The practice of prayer inspired by faith and devotion to the Three Jewels—Buddha, Dharma, Sangha—is integral to our spiritual programme and is available in a variety of ways ranging from our elaborate annual festivals to weekly prayer sessions.
These on-going events provide our members and benefactors with ample opportunity to pacify obstacles, purify obscurations, and collect extensive merit. Whether it is to obtain positive results in this life, such as good health, abundance and peace, or to aspire towards the high spiritual aim of liberation from cyclic existence, the scriptures are explicit on the importance and benefits of accumulating merit. In particular, the object of the offerings and prayers is the Buddha, who achieved enlightenment, the perfect state free from all suffering. The accomplishment of Buddhahood is imbued with Eight Powers, one of which is the power of prayer. It is due to the Buddha’s perfection of prayer that vast merits can result from paying homage to the Buddha or to any holy object.
Therefore, with the Three Jewels as the merit field, the practices of making offerings, confessing negativities, prostrating, and reciting auspicious verses of homage and requests form a consistent theme in the prayer texts that we rely on for our pujas and recitations.
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