BLESSED IS THE BLAMELESS LIFE

In every Buddhist household, whether it is an ultra-modern concrete and steel affair, or a bamboo and thatch hut, there is a special corner, usually higher than the flooring reserved for the shrine.Depending on the wealth of the household, the will be dominated calender or one or more image, with offering are made by an average Buddhist at least one a day with the recitation of some denotational verses in Pali and in Myanmar . Thus, a Buddhist recites daily at house-hold shrine:

I take refuge in the Buddha
I take refuge in the Dhamma( His Teaching)
I take refuge in the Sangha ( Community of monk)

A Buddhist does not worship the Buddha, or his likeness in images, or the stupas, and does not pray in the accepted sense of the world, because the Buddha does not claim to be any other than a human being, pure and simple, with no inspiration from any external power. If the Buddha is to be called a saviour at all it is only in the sense that he discovered the Path to Liberation or Cessation of Suffering. But it is only through an the path.

Daily offering at household shrine and recitations are but the first steps towards the Path. Offering of flowers and candles satisfy one's aesthetic sense, and recitations in praise of the Buddha are conducive to mental serenity.

All these are means to an end, which to realize the Truth the Buddha taught. If you ask a Buddhist why he does his devotions at the household shrine, or goes to the pagodas with offerings, his answer will be just “I do this to gain meant and finally to attain the Goal, Nibbana.”  Chances are that he may not deign to explain what is meant by “gaining merit” or attaining Nibbana
For those who have been Buddhists for 20 centuries, generation after generation, such expression are accepted without any need to probe into their real meaning. The most an average Buddhist  will say is that he de does meritorious deed so that he can go round the cycle of rebirth without, on the one side, falling into lower lives as animals, homeless ghosts or worse, as inmates of hell, and also so that he on the other side, may go even higher up with a life perhaps as a celestial or at least as human being in comfortable circumstances endowed with intellect to know that teaching of the Buddha. Of course the final goal is cessation of suffering.

Doing meritorious deeds is based on the acceptance to Kamma. Kamma means all kind of intentional actions, mental, verbal, physical, that is, all thoughts, word and deeds. Good Kamma has good results and bad kamma, bad results. There is no element of reward and punishment by any outside power in the Law of Kamma. If good action produces good effect, bad action produce  bad results, it is neither justice nor reward meted out by any power sitting in judgement on any one’s action, but it is in viture of its own nature, its own law.

to be continue..