Popular religious practices
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Like other great religions, Buddhism has generated a wide range of popular practices. Among these, two simple practices are deeply rooted in the experience of the earliest Buddhist community and have remained basic to all Buddhist traditions.
The first is the veneration of the Buddha or other buddhas, bodhisattvas, or saints, which involves showing respect, meditating on the qualities of the Buddha, or giving gifts. Such gifts are often given to the relics of the Buddha, to images made to represent him, and to other traces of his presence, such as places where his footprint can supposedly be seen. After the Buddha’s death the first foci for this sort of veneration seem to have been his relics and the stupas that held them. By the beginning of the Common Era, anthropomorphic images of the Buddha were being produced, and they took their place alongside relics and stupas as focal points for venerating him. Still later, in the context of the Mahayana and Vajrayana traditions, the veneration of other buddhas and bodhisattvas came to supplement or replace the veneration of the Buddha Gautama. In the course of Buddhist history, the forms have become diverse, but the practice of honouring and even worshiping the Buddha or Buddha figure has remained a central component in all Buddhist traditions.
The second basic practice is the exchange that takes place between monks and laypersons. Like the Buddha himself, the monks embody or represent the higher levels of spiritual achievement, which they make available in various ways to the laity. The laity improve their soteriological condition by giving the monks material gifts that function as sacrificial offerings. Although the exchange is structured differently in each Buddhist tradition, it has remained until recently a component in virtually all forms of Buddhist community life.
Both of these practices appear independently within the tradition. The veneration of the Buddha or Buddha figure is a common ritual often practiced independently of other rituals. Moreover, the dana (Pali: “gift-giving”) ritual of the Theravada tradition and similar exchanges between monks and laypersons are performed independently of other rituals. Both of these practices, however, are embedded in one way or another in virtually all other Buddhist rituals, including calendric rituals, pilgrimage rituals, rites of passage, and protective rites.
Calendric rites and pilgrimage
Uposatha
The four monthly holy days of ancient Buddhism, called uposatha, continue to be observed in the Theravada countries of Southeast Asia. The days—the new moon and full moon days of each lunar month and the eighth day following the new and full moons—originated, according to some scholars, in the fast days that preceded the Vedic soma sacrifices. Buddhist laypersons and monks are expected to perform religious duties during the uposatha days.
The uposatha service typically includes the repetition of the precepts, the offering of flowers to the Buddha image, the recitation of Pali suttas, meditation practices, and a sermon by one of the monks for the benefit of those in attendance. The more pious laymen may vow to observe the eight precepts for the duration of the uposatha. These include the five precepts normally observed by all Buddhists—not to kill, steal, lie, take intoxicants, or commit sexual offenses, which came to entail complete sexual continence—as well as injunctions against eating food after noon, attending entertainments or wearing bodily adornments, and sleeping on a luxurious bed. The monks observe the uposatha days by listening to the recitation by one of their members of the patimokkha, or rules of conduct, contained in the Vinaya Pitaka and by confessing any infractions of the rules they have committed.
Anniversaries
The three major events of the Buddha’s life—his birth, enlightenment, and entrance into final nirvana (parinibbana)—are commemorated in all Buddhist countries but not everywhere on the same day. In Theravada countries the three events are all observed together on Vesak (also spelled Wesak), the full moon day of the sixth lunar month (Vesakha), which usually occurs in May. In Japan and other Mahayana countries, however, the three anniversaries of the Buddha are observed on separate days (in some countries the birth date is April 8, the enlightenment date is December 8, and the death date is February 15). Festival days honouring other buddhas and bodhisattvas of the Mahayana and Vajrayana traditions are also observed, and considerable emphasis is placed on anniversaries connected with the patriarchs of certain schools. Padmasambhava’s anniversary, for example, is especially observed by the Rnying-ma-pa sect in Tibet, and the birthday of Nichiren is celebrated by his followers in Japan.
Vassa
The beginning and end of vassa, the three-month rainy-season retreat from July to October, are two of the major festivals of the year among Theravada Buddhists, particularly in Myanmar, Cambodia, Thailand, and Laos. The retreat has largely been given up by Mahayana Buddhists. It is an accepted practice in countries such as Thailand for a layman to take monastic vows for the vassa period and then to return to lay life. Commonly, the number of years a monk has spent in monastic life is expressed by counting up the number of vassas he has observed.
The end of vassa is marked by joyous celebration, and the following month is a major occasion for presenting gifts to monks and acquiring the consequent merit. The kathina, or robe-offering ceremony, is a public event during this period and usually involves a collective effort by a village, a group of villages, or a company to bestow gifts on an entire monastery. A public feast and display of the robes and other presents on a “wishing tree” are the usual components of the ceremony. The kathina celebration culminates in the making and presentation of the mahakathina (“great robe”), a particularly meritorious gift that requires the cooperation of a number of people who, theoretically at least, must produce it—from spinning the thread to stitching the cloth—in a single day and night. The robe commemorates the act of the Buddha’s mother, who, on hearing that he was about to renounce worldly life, wove his first mendicant robes in one night.
Ullambana festival
The importance of the virtues of filial piety and the reverence of ancestors in China and Japan have established Ullambana—often called Hungry Ghost Festival, or Bon (in Japan)— as one of the major Buddhist festivals in those countries. In China worshipers in Buddhist temples make fachuan (“boats of the law”) out of paper, some very large, which are then burned in the evening. The purpose of the celebration is twofold: to remember the dead and to free those who are suffering as pretas, or hungry ghosts, so that they may ascend to heaven. Under the guidance of Buddhist temples, societies (hui, Youlanhui) are formed to carry out the necessary ceremonies—lanterns are lit, monks are invited to recite sacred verses, and offerings of fruit are made. An 8th-century Indian monk, Amoghavajra, is said to have introduced the ceremony into China, from where it was transmitted to Japan. During the Japanese festival of Bon (Obon), two altars are constructed, one to make offerings to the spirits of dead ancestors and the other to make offerings to the souls of those dead who have no peace. Odorinembutsu (the chanting of invocations accompanied by dancing and singing) and invocations to Amida are features of the Bon celebrations.
New Year and harvest festivals
New Year festivals demonstrate Buddhism’s ability to co-opt preexisting local traditions. On the occasion of the New Year, images of the Buddha in some countries are taken in procession through the streets. Worshipers visit Buddhist sanctuaries and circumambulate a stupa or a sacred image, and monks are given food and other gifts. Songkran, a New Year festival in Thailand and neighboring countries of Southeast Asia, combines Buddhist ritual practices with jubilant public water fights. One of the most remarkable examples of the absorption of a local New Year’s celebration in Buddhist practice was the Smonlam festival in Tibet, celebrated on a large scale in Lhasa until the beginning of Chinese communist rule in 1959. The festival was instituted in 1408 by Tsong-kha-pa, the founder of the Dge-lugs-pa (Gelukpa) sect, who transformed an old custom into a Buddhist festivity. Smonlam took place at the beginning of the winter thaw, when caravans began to set out once again and the hunting season was resumed. The observances included exorcistic ceremonies performed privately within each family to remove evil forces lying in wait for individuals as well as for the community as a whole. They also included propitiatory rites performed to ward off evil such as droughts, epidemics, or hail during the coming year. During the more public propitiatory rites, the sangha cooperated with the laity by invoking the merciful forces that watch over good order, and processions, fireworks, and various amusements created an atmosphere of hopefulness. Through the collaboration of the monastic community and the laity, a general reserve of good karma was accumulated to see everyone through the dangerous moment of passage from the old year to the new.
Harvest festivals also provide Buddhism an opportunity to adopt local customs and adapt them to the Buddhist calendar. The harvest festival celebrated in the Tibetan villages during the eighth lunar month was quite different from the New Year ceremonies. Most commonly, offerings of thanks were made to local deities in rites that were only externally Buddhist. The same interplay between Buddhism and folk tradition is observable elsewhere. At harvest time in Sri Lanka, for example, there is a “first fruits” ceremony that entails offering the Buddha a large bowl of milk and rice. Moreover, an integral part of the harvest celebrations in many Buddhist countries is the sacred performance of an episode in the life of a buddha or a bodhisattva. In Tibet troupes of actors specialize in performances of Buddhist legends. In Thailand the recitation of the story of Phra Wes (Pali: Vessantara) constitutes one of the most important festival events of the agricultural calendar.