Prayers can be made in any setting

In traditions such as Christianity, Islam and Judaism, we tend to pray to someone (God or saints) for something (usually related to ourselves). Prayers in Buddhism often have a different purpose, i.e. to train our mind to think in different ways. In this respect it has the same function as meditation. Also, anything which involves training the mind could be classed as prayer, so making offerings and dedications are forms of prayer.

There is a place in Buddhism for praying to somebody for something, from a spiritual perspective. The Buddhas are available to help us and want to do so – that’s their purpose, so praying to the Buddhas is perfectly acceptable and normal.

But it is more likely to be effective if it is aimed at achieving something for someone else, rather than your own selfish ends. So rather than praying for a better well-paid job or to pass an exam, it would be more effective to pray for your circumstances to change to allow you do more voluntary work. The first approach is rooted in self-focus so serves only to increase delusions, whereas the latter is aimed at helping you help other people.

If you were a Buddha, which approach would you prefer? Not that it really matters to them of course, they’ll help anyway, but training our mind to make us more compassionate and caring can only be a good thing – for everyone.