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Melissa Harlock
Dr. Dana Gregory Griffith
Understanding Religious Intolerance
30 September 2014
Buddhism and Ritual: The Misinterpreted Significance
Writer, Robert C. Gallagher, most famous for his novel, The Express: The Ernie
Davis Story, once said, Change is inevitable - except from a vending machine.
Although the irony of this explanation of change makes the quote a memorable one, as
a practicing Catholic, I dare to challenge Gallaghers statement with my own take on the
matter saying: Change is inevitable - except from the Catholic Church. By no means is
the lack of change within the church a detrimental thing. To me, there is such comfort in
knowing that no mater where Im at in the world, mass will always be the same no matter
which Catholic church I choose to worship at. There is something truly genuine and
special about the longstanding traditions of the ceremony of the Catholic Mass, and the
driving force behind all of it comes directly from the emphasis placed on ritual. From the
rituals practiced daily in Mass, to the seven sacraments and holy days, the Catholic Mass
is rooted in the importance of ritual, recitation and structure. Because Catholics are so
accustomed to these aspects of ritual being a part of our faith, it is sometimes difficult for
us to understand other religious practices and how they contribute to the structure of other
faiths.
One religion that I have especially questioned in this sense is Buddhism. When
thinking of Buddhism, the first thing that comes to mind is the sitting statue of Buddha,
meditating with eyes closed and hands upon his knees. To me, a sheltered and

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uninformed Catholic, Buddhism was always a religion based within ones self, focused
on meditation and lacking a ritual based service. With the combination of my own doubts
and questions about Buddhism and societys perception that Buddhism is a religion based
solely on meditating on a woven rug somewhere, I found myself making the assumption
that the religion of Buddhism was lacking ritual, recitation and structure; all aspects that
help to justify and accredit the Catholic Church. Assumptions are often a contributing
factor of misinterpretation, which can then lead to judgment and intolerance. Because I
assumed that Buddhism lacked a foundation based on ritual and ritual plays such a large
role in the Catholic religion, a small part of me began to also question the credibility of
Buddhism as a practiced faith. Assumptions, whether they seem insignificant or not, can
lead to greater thoughts that are just plain untrue. The fact of the matter is that my
assumption that Buddhism lacked ritual and therefore lacked significant standing is false.
Buddhism is rich in belief, backed by love and spirituality, and rooted, just as the
Catholic Church is, in ritual.
One of my first mistakes in assuming that Buddhism lacked ritual due to its focus
on self-meditation, was that I failed to realize that mediation was a form of ritual in itself.
Just as prayer is a form of ritual in Catholicism as well as many other religions,
meditation is a ritual where Buddhists can focus on the meaning of life by connecting
with the teachings of Buddha on a more personal level. The Dhamma, which is
ultimately a list of behavior, concepts of morality, religion and law, contains the structure
of beliefs that help to make up Buddhism (Scheible 317). These lists include, the Four
Nobel Truths, The Eightfold Path, The Three Pillars of Dhamma and many other agendas
that describe the religion as a whole and lay the groundwork and laws to achieving

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Nirvana. Within many of these lists is the notion of meditation, which helped me to
understand that the practice of mediation is truly a significant part of Buddhism. I
assumed that meditation was more of a modern day aspect of the faith that was created,
when in actuality it is truly connected to the core beliefs and practices in the Buddhist
faith. Another shocking realization that came from the research of the Dhamma was that
the self-focused practices I had assumed Buddhism was based on, were in fact, not
entirely true either. One element of the Dhamma is the Three Characteristics of
Conditioned Phenomena, also known as the Three Characteristics of Existence. The third
characteristic is Anatta and is defined as not-self or the emptiness of inherent
existence (Fronsdal). Although there is no record of Buddha ever saying that there is no
self, he does preach the belief that it is not useful to frame Buddhist practice through any
conception of self (Fronsdal). Buddhism teachings inquire that instead of focusing on
finding yourself, it is better to focus on the weaknesses and fears that cause you to want
to become a better person. When a person spends so much time looking into their own
soul, they can never find the peace that comes from from the release of grasping for this,
and they can never truly live in a way that supports a sense of well being. This lack of
self-discovery and its relation to meditation is a concept of Buddhism that I significantly
misinterpreted.
Certain rituals, such as meditation, occur in Buddhist temples on a very regular
basis. People naturally tend to overlook the significance of these daily motions when in
fact, these small, everyday tasks are very important and rooted in ritual. One example of
this occurs within the Catholic Church. In the Catholic Church the practice of
genuflecting and making the sign of the cross before entering the pew, or using holy

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water to make the sign of the cross when entering the church, are both activities that are
so normal they dont necessarily feel like ritual. Buddhist teachings also have these types
of rituals. When entering a Buddhist temple it is imperative that you remove your shoes
and show reverence to the Buddha by kneeling, bowing and not facing the bottoms of
your feet to the alter. All of these small workings that take place within the temple are
important rituals that can be easy to overlook as an outsider to the faith.
Another misinterpretation that I had toward Buddhist ritual was that because of
the extreme amount of meditation and focus that goes along with Buddhist teachings,
there was a lack of vocal teachings, praising and celebration. Just as my assumptions
about ritual were misinterpreted, this belief is also untrue. Buddhist temple services often
place a strong emphasis on mantras. Mantras are defined as a sequence of words or
syllables that are chanted, usually repetitively, as part of Buddhist practice (What is a
Mantra). Mantras are similar to prayers in the sense that and are said out loud to provoke
more intense meditation and help to encourage enlightenment. Some Buddhist traditions
believe mantras to have protective powers, and often times Dharanis, which are usually
longer, more prayer like statements of doctrine or adoration believed to have spiritual
power when chanted, are used to help frighten away evil sprits (Buddhist Mantras). The
importance placed on words in the Buddhist faith is far more significant than I had
originally anticipated. If anything, the short recitations of the Mantras hold more
spiritual power than a scripture in the Catholic Church would because the importance is
held in a much smaller form.
The last assumption that was proven wrong by my research of Buddhist practices
and beliefs was an assumption that was derived from my misunderstanding of other

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forms of the faith. Because I was uninformed about the many rituals that go along with
the Buddhist faith I didnt realize that meditation was ritual in itself. Because I didnt
realize that mediation was a ritual, I believed that it was based on purely selfdevelopment and didnt necessarily hold much standing within the faith. Because I didnt
believe the main practice of Buddhism-- that being meditation, held much standing, I
found myself thinking that maybe Buddhism wasnt as legitimate as my own religion.
The development and growth of just one misinterpretation can turn into a monster of
assumptions if we let it. Fortunately, I feel as though I was raised to have enough respect
and intelligence to not let my assumptions leave the safety of my own brain and turn into
a judgmental force. So many people today take a small thought derived from something
they see or hear or think they know based on their own interpretations and turn it into
ridicule, discrimination and hate. Even I, who consider myself to be a very open minded,
caring, understanding and inquisitive person, assumed that Buddhism; that a religion I
knew basically nothing about, is of lesser value or legitimacy than my own Catholic
Faith. If people go around looking at the chubby, meditating Buddhist statue and
assuming that the Buddhist faith is based solely on this image, then they will find
themselves very misinformed. The Buddhist faith is one that has such significance when
it comes to belief, teachings, the mindset of its followers and the rituals that make up its
services. It is easy to look at other religions and think that yours is more credible based
on the fear of the unknown but the minute we can fear our own assumptions more than
these alien beliefs, we can truly become tolerant as a human race.

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Works Cited
Buddhist Mantras. Religion Facts. ReligionFacts. 2014. Web. 26 September 2014.
Dhamma Lists. Insight Meditation Center. Creative Commons Attribution. n.d. Web. 25
September 2014.
Fronsdal, Gill. Rituals in Buddhism. Insight Meditation Center. Creative Commons
Attribution. n.d. Web. 25 September 2014.
Harvey, Peter. Introduction to Buddhism : Teachings, History and Practices (2nd
Edition). England: Cambridge University Press, 2012. Print.
Scheible, Kristin. Toward a Buddhist Policy of Tolerance. Religious Tolerance in
World Religions. Ed. Jacob Neusner, Bruce Chilton. West Conshohocken, PA:
Templeton Foundation Press, 2008. 317-60, Print.
What is a Mantra. The Buddha Center. The Buddha Center. 2013. Web. 26 September
2014.