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Even though the Buddha is dead but 2,500 years later his teachings still help and save a lot of people, his example still inspires people, his words still continue to change lives for His Teachings forever belong to the Truth. Only a Buddha could have such power centuries after his death. The Buddha did not claim that he was a god, the child of god or even the messenger from a god. He was simply a man who perfected himself and taught that if we followed his example, we could perfect our-selves also. He never asked his followers to worship him as a god. In fact, He pro-hibited his followers to praise him as a god. He told his followers that he could not give favours or blessings to those who worship him with personal expectations or or calamities to those who don’t worship him. He asked his followers to respect him as students respect their teacher. He also reminded his followers to worship a statue of the Buddha means to remind ourselves to try 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 followers which soon fade and die, remind us of impermanence. When we bow, we express our grati-tude to the Buddha for what his teachings have given us. This is the core nature of Bud-dhist worship. A lot of people have misunderstood the meaning of “worship” in Buddhism, even devout Buddhists. Buddhists do not believe that the Buddha is a god, so in no way they could possibly believe that a piece of wood or metal (stat-ue) is a god. In Buddhism, the statue of the Buddha is used to symbolize human per-fection. The statue of the Buddha also reminds us of the human dimension in Bud-dhist teaching, the fact that Buddhism is man-centered, not god-centered, that we must look inward (within) not outward (without) to find perfection and under-standing. So in no way one can say that Buddhists worship god or idols. In fact, a long long time ago, when primitive man found himself in a dangerous and hostile situations, the fear of wild animals, of not being able to to find enough food, of dis-eases, and of natural calamities or phenomena such as storms, hurricanes, volca-noes, thunder, and lightning, etc. He found no security in his surroundings and he had no ability to explain those phenomena, therefore, he created the idea of gods in order to give him comfort in good times, and courage him in times of danger and consolation when things went wrong. They believed that god arranged every-thing. Generations after generations, man continues to follow his ancestors in a so-called “faith in god” without any further thinkings. Some says they believe in god because god responds to their prayers when they feel fear or frustration. Some say they be-lieve in god because their parents and grandparents believed in god. Some others say that they prefer to go to church than to temple because those who go to church-es seem richer and more honorable than those who go to temples, and so on, and so on.

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