Here, you might see an Ordained Practitioner doing rites, rituals, and ceremonies, all things never taught by The Buddha.
What they are doing is, individuals will make them offerings and they then sprinkle some water on them, tie a string on their wrist, and have them pour out some water to transfer the benefits of the offering to others, usually dead relatives of the person or people who are making the offering.
This is not what was taught by The Buddha as these things were also happening during his lifetime and he taught that he does not do these types of things because it promotes what is referred to as “wrong view”.
If an individual thinks anything that is occurring in their life can be improved through having water sprinkled on them and strings tied to their wrist, they are not understanding The Natural Law of Kamma and the way things actually function in the world. Doing these types of rites, rituals, and ceremonies is to walk in the opposite direction of Enlightenment, as the mind continues to function through belief rather than, understanding the truth of how the world truly functions based on The Natural Law of Kamma.
There is nothing about having water sprinkled on you or having a string tied on your wrist that is going to make your life any better. It is through the cultivation of wisdom to make wiser decisions in your daily life that is going to produce wholesome results in your life.
Having the belief that these sorts things are true, does not allow the mind to cultivate the needed wisdom to grow and develop one’s own mind. Therefore, an individual will stay stuck in the unEnlightened state.
During the lifetime of The Buddha, there were individuals doing rites, rituals, ceremonies, worship, and prayer referred to as Brahmin. Today, we might refer to this type of person as a Hindu priest.
These individuals were doing countless rites, rituals, ceremonies, worship, and prayer for people who thought that the common person cannot improve their life. They thought, you needed to come to someone else for a ceremony in order to make your life better. People would pay money for the ceremony, and go home, thinking their life was going to become better. But, when this did not work, they would have to return for another rite, ritual, ceremony, worship, or prayer. This bred corruption and propagates the “wrong view” of how the world truly functions based on The Natural Law of Kamma.
These things were happening during the lifetime of The Buddha as well, and he spoke of how unwise it would be to do these sorts of things or offer these sorts of things to the public. The Buddha encouraged his Ordained Practitioners to learn and practice the true Teachings, the pure way, of what actually leads to Enlightenment.
But today, in many respects, the very people who are suppose to be the very closest and most developed Practitioners of The Teachings of The Buddha, the Ordained Practitioners, have become the Brahmin.
Not everyone learns and practices the original Teachings of The Buddha, therefore, we oftentimes see countless misunderstandings in the world such as you might be seeing here, even among Ordained Practitioners.
Ordained Practitioners regularly perform rites, rituals, ceremonies, worship, and prayers for a fee. People are not taught to improve their life through the cultivation of wisdom and training of the mind but instead, are just believing that it is someone else who has the power to improve their life through rites, rituals, ceremonies, worship, and prayer for a fee.
This is not how one would attain Enlightenment but instead, the mind continues to stay stuck in its misunderstandings and lack of wisdom.
There are no beliefs in The Teachings of The Buddha nor any rites, rituals, ceremonies, worship, and prayers. Whenever you are seeing these things associated with The Teachings of The Buddha, you can know that these people have misunderstood The Teachings of The Buddha.
The Buddha taught that whenever someone shares something that is opposite of his Teachings, you can consider that person has misunderstood his Teachings and it would be wise to ignore that content from that individual otherwise, you would be misled.
You are welcome to look around and enjoy the beautiful murals and statues. These murals are largely from Thai folk stories and do not relate to The Teachings of The Buddha in any way.
Our last stop on the tour of Wat Doi Suthep is just outside the door. When you are ready, I will meet you there.
