常吃山药有什么好处和坏处

Question

Is there a tradition within Buddhism of praying in an easterly direction? If there is what is the oldest known reference to it.

Sorry for the simplicity of the question, but I am not a Buddhist.

Answer 1

Yes, but only in special cases.

In sinosphere, major Buddha sculptures are always positioned facing South, because southern sky is brighter in northern hemisphere and most temples also faces south; thus, when monks and believers pray to them, they are facing North. Few buddhas might be facing North for special meanings; and some subordinate buddhas or gods may face W/E. This is standard set for most Chinese Mahayana temples, most Korean Mahayana temples, most Han-area Vajrayana temples and also some Tibetan Vajrayana temples.

Still, if (a) when a Buddha is assumed to be/is placed in the East for special meaning, e.g. Bhai?ajyaguru, (b) in the morning and praying facing to the brightness of the Sun (not very popular nor compulsory); people may choose to face to East. That is not normal case.

Answer 2

Is there a tradition within Buddhism of praying in an easterly direction?

As you probably know there is such a tradition in Christianity -- I think someone told me that that tradition (i.e. the orientation of church buildings) is associated with facing Jerusalem (from Western Europe).

That's not quite quite like Islam where prayer should be in the true direction of Mecca, not due east, as best it's known.

---

This topic -- Buddha Statues facing East -- mentions various cardinal directions, for example:

• The Bodhisatta was born between two Sal trees and as soon as he was born, he took seven steps to the north and announced: “I am chief in the world, I am best in the world, I am first in the world. This is my last birth. There will be no further rebirths.”
• The Bodhisatta was sitting under the Bodhi Tree facing East when he became enlightened.
• Just before his parinibbana, at his request, the Buddha laid on his right side with his head pointing north and facing west, under two Sal trees.

Incidentally there are many scriptures within Buddhism, and the scriptures which contain the above details may be among those which some consider to be semi-mythical.

For example there's a Nativity story within Christianity which features angels etc. -- perhaps (I don't know) there are some Christians who consider that more-or-less myth in contrast to the "red letters" in the Bible i.e. Christ's words -- see for example this answer from a Western Buddhist monk:

It's not uncommon for modern Theravada Buddhists to question the authenticity of the stories, especially given their often fantastical content. Probably, though, it is more common for Theravada Buddhists to accept the stories far more at face value than they really should, again given their content.

---

I'm not sure what you mean by "prayer" within Buddhism.

If you search for the term "prostration" you'll find many descriptions, maybe they don't especially mention a specific direction as important.

There are more regarding the placement of altars and statues.

N.B. that the whole notion of statues etc is "controversial" i.e. well-accepted in some Buddhist traditions/societies and not so in others (e.g. this answer which people took to be Zen-like) -- of course you also have some "radical" or iconoclastic expressions within Christianity and so on too -- by which I don't mean "nihilistic" but with focus on maybe more-essential doctrine, not to be confused with "rites and rituals".

---

There are some suttas which seem to me to indicate that the whole idea of "prayer" is more-or-less useless:

SN 42.6 “Chief, suppose a person were to throw a broad rock into a deep lake. And a large crowd was to come together to offer up prayers and praise, circumambulating it with joined palms, and saying: ‘Rise, good rock! Float, good rock! Float to shore, good rock!’ What do you think, chief? Would that broad rock rise up or float because of their prayers?”

“No, sir.”

Again that's not nihilistic -- IMO it's saying that rights and ritual are effective, but that (in contrast) ethical behaviour is consequential.

Sorry for the simplicity of the question, but I am not a Buddhist.

It's IMHO quite distant from what I'd consider the core of Buddhist doctrine, e.g. the Four Noble Truths, the Three Characteristics, the Three-fold Training, etc.

Answer 3

In East Asia, Buddhism is a broad panoply of religious and spiritual traditions, each with their own rites, rituals, prayers, and practices. What we know as Buddhism in the west is mainly the (highly philosophical) monastic tradition, without much of the lay religious or cultural aspects. To reverse the issue, imagine some people in China who only know about Christianity because they encountered a group of Franciscan monks; these people would know little to nothing about (say) Mormons or the Amish, wedding ceremonies, revival meetings, Sunday picnics, bedtime prayers, original sin, baptism, Ash Wednesday, or any of those practices and events that we in the West colloquially associate with Christians and easily assign to their proper sects and locations. All of that would be quite confusing to them.

It's common among lay religious practitioners in the East to make appeals to heavenly beings through rituals and prayers. These are not exactly gods in the Western sense — they're closer to elemental forces or transcendent humans — but they are believed to intercede on a petitioner's behalf. I believe that some of these rituals within some sects do have directionality: each of the four compass points has its own ritual meanings and guardian spirits, and prayers to such should be offered in the proper direction. This doesn't stem from Buddhist philosophy itself; it's a cultural integration, often drawn from the remnants of previous folk religions that have been absorbed into Buddhist practice. The exception might be Vajrayana Buddhism as practiced in Tibet, where the deities and rites of the previous Bon tradition have worked their way well into the core teachings.

So yes, there are Buddhist traditions in which people pray in an easterly direction, but it is not a core tenet of Buddhist practice, nor is it a universal (or as far as I know, even particularly common) practice. I'm no expert on East Asian relies sects so take what I say lightly, but there's nothing in Buddhism proper that's akin to (say) the Islamic dictate to pray in the direction of Mecca.