STUDENT:

Earlier, you said that the serious practitioner uses the Buddha statue as a tool, a focus to direct thanks toward. Offering thanks by prostrating is often misunderstood by some Westerners, who consider it to be an act of worshipping false idols. Would you help to clarify this issue?

SHIH-FU:

As I said before, there are two types of worshipping. First, ordinary people worship the Buddha statue in order to get some type of response or benefit from the Buddhas. Second, serious practitioners use the Buddha statue as a tool. This does not mean that serious practitioners do not derive benefit. There is a response, but it comes from the actions of the individual. Serious practitioners should not have the thought or wish that the Buddhas will do their work for them.

If there is any benefit to be gained from the Buddhas at all, whether it be by paying respect to the Buddha, or by using the statue as a tool, that benefit comes from the Dharma that the Buddha taught. The act of paying respect to the Buddha is an aid in incorporating more Buddhadharma in our practice. Thus, what may appear to be worshipping becomes, in fact, a kind of practice, a cultivation. Prostrating to the Buddha becomes a meditative exercise. However, this is a Ch'an point of view. Other forms of Buddhism, such as esoteric Buddhism, teach differently.

STUDENT: