities they believe in as actual, supernatural figures, from whom they expect to receive miraculous benefits (as well as spiritual guidance), based on having actually discussed with many of them what they are doing, why they are doing it, and how they believe in what they are doing. Furthermore, I am going on what they have written about what they do and believe. What I am asserting here is in no way a secret or somehow a strange opinion in Japan–just go to Japan and start asking around, or read Japanese-language works on the subject. You will quickly find that I am not making this up or failing to understand the subtleties of Zen view. I’m not trying to push my own opinion here, I’m trying to point out the opinions of many actual Zen Buddhists themselves, with whom I’ve had years of contact in Japan itself (and in China, though I’ve spent less time there). I believe we should respect the opinions of these religious practitioners and not try to explain them in a manner that they do not themselves do, attributing to them a view that they do not in fact share. This does not mean we must ourselves share such approaches, or that their approach to Zen means our approach is not valid.

I’m not suggesting that the teachings on emptiness and interdependence are wrong. But I am suggesting that those teachings in no way prevent actual Zen Buddhists from believing in the reality of supernatural saviors and directing petitionary and devotional prayers to these saviors on a daily basis, with the belief that these beings exist and that they provide magical benefits and spiritual support. Right now, next to me on my desk, is a votive tablet I purchased at a traditional Zen temple in Japan. The monk who sold it to me explained that I should make a wish for something, such as to find a mate, to receive money, or to have an illness cured. Then I should write my prayer on the back of the tablet and hang it at the temple, where the buddhas and gods would read it and grant my wish. Obviously, I declined to do so, since it is sitting here with me. But there were hundreds of such prayer tablets hanging already at the temple, and there are hundreds of thousands (probably, millions) of such prayers hanging in Zen temples throughout Japan at this very moment. Zen temples promote prayer and use of these tablets, and they are a serious money-making operation for the temples. Meanwhile, people actually spend their hard-earned money on such things because they believe their prayers really will be answered in tangible, measurable ways due to the supernatural intervention of the buddhas and kami. They trust the Zen temples and the monks who promote these beliefs that these are true, not lies to get their money. After all, such prayers are common at virtually all Zen temples. Eiheiji, for example, the monastery founded by Dogen, is a major temple for such prayers, where Zen people travel from all over Japan to get the monks there to pray for them (which, of course, is a service they pay for).

If we wish to discard the word prayer (even though they themselves use it), that is OK with me. But in that case we still need to find another word that accurately represents the fact that Zen Buddhists regularly petition supernatural entities for benefits and worship such figures as superior beings deserving of devotion, and that these activities are engaged in by both priests and laypeople who believe they will personally receive miraculous rewards and spiritual support from these entities as recompense for such activities, which take place daily in nearly all Zen temples and at home altars across Japan. I don’t know that that alternate word for these activities is, but I’m entirely open to considering whatever suggestions you have. I have found prayer to be accurate in capturing the way these Zen people practice and understand their practice, but that doesn’t mean we can’t keep looking for even better words, if they exist.

Thank you for that link to the Buddhadharma article. Although we cannot take four individuals talking in a Western Buddhist magazine as representative of all of Buddhism and all Buddhist attitudes, it is a nice opening discussion. We should note that Okumura Sensei at no point says that Zen Buddhists don’t pray. He notes that original Buddhists supposedly didn’t pray, but says nothing about Zen Buddhists of the last 800 years not praying. That’s natural, since he knows what the real situation is in Japan and is familiar with Soto Shu history.

I’m not filling this thread with comments to be obstinate. I just feel that we should respect our religious brethren in Japan and try to represent them in the way they themselves actually understand themselves and what they are doing, not the way we imagine or wish they would be. I’ve spent plenty of time amongst them, and they haven’t been shy about asserting that they do in fact pray, and I take this as important information that ought to be acknowledged in discussions of Zen and prayer.

That is why I am asserting that Zen Buddhists pray to entities they believe in as actual, supernatural figures, from whom they expect to receive miraculous benefits (as well as spiritual guidance), based on having actually discussed with many of them what they are doing, why they are doing it, and how they believe in what they are doing.

Perhaps they do believe those things, but this is antithetical to Buddhism itself and is most certainly not the “standard” of the Soto Zen tradition through the ages. By the same token a lot of Asian Buddhists believe in reincarnation, as in the transmigration of a soul, even though the historical Buddha explicitly taught there was no such thing. So we have to make a distinction — is something “Buddhist” because it is a doctrine taught by the historical Buddha and the many generations of scholars and masters, or is “Buddhism” anything lots of Buddhists believe, dharma or not? I go with the former.

Your continued diatribe over “prayer” became anal and meaningless a couple of comments ago, but I hesitate to cut people off. However, you are done now.

I was born in Japan myself, though by no means an expert as I wasn’t raised there, but continue to learn about the country and am teaching myself the language in my spare time. I’m curious if it’s possible if what Jeff has noticed in Japan, is a mixing of Zen and Shinto. It’s just the way he described parts of it reminded me of Shinto. It’s not uncommon for Japanese people to mix religions (it’s happening in other countries as well of course). There’s a bit of Christianity being mixed into some of the religions there, especially when it comes to weddings.

“What’s said in front of beginners and what’s said in front of advanced students can be two different things.”

I think this is a key point — to acknowledge that what’s an appropriate view for one practitioner, may not be appropriate for another practitioner — and that as we mature, our understanding will deepen.

Similarly, any practice will be understood at a level consistent with the specific practitioner’s maturity. So two practitioners may be engaged in an activity (e.g. “praying”) that looks exactly the same externally, while having two completely different internal experiences, based upon their differing levels of understanding.

It’s kind of like: I could give a kindergarten student – who has just learned the alphabet – a copy of the Complete Works Of William Shakespeare. Their practice of “reading Shakespeare” would consist of no more than leafing through the pages of the book, and being able to recognize various letters of the alphabet.

A junior high school student’s version of “reading Shakespeare” would include not only recognizing letters of the alphabet, but also recognizing words and reading entire sentences; and having some sense of a story – a meaning intended by the sentences.

A graduate student writing their dissertation on Shakespeare would have a much more sophisticated way of “reading Shakespeare.”

And so it is with spiritual practices, praying/invocation included. We likely begin with a completely dualistic relationship to it, but as we progress on the path, our relationship to the practice shifts — until at some point we recognize that we are, and always have been, William Shakespeare

There seems to be a disconnect here. Sogyal Rinpoche is a Tibetan buddhist, which is of the Vajrayana, Tantra and Dzogchen schools. He used the word prayer most likely to explain a part of the practice in terms familiar to the listeners. However, he made clear that it wasn’t “prayer” in the same sense as many know it. He stated that it’s invocation. Tibetan Buddhism is not Zen.

As Barbara stated in an early reply: “Again, we have liturgies that invoke the buddhas and bodhisattvas, but we don’t pray to them as “others,” since nothing is really separate, and Dogen’s writings agree with that. So much of what we’re discussing here isn’t so much the practice but how we conceptualize practice. The way Sogyal Rinpoche talks about buddhas and bodhisattvas as if they were separate, self-autonomous beings is not something you hear in Zen in the West. but it may not be something you’d hear in upper-level Kalachakra, either. What’s said in front of beginners and what’s said in front of advanced students can be two different things.”

Thank you Barbara, this comment seems to have gotten lost and as a student of SR, I couldn’t agree with you more. It’s the concepts around the practice and with this being more or less something public or beginners, its a gradual introduction to what he means when he calls it prayer, its also liturgy or invocation, but once understood there are no seperate, autonomous buddhas / bodhisattvas. I’ve often felt SR has a wonderful way of gradually wiping away concepts. This probably comes across like a sound bite for many unfamiliar with the teachings.

Barabara, you are wonderful and it’s an honor to read the articles. I learn so much about other practices from your discussions.

This is Zen: When you need to pray, you pray. When you don’t need to pray, you don’t.

This my understanding on being Zen-ner: When you need to pray, you pray. When you don’t need to pray, you don’t.

This Individual programming to collective, west is different from Asia. India different from China. China different from Japan, Japan from west..so on….to unclutter, eventually west should have its own form of “buddhism” till then, this copying will continue and the confusion also.

eventually west should have its own form of “buddhism”� till then, this copying will continue and the confusion also.

Who says we’re “copying?” I don’t see “copying,” and I think it’s an insult to dedicated western Buddhists to say that all we’re doing is “copying.” And “confusion” is resolved by practice.

Hi,

Jeff is totally right. To say that Buddhists don’t pray is just plain nonsense.

The busiest time in East Asian temples, in cluding Zen temples, (after Buddha’s Birthday) is the university exam season when you can’t move for the families praying for good grades.

And most Buddhist ceremonies involve prayer. Daily in Zen temples in Japan and Korea people chant the names of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas and carry out prostrations etc – followed by prayer. Prayers for family members etc. Many people add photos of their families to their chant books for example.

Then ask them what they were doing, and they’ll say – praying to the Buddha to make my mother well, or praying to the Bodhisattva to get a job, etc. What else is this other than prayer?

The same here in Thailand. What are all those people doing in the temples when they kneel and place their hands together and say their prayers? Many of them are directly addressing the Buddha, or a famous dead monk, or a semi-divine ex-king, etc, to help them with exactly the same things that Christians prayer for help with.

Ten years ago, a month or so after meeting my Tha wife, I had a job interview coming up and we prayed together to her stone monk for help with it.

Back to Zen….. Remember, the Bodhisattva of Compassion hears and responds to every cry.

Marcus

To say that Buddhists don’t pray is just plain nonsense.

I didn’t say that Buddhists don’t pray. Certainly, many do. I just mentioned that some of the things Sogyal Rinpoche, a Tibetan teacher, said in the video would seem very odd if spoken in a Zen center. I stand by that.

The busiest time in East Asian temples, in cluding Zen temples, (after Buddha’s Birthday) is the university exam season when you can’t move for the families praying for good grades.

And I would argue this is more of a folk tradition than Buddhism. There is no basis for praying for good grades in the Buddha’s teaching.

Back to Zen — .. Remember, the Bodhisattva of Compassion hears and responds to every cry.

Yes, and who is the Bodhisattva of Compassion, and how does the bodhisattva respond?

Perhaps they do sincerely pray to the bodhisattvas for intervention, aid, etc. Reguardless, this is against what the Buddha taught us.

A great example of a similar scenario but in another religion would be Catholicism and the saints in Latin America. Many Catholics have cards, altars, statues, and jewelry entirely dedicated to praying to saints. Many Catholics claim that they are simply asking for the saints to pray for them, (which is considered Biblical), but with a quick reading of the prayers and rituals it is apparent that they are indeed asking for the saints to heal their children, aid them on a test, etc – and not ask God to help them. That is considered unbiblical and non-Christian based on the teachings of Jesus, yet those devout Christians do it anyway.

In the same way, these Buddhists may indeed be praying for intervention from the Bodhisattvas even though it was taught to be a hindrance and against some of the fundamental teachings of the Buddha in that there is no external savior, “you yourself must walk the path, the buddhas can only show you the way” (or something to that effect).

Great post Barbara.

Thank you for the mention