A Fistful of Sand

I am often asked if Buddhists, any Buddhist, believe in a Supreme Being analogous to the Western God. My answer is always, “No, we don’t. If any sect proclaims an original anything then they are not Buddhist.” Clearly, belief in a first cause is an anti-Buddhist idea, according to the words of the Buddha himself. The question then arises, “Who do Buddhists pray to?” Having been originally trained as Theravada Buddhist monk the word and idea of “prayer” was not altogether alien to me, but I hadn’t formally prayed since I was 11 years old. I don’t remember praying after that. I had some hopes and aspirations and would say things like “I hope” such and such happens or doesn’t happen; but I am not sure if that qualifies as “prayer” in the Western sense. I was just throwing it out there to the universe — but was this a prayer, an aspiration or just a hope? Because we in the West are mainly new converts to Buddhism we avoid the term “prayer: as much as possible. It’ s a word too...

Life, personhood, pleasure and pain —     This is all that's bound together   In a single mental event —     A moment that quickly takes place. Even the spirits who endure For eighty-four thousand eons   —     Even these do not live the same For any two moments of mind.   What ceases for one who is dead, Or for one who's still standing here, Are all just the same aggregates   —     Gone, never to connect again.   The states which are vanishing now, And those which will vanish some day, Have characteristics no different Than those which have vanished before.   With no production there's no birth; With becoming present, one lives. When grasped with the highest meaning, The world is dead when the mind stops.   There's no hoarding what has vanished, No piling up for the future; Those who have been born are standing Like a seed upon a needle. ...