Worship
- Buddhists may worship at home at a shrine, or in a temple, vihara or monastery. Puja (devotion) can include bowing, making offerings and chanting.
- A shrine often has a Buddha rupa (statue) and offerings: flowers (a reminder of impermanence), candles (the light of enlightenment) and incense.
- Some Buddhists chant mantras, such as 'Om mani padme hum' in Tibetan Buddhism, and use malas (prayer beads) to count.
Meditation
- Samatha meditation calms the mind and develops concentration, for example through mindfulness of breathing. Vipassana (insight) meditation develops insight into the nature of reality.
- Metta bhavana develops loving-kindness towards all beings. Tibetan Buddhists may use visualisation, and Zen Buddhists practise zazen (seated meditation).
Ceremonies and festivals
- Death and mourning practices vary, such as sharing merit for the dead in Theravada Buddhism, and sky burial in some Tibetan communities.
- Wesak celebrates the Buddha's birth, enlightenment and death (especially in Theravada Buddhism). Parinirvana Day, in Mahayana Buddhism, remembers the Buddha's death.
Buddhist ethics
- Kamma (karma): intentional actions have consequences, affecting future rebirths. Good actions create merit.
- The Five Precepts: to abstain from harming living beings, taking what is not given, sexual misconduct, false speech, and intoxicants that cloud the mind.
- The Six Perfections (Mahayana): generosity, morality, patience, energy, meditation and wisdom.
- The Four Sublime States: loving-kindness (metta), compassion (karuna), sympathetic joy (mudita) and equanimity (upekkha).
Key terms
- Puja
- Devotion or worship, such as making offerings.
- Buddha rupa
- A statue or image of the Buddha.
- Samatha
- Calming meditation that develops concentration.
- Vipassana
- Insight meditation into the nature of reality.
- Metta
- Loving-kindness.
- Karuna
- Compassion.
- Five Precepts
- The five moral guidelines Buddhists try to follow.
- Kamma
- Karma: the principle that intentional actions have consequences.
- Mala
- A string of prayer beads.
- Wesak
- A festival celebrating the Buddha's birth, enlightenment and death.