The word ”prayer” means to pray so that what you wish for will be granted. Normally it refers to an act the intent of which is to achieve something depending on a higher power in a situation where one cannot do anything with one’s own power. Consequently, this act of prayer became the driving force that gave birth to primitive religion.
That is to say, as a human, which was a being whose weakness before the great forces of nature was incomparable, one could not help having a feeling of awe with regards to nature, and moreover had no other choice but to adapt oneself to the flow of nature. Here it was that the various primitive religions were born. Consequently, one could regard prayer as possesing the most primitive mode of faith. However, while humanity’s civilization gradually developed, we further created a system within religion that was rational and theoretical with regards to the object of this faith.
However the various religions of the Orient have divested themselves of the religious outlook centered on the gods that came out of this primitive faith, and made their goal the ultimate realization of the ideal, which humanity must pursue. Buddhism and Confucianism are representative examples of this.
Thus Western religionists also strive to classify Buddhism and Confucianism as philosophies rather than religions. However, Buddhism is not a philosophy, it is a religion.
This is because Buddhism is a concrete philosophy of life and methodology for emancipating sentient beings. The place in which these religious features are most extant is prayer. Because prayer is the last hope of a human being confronting a state of limitation. The buddhist spirit of compassion and world redemption cannot disregard the prayer of these human beings. Thus, many Buddhas and Bodhisattvas who lend ear to their wishes have come into the world. They have vowed to rescue people from all the hardships that human beings are undergoing and to bring to completion a supreme realm that the people of this world are wishing for.
Our hope which is accomplished and completed in this way makes a gorgeous flower bloom with the name of ”the original vow power of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas”. Now everything has been accomplished and everything has been completed. But where is it completed? Later on I will explain the concept of Buddha-recitation, but as has been stressed time and again it is not something which exists as a substance that is fixed to the outside world. It is the nature of our lives and is composed of itself which is the source of the universe, and as we rest and drink water already we are carrying on life within its benevolence. If we say that I am a wave, then it is the ocean. If we look at the globe from the outside, will we able to find a being called ”I”? Merely something that has become one among great spherical things called ”globes”.
In this way, we are all waves which appear and disappear, and just like waves cannot leave the ocean, we ourselves are not seperate from the source.
The supernatural powers of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas are not seperate from me, if I will only realize this. However, sentient beings who are ignorant and who have many doubts are not able to believe this and are wandering in the midst of suffering, so it is their practice to make them divest themselves of this kind of ignorance. Thus, all the ways of practice that are spoken of later on will ultimately let me realize my essence and the source of the universe and will let me divest myself of all evil fetters and shackles.
However, this ignorance is solidly lumped together through karma that has been piled up during innumerable kalpas, so removing even a little of it is hard. Moreover, with regards to enlightenment, since there is no promise as to how long it will take, the path of practice is consider even harder. If someone where to ask whether one is enlightened by reading a single word from the four line gathas of the Buddhist sutras, there are situations where a person cannot even take one single step even if he spends his whole lifetime on it. To exactly this kind of person, prayer is necessary. When exactly I will be able to attain enlightenment seems to be something altogether impossible to answer. At such a time, one must think of the many Buddhas and Bodhisattvas who attain enlightenment first, and then make efforts to rescue sentient beings.
Were they not also born as human beings just like us, and have they not attained enlightenment after cultivating the Bodhisattva practices for an infinite number of years and months? In what way am I different from them? It is not merely that they have exerted themselves, they promise that I too will devote myself even more zealously by thinking of them.
Prayer within Buddhism is exactly like this, and accordingly, since such prayer eventually becomes the enlightened nature, it is a way of practice. Although there might be cricism regarding the question of whether prayer is a practice, in this sense I stress that prayer is a way of practice which is certainly necessary for the novice.
Accordingly, as a practice, prayer is not where I ask an external object to carry something out for me, it is where I make a wish to achieve something and promise myself to attain the power to fulfill that wish.
But although this is the meaning of prayer, can we advocate a mere general rule to people who are faced with a situation of immediate urgency? They have neither the power nor the time to understand the principles of prayer or to abandon the path through their strength. With regards to the skillful means of praying for them, it is not known how great its power is. If people are buddhists they will all acknowedge that the sutras are truthful talks. In the sutras, appear the vows of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, and moreover it is said that they have fulfilled they have fulfilled those vows and have been able to free themselves from all hardships by their virtues.
It is said that a person who has fallen in the water grasps even if it is to nothing other than a straw, so how should one have the ability to not believe in these words? It exhibits ones earnest desire to divest oneself of suffering and ones hope that faith in the supernatural powers of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas has the ability to free one from suffering and ones powerful strength. In reality one is saved from suffering depending on such a poweful faith and strength of hope. At first, while one has faith one finds peace of mind, and while one has hope ones life is transformed from what it was before.
If one tries to be absorbed in prayer all ones carnal desires will disappear, and ones distracted and anxious mind will find tranquility. If one tries to pray like this, one wil experience samadhi where one’s spirit will be pure and tranquil and even time and space will disappear and even one's self will disappear. At his time usually the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas will appear and will either touch one’s forehead or display a smiling figure. Or there will a token such as appearing in a dream, and by this the prayer will be fulfilled.
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