10/02/2019
Buddhist attitude towards ritual, ceremonies, and methodologies of it
Ven. Mahiyangane Wisuddhananda
Introduction
Anyone could not find evidences where, how, when origin of the rituals and religion’s. However, religions and rituals are there. These idea most valuable to theistic religions, at the very beginning, there are no religions but some ritualistic items are there. Eventually it became religion type with rituals. Now we call it religion. Any religion in the world there are separate ritual and ceremonies item. When examine this matter we have to discuss both aspect together. Because of, between Religions and rituals have very close relationship. People always try to offer, pray or worship for the name of their religious leader or invisible creator. However eventually it became ceremonies type. My attempt here studies for the ‘Buddhist attitude towards rituals and ceremonies’. In addition to through this article, I would like to examine methodologies of rituals and ceremonies in Buddhism. Whether the Buddha approved or not rituals and ceremonies.
Nature of rites and rituals
Every religious have hereditary teachings. When referring attention about early Buddhism it did not give any special place to the rites or rituals. Prof. Y. Karunadasa says that there are no Buddha puja, Bodhi puja, Dhatu puja and Devapuja in the noble path. From the right understanding to the right concentration of Buddhist path does not mention about any rituals in any place. People perform rituals to get protection and to refrain from fear. According to R. H. Turner, by the passage of time, people exceed the doctrinal limitations. Furthermore, he mentions basic features of a religion as follows,
01. Sacred and Supernatural
02. Beliefs and Values,
03. Cults and Rituals
When spread Buddhism in many countries, rituals item prevalent entered into the Buddhism. Therefore, Buddhism had to change sometime according to cultures of those countries. When we aware of Sri Lanka these facts can be seen. Ritual has many aspects that may be sacred aspect or the secular world aspects. In Sir Lanaka, rituals act classified under three heads
1. Acts performed for the acquisition of merit. By did merit and they expect to offer semi-temporal rewards of comfort and happiness here and in the heavenly worlds in future lives
2. Acts directed towards securing worldly prosperity and averting calamities through disease and unseen forces of evil, e.g. pirit chanting, Bodhi-puja, etc.
3. They derive their power and authority primarily through the superhuman power of the Buddha and through the hosts of spirits, not only Buddha but also the power of Three Refuges, the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha as a whole.
When considering this context, the ritual is usually set apart as a body of customs specially associated with religious performance. The word ritual has used in many different fields and aspect. For the clergyman ritual means that all religious activities necessarily take place inside a religious place in accordance with formal religious rules. For the psychiatrist ritual means that private compulsions of individuals. For an anthropologist it means a category of human standardized behavior. Different methods use to perform the sacred rites such as verbally, physically and mentally. The rites and rituals are ornamentation or a decoration to beautify a religion in order to attract the public. Some people believe when practice rituals constantly it provide a psychological help to success their activities, not only activities but also their mental and physical health too. However, one can practice religion without any rituals. In Buddhism later added the lots of rituals and customs items. Many rituals are later tendencies in Buddhism. Therefore, anyone can practice Buddhism without rites and rituals. Moreover, they can achieve final goal of Buddhism. When we consider about rituals, in the society can be seen various type of rituals and customs by create of human. It can be categorized as follows
1. Primitive rituals
2. traditional rituals
see more පාටවශාස්ත්රීය සංග්රහය, (සංස්.) කවුඩාගම්මන රතනසාර හිමිඇතුළු පිරිස, ඇස්. ගොඩගේ සහ සහෝදරයෝ, කොළඹ, 2016. පිටු 201-211.
