Scene 1:
The hunters were gathering. The long sticks they carried were carefully sharpened with stones. Among them were boys who would be joining their fathers for the first time. Anxiety showed plainly on their smooth faces. Many had their faces painted with dyes to mask their weaknesses. They cannot be weak now. The harsh winter was coming and their families depended on them to bring the meat home, without which, their younger siblings may not survive to see the flowers bloom come spring. Together, the hunters huddled together and prayed.
Scene 2:
The baby was slowly losing her will to cry. Crying simply took too much effort. She had not eaten for days and she was cold. Her mother held her tightly humming a soft tune. The pain in her heart was excruciating and it numbed all her senses. She too, was hungry and cold but she was determined to be strong for her child. Nothing will prevent her from making sure that the last moments of her child’s life was as comfortable as possible. Stroking the face of her baby gently, she cried out a prayer for the baby.
Why do we pray?
There is nothing more nature and more human to pray. Many times, especially in our contemporary society, we often confuse prayers with the divine or the mystic. But the truth is that prayers are more deeply rooted in humanity than anything we will ever know.
Prayers, in simple terms, are the expressions of our deepest human desires. When there is something we want so strongly, prayers will be an evitable result and as long as we draw breath, it is not possible not to have desires.
However, with the evolution of civilizations, many people had come to associate prayers with a certain protocol of rituals which varies according to different religions. But often, such prayers lose their purpose when they are detached from humanity and concentrated only on the divine and mystical. This is never a chicken or egg relationship. Prayers are always first before religions. Prayers are natural human inclination. And religions are merely devices started by thinking men of the past to help us focus our prayers.
What do we pray to?
Since the earliest civilizations, men had devised countless objects of devotion. There are people who prayed to anything as long as they have some kind of association with what they are praying for. For example, farmers and fishermen prayed to the forces of our natural world for favorable weathers, hunters and soldiers prayed to certain beast with distinctive features, and women prayed to symbols representing fertility and vitality.
However, much of these prayers require men to ask for help, help which cannot be rendered by other humans. Hence, they seek help from elements beyond their control and understanding. They envisioned deities and gods of all kinds of nature extending help to them in time of their need. These kinds of prayers, however, often have the potential to become ritualized and lose their initial meaning eventually.
People who pray in this way often grow dependent, passive and weak. They will often feel insecure and frustrated because they separate the solution to their problems with their own capacity and hence, surrender control of their destiny. The main characteristics of this type of people are low self-esteem and low self-worth. They are often thinking that they are never good enough and their continuous begging with the divinity will purge them deeper and deeper into the destructive feeling of insignificance.
Therefore, it is important to identify the right thing to pray to. By returning to the basics, we realized that praying is an expression of our desires. Therefore, would it not make sense if we are to pray for the capacity to fulfill our desires?
The best forms of prayers are those that empowers ourselves. Hence, it is of great importance that we identify humanity’s limitless potential. And by tapping that potential in the depths of our own lives, we grow independent, and regain the confidence to actively pursue a solution to our problems. And by taking such responsibility, we control our lives and our karma. Hence, prayers should always be directed inwards to our innate humanly goodness and limitless capacity.
How do we pray?
We need something to help us manifest this innate humanly goodness within us. Returning to the basics of prayers once again, we should realize that there is a need to give expression to our prayers. Knowing that we are trying to manifest our innate goodness and cultivate our capacity, we must now need an object of devotion with represents this innate goodness.
In other words, the correct object of devotion must be something which identifies and represents our lives. It had to be able to reflect the truth of our limitless potential.
Following that, we need to express our prayers and direct them towards this object of devotion. Observing human nature again, it is not difficult to conclude that the most nature way for human to express themselves is through their voices. Hence, invocating our prayers is the most direct form of prayers.
Conclusion
It is with this understanding of the purpose of prayer that I began to analyze the way I pray once again.
I pray to the Gohonzon. The Gohonzon is only a piece of paper. But so are many important things such as money or our degree and diploma. But because of what is printed on the paper, the paper takes on different value. So it becomes necessary to understand what the Gohonzon represents.
Nichiren Daishonin states, “Never seek this Gohonzon outside yourself.”
What he meant here is that the Gohonzon really represents the depths of our own lives. That within the depths of our lives included the innate goodness and limitless capacity and potential. In terms of the Gohonzon, these inner being is described as the Buddha.
Nichiren Daishonin also taught, “When we revere Myoho-renge-kyo inherent in our own life as the object of devotion, the Buddha nature within us is summoned forth and manifested by our chanting of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo.”
The Buddha nature within us is identified as Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. Hence, that phrase is the most obvious choice of invocation necessary to express our prayers. And by directing this invocation at the Gohonzon, which represents our inner lives, we have the mode of praying that perfectly make sense to me.
