SEARCH     Home     Site Map    Symbolism    Calendar     Karmapa     News    DONATE
 

Grand Table of Menus

Symbolism  menu

Elements of Buddhist Ritual & Practice 

• images are used as a guide, a focus or a reminder.  They take the form of tangkas (scroll paintings) or rupas (figurines and statues.)
  • bones, skulls and skeletons
• practice calendar
  • special days
• mandala
• mantra
  • mala (beads)
  • prayer wheel
  • prayer flag
• offerings 
  • white scarf, or katha or kathag
• the shrine
  • Scriptures are not only studied, but also displayed. 
  • incense
  • lamps (candles or butter lamps)
  • water
  • tormas
• pilgrimage
• stupas are constructed, displayed, and circumambulated as memorials and guides.  
  • Boudhanath
  • Swayambhu
• parasol
• skulls and bones
• swastika
• vajra (dorje)
  • p'hurba 
  • Bell (Skt. ghanta) and ringing bowls. Other musical instruments used are drums, trumpets, horns, cymbals & gongs.
• wheel (Skt.: chakra)

Buddhists who meditate are referred to as practitioners. Practice includes the saying of prayers and integrating Buddhist principles into all aspects of life, such as diet and marriage.  Besides studying texts and chanting prayers, there are other special activities associated with training the mind to benefit from the Teachings of Buddha.  This is especially true with regard to the tantric approach; Vajrayana is enhanced through the use of symbolic or ritual items and activities.

Samples of Mahayana practice in the Himalayan tradition:

• sending-and-receiving or tonglen -- a healing practice
• considering death is a powerful motivation for practice. 

_______________________________________________________________

[ Back ] [ Home ] [ Up ] [ Next ]

[ Animals ] [ Images ] [ Deity Menu ] [ Mysterious ] [ Ritual Items ] [ Objects ] [ Places Tied to Tibetan Tradition ] [ Nature ]