Do Buddhists Worship Idols?

The first time Westerners visit Buddhist temples, they are often surprised to see people bowing to statues of the Buddha. It seems as if Buddhists are worshiping idols. Buddhists, however, honor the man, whom they refer to as the Buddha, as a great teacher, but they do not worship him as a god.

Buddhists refer to him as "the Buddha," because Buddha was his title, not his name, which was Siddhartha Gautama. During his lifetime, centuries before Jesus the Christ, he became the Buddha, the "enlightened one."

He is not the one and only Buddha, just the latest in a series of Buddhas. Nor is Siddhartha Gautama the last of the Buddhas. Buddhists already teach about Maitreya, the next Buddha, the next enlightened teacher. According to the teachings, he already exists as a bodhisattva, a Buddha-to-be (more), in a realm known as the Tushita Heaven.

When Buddhists kneel before a statue of the Buddha, they do not worship an idol, any more than patriots worship their flag when they salute it or a young man worships his girlfriend when he gives her flowers.

Kneeling, burning incense, and offering flowers before an image of the Buddha are reminders of what a great teacher the Buddha was and what respect (but not worship) his followers have for him. Kneeling and bowing have little place in modern Western society; consider the controversy over President Obama's bow in Japan.

But there is a long tradition in many societies of kneeling and bowing. These postures of humility symbolize that one is open and ready to turn one's life over to something or someone outside of oneself. When Buddhists kneel before an image of the Buddha, they are not worshiping an idol. In fact, the posture says more about the people kneeling than about the image being knelt before.

Buddhism is not about some pie in the sky, out there, after death. Instead, it is a path (which is not necessarily incompatible with other spiritual paths) to a good life, here and now.

You can be a "good Buddhist," a good person, without bowing before a statue of the Buddha (or of anyone else). But the Buddha himself gave us five basic objectives to strive for, which, if you can attain them, will make you a good Buddhist, and more importantly, a good person.

The five precepts are basic rules for training to be a good person. Buddhists are always in training, so they know that they will not always reach their goals. The precepts are not expressed as something you have to do, but as something you are trying to do.

The Five Precepts

Here, then, are the five precepts or panca-sila in Pali, the language of the oldest Buddhist scriptures. (By the way, panca, five, is related to the word punch, as a drink, because the original recipe called for five ingredients.)

1.I undertake the precept to refrain from destroying living creatures.
2. I undertake the precept to refrain from taking that which is not given.
3. I undertake the precept to refrain from sexual misconduct.
4. I undertake the precept to refrain from incorrect speech.
5. I undertake the precept to refrain from intoxicating drinks and drugs which lead to carelessness.

(The Five Precepts: Source. Audio.)

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