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Originally Posted by sky123
Then they are not following Buddha's Teachings....
There are different types of worship. When someone worships a god, they praise and honor him or her, make offerings and ask for favors, believing that the god will hear their praise, receive their offerings and answer their prayers. Buddhists do not indulge in this kind of worship. The other kind of worship is when we show respect to someone or something we admire. When a teacher walks into the room we stand up, when we meet a dignitary we shake their hand, when the national anthem is played we salute. These are all gestures of respect and worship and indicate our admiration for certain persons or things. This is the type of worship Buddhists practice. A statue of the Buddha with its hands rested gently in its lap and its compassionate smile reminds us to strive to develop peace and love within ourselves. The perfume of incense reminds us of the pervading influence of virtue, the lamp reminds us of the light of knowledge and the flowers which soon fade and die, remind us of impermanence. When we bow, we express outwardly what we feel inwardly; our gratitude to the Buddha for what his teachings have given us. This is the nature of Buddhist worship.
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In which case I suspect that many Buddhists are not practising Buddhist worship, instead praying to Buddha to hear and answer their prayers.
And those who follow other beliefs are not necessarily just wanting their god to answer their prayers. They too may be striving to develop peace and love and other virtues.
The way that I see it is that it is not a question of which belief we follow, but more a question of where we stand in our own development. Many people, whatever their particular religion (including Buddhism), will pray to their deity to improve their material circumstances and bring about particular events. Others, whatever their particular religion, will use worship as an opportunity to praise their deity and express their devotion without thought of reward. The particular deity they pray to usually just depends on the culture they were born into.
Peace