Morning Buddhist Practice

a morning Buddhist practice. It doesn't have to take long and I'm going to show you how to do that today. Of course with all the different Buddhist traditions there could be different ways to do this so I'm going to show you a very generalized way to do it. So just imagine the Buddha or Bodhisattva came to your home so you want to show them respect. So we'd be bowing to the Buddha or Bodhisattva. Also you can do that as you're taking a triple gem which is the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. From there we're going to show prostration, we're going to show devotion for that Buddha or Bodhisattva. A very traditional way to do it. Of course you can do this while you're standing up and going down to prostration level. Here I'm doing it on my knees which is great if you have mobility problems but for the purpose of this video so you can see it I'm just kneeling down as I do it. And then when you're done with your prostrations you want to go and show more respect for that teacher that Buddha or Bodhisattva coming to you. So that's where we're going to give offerings. Offerings can be very simple. For example I'm going to give a flower to the Buddha. I can give water to the Buddha. I can light incense. I can light a candle. I can give food. Now of course anything that you're burning you want to put out after you're but this is a great way to show welcome Buddha to my home and thank you for giving me your teaching. Next we're going to go into some very traditional things. For example I can go right into chanting a Buddha's name. I can go Namo Amitabha. I can go Namo Buddhaya. I can do different types of chanting related to the Buddha's name. Maybe to a sutra. I can do a very short sutra for example as far I'm done with that chanting. It could be for as long as you want to or as short as you want to. Maybe I want to do some meditative concentration. Now remember chanting is meditative concentration but if you want to do some sitting meditation you can do that as well. So here I'm just going to do maybe a couple of minutes of meditation. For the purposes of this video it'll just be a couple of seconds but this can be a nice way to center yourself and focus on that aspect of Buddhist practice. And then when you're done with all that you can go ahead and dedicate the merits of this practice. So this practice is very wholesome. Dedicate merits to all sentient beings. Maybe wishes or even to deceased family members. Now another thing that you can do is going to be cleaning the Buddha Bodhisattva altar. Now just like they came to your home if we were living back in for example Shakyamuni Buddha's day we'd be cleaning the feet of the Buddha and his followers to show respect that they're coming in. So this is another thing it gives you another way to do a little bit of meditative concentration mindfulness as part of your practice. And with that that's all you have to do for a morning Buddhist practice.