Originally posted by choppers:
hello all again.. i was told to come here to post my question.. I amsure someone know abt Erawan Shrine where we pray to Lord Bhrama.. correct me if i have spelt wrongly.. If i intend to return favoutr, what should be the correct procedure..
i was reading some articles.. i am suppose to buy teak elephants.. or engage the dancers there. or is there any other advice?
Hi, honestly, worshipping Brahma is not a practise of Buddhism but a practise of Hinduism/Brahmanism, and this tradition of worshipping the brahma is then spread into Thailand and became a culture among the Thais. Worshipping Brahma is not promoted by the Buddha.
Secondly, in actuality, the Brahma wouldn't want your things or offerings because the Brahma is beyond the Desire Planes, or Sensual Planes. The Brahma does not enjoy sensual things in our world. He is constantly absorbed in Jhanic bliss (meditative bliss) - he belong to the 1st Jhana realm - and I am absolutely certain the things we enjoy in our world do not concern him nor would he want those things. Another foolish thing that people do sometimes is to offer food and meat to celestial deities. Real celestial deities think that the food we eat are garbage to them, they will also think that meat is very smelly, and they have much better things to eat than we can imagine. (only spirit deities enjoy meat) He will definitely not enjoy dancers or teak elephants. At most, you can pay your respects to him.
Only spirit-deities ('gods' and 'deities' that belong to the spirit realm but nevertheless worshipped because they have some spirit-powers) would demand this kind of 'returning favour'. And then again, in Buddhism we do not encourage having such affinity with these deities which belong to the lower realm. It would be very foolish for humans to worship spirits no matter how powerful spiritually they are. If the deity demands some material things from you in favour, I can be 110% sure it is not Brahma but someone else - some Spirit deities (which are very commonly worshipped). Very often spirit deities are mistaken to be certain figures that is of much higher status than them. For example many mediums seem to be able to communicate with 'Guan Yin Ma', but in reality, they are communicating with Spirits, not the Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva (who is the real Guan Yin).
And furthermore, in Buddhism we do not worship Buddha let alone any gods and deities, we only pay our respects and venerate the Buddha, but Buddha is seen as the ultimate teacher. The Buddha is higher than all deities and all brahmas including the Maha Brahma, who sees the Buddha as a teacher to them. But he does not demand worship - and teaches that we all can attain the state of Buddhahood as we are by nature already Buddhas, but we need to realise that.
By the way are you a Singaporean?