On the Difference Between Practicing by Oneself and Attending Temple Prayers
by Khenpo Tashi
Our temple prayers are not ordinary at all! Maybe, if I say this, you will just doubt, thinking, “Of course you will say that! You are a monk!” Haha! That’s true, that’s true.
We say prayers in Buddhism are for earning merit and purifying negative Karma. But, for modern people, this explanation doesn’t work anymore?
Great masters wrote these prayers. Their realization of Dharma is far, far, far from ours.
PURIFYING NEGATIVE KARMA
Anyway, for those who want to know, for all kinds of sufferings, the main causes of sufferings are our past negative Karma. Negative thoughts, speech and actions. If there is no negative seed, the proper result cannot arise! No way, no way!
So, to purify Karma, we confess, we regret, we wash. Many negative seeds can be purified before they ripen. How good is that? All of these are in the prayers. Any prayer of the temple, these are all inside. A lot of them.
Actually, so many opportunities in ONE PRAYER to purify past negative Karma, before they fully ripen.
But, do we grab these opportunities? We should be like a hungry person, always finding ways to purify our negative Karma. I don’t know if we do this.
ACCUMULATING MERIT
Then, same for merit accumulation. All these enjoyments and wealth that we have right now. Do you think they are random or given by someone?
Patrul Rinpoche said in Words of My Perfect Teacher, that, in the Law of Karma, even if we work so hard for how many millions of years, if we don’t have past seeds of generosity, we cannot gather or retain any wealth, no way, no way. That is true? Check the situations around us!
Also, as for merit about understanding the Dharma, we need past seeds of faith, trust, devotion to appreciate and understand the Dharma more and more.
Actually, Dharma is a little hard. There are other problems, the distractions, lacking interest, and obstacles.
For instance, in one teaching, after listening for a few seconds, suddenly, our mind already starts wandering to another topic. Maybe we are there (physically present), but our mind wanders more time on other topics than listen to the Dharma. Haha! (how sad!)
These are some examples of what ‘lack of merit’ means. They look like obstacles.
The prayers in our temple have lots of opportunities to accumulate seeds of merit! So many there!
CHANTING TOGETHER
Then, it is said in one Sutra that we accumulate the merit equal to the number of people chanting the same prayer together. So, if there are 30 people present, we accumulate 30 times the merit. They also accumulate the same.
Finally, because of the environment in the temple and the monks’ chanting is more, like, standard (rythmic), I think, more people can concentrate better. Seeing all the holy objects also, they feel more inspired.
So anyway, we have complete prayers. Very precious, not ordinary at all. We also check our motivation, faith, sincerity and devotion, strong desire for the Three Jewels.
When we chant a prayer, all these things will make the prayer more effective.