SHAW WANG | Zen Wisdom

If there is any benefit to be gained from the Buddhas at all. . .or by using the statue as a tool, that benefit comes from the Dharma that the Buddha taught.

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:
From the Ch’an point of view, it would seem that prostrating to a Buddha statue is the same as prostrating to Shih-fu. It is a momentary act of giving up the self. Is this true?

SHIH-FU:
Yes.

STUDENT:
Coinciding with Buddha statues or images is the concept of “opening the light, ” which manifests itself in a ritual called the “Opening the Eye Ceremony”. Can you provide more information on this topic?

SHIH-FU:
In such a ritual, people initiate a statue for the benefit of the general religious practitioner. The procedure may vary, but usually the the initiator invokes the name or the mantra of the Buddha or bodhisattva that the statue represents. They use their own mind energy to create a channel for the energy and responses of the bodhisattva or Buddha. Of course, if the initiated statue is placed in a museum, no response will come from it. On the other hand, if the statue resides in a temple where it is used by people, it is more likely that responses will come. The eye-opening ceremony transforms the Buddha statue from an ordinary piece of art into a religious piece of art. For the people who perform the ceremony, and for the general practitioner, the ritual makes a difference. Also, the statue itself differs before and after the ceremony.

For Ch’an practitioners, however, it is not necessary to use a statue that has undergone an eye-opening procedure. They can use any statue, because it is not their purpose to get any response from the Buddha.

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