brahmins
and cows, and we attribute to our recent purchases the capacity to
conjure up wondrous advantages. Veneration comes naturally, but, like
trust, can be either discerning or stupid.

The
practice of veneration works closely with Refuge to open the heart to
the influence of worthy teachers and teachings. One cannot learn from
someone one does not first hold in high regard. When we show proper
forms of respect to the elderly, school teachers, professors, piano
teachers and good cooks, we take seriously what they have to impart and
so open our minds to learn more quickly from them. Similarly we become,
for good or bad, subject to their authority. In the military explicit
forms of veneration, such as salutes and titles of respect, are used
effectively to imprint structures of command. A potential downside is
that veneration is sometimes similarly used or abused for social control
– for instance, requisite veneration of superior officers, judges or
the police – but again the watchword, as it always is in Buddhism, is
discernment.

Veneration
is a direct causal factor in attaining certain wholesome qualities of
mind that we try to develop in Buddhism in any case, including peace and
humility. The deference to another that veneration generally entails,
serves immediately to deflate the ego, to knock it out of its accustomed
privileged position in the universe. In fact this seems to me a basic
function of the worship of God in most religions. With the development
of humility, the craving to be somebody and to distinguish oneself as
that somebody, relaxes into a greater sense of ease. As the Buddha
states with respect to a particular practice of veneration,

“When
a noble disciple recollects the Tathāgata, on that occasion his mind
is not obsessed by lust, hatred, or delusion; on that occasion his mind
is simply straight. He has departed from greed, freed himself from it,
emerged from it. … some beings here are purified in such a way.”26

This
passage is repeated in this sutta with each of “Dhamma,” “Sangha,” “his
[own] virtuous behavior” and “his [own] generosity” replacing
“Tathāgata.”

Each
culture has its own expressions of veneration, such as the military
salute in ours, address through “sir” or “madam,” or putting an apple on
the teacher’s desk. Evidence of the importance accorded to physical and
verbal forms of veneration in Buddhism is found in the observation that
Buddhism has carried many of its originally culturally-conditioned
forms from India to every land in which Buddhism has taken root,
regardless of how dissimilar the culture. Most significant of these is
the bow, anjali in Sanskrit, a quite ubiquitous expression of respect or
greeting in its land of origin, produced by bringing the palms together
before the chest or face, sometimes combined with a complete
prostration. Japanese Zen master Suzuki Roshi, shortly after arriving in
San Francisco, was alarmed at the resistance his American students
displayed toward these bows, particularly toward the three full
prostrations, one for each of the three Refuges, that he asked of them
in the early morning. He accordingly adapted this practice to the West:
He required of his American students nine full prostrations, a custom
that has now endured for nearly half a century among his disciples.

Bowing
is a form ritual conduct, as is shaking hands or wearing a tux to a
formal dinner party. Robert Sharf writes, “Ritual habituation inscribes
the self with a set of perceptual orientations, affective dispositions,
automatic responses that are precognitive.” It begins by enacting these
as if in play within an implicit frame of reference that one does not
have to believe in or acquiesce to any more than one believes in the
grammar of one’s mother tongue. To bow to the Buddha is to enact
veneration for the Buddha, to enact veneration of the Buddha is to feel
veneration for the Buddha, to feel veneration for the Buddha is to put
aside one’s preconceptions and open one’s heart to the teachings of the
Buddha. To do this is to align with the Buddha’s Path.27

In
short, veneration when brought together with discernment is a powerful
support for trust in what we seek on the Buddhist Path. Although its
expressions are culturally determined, its indispensable function in
Buddhist life and practice has been a bedrock of Buddhism throughout the
life and times of the Sasana. It also lends to Buddhism its most
devotional part, and is the focal point of sometimes extensive
embellishment in the later traditions, as we will see. Whether this
embellishment has been always helpful or even healthy will be a theme in
this book.

Sutta Chanting of Specific Verses of Tripitaka

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#SUTTA​
(Pali), generally translated as “protection” or “safeguard,” refers to
the Buddhist practice of reciting certain verses and scriptures in order
to ward off misfortune or danger, as well as to the specific verses and
discourses recited as paritta texts. The practice of #Reciting​ or listening to the paritta suttas began very early in the history of Buddhism

Another
type of Paritta relies on the virtue of the individual who is ascribed
as reciting the paritta in the Canon, rather than making reference to
the virtues of the Buddha.