* When Buddhists talk about respect they mean “special respect”
* The idea of expressing respect for someone you specially respect is to help you form them.
* Some people you specially respect can be celebrities or famous personages, your relatives. You might regard them as your hero.
* It is important to pick the right sort of person as your hero.
* Good habits and good quality of mind is important to choose role models.
* We try to treat those people respectfully as a way to learn the maximum of goodness from that person and attempt to instill those qualities upon ourselves.
* Adults should teach their children to worship the Buddha as a way to teach them to respect those who are worthy of respect.
Who should we respect?
1. The Buddha is considered to be the wisest among all living beings. He has wisdom, purity, and compassion.
2. Monks are individuals who teach themselves before teaching anybody else to ensure that what they preach is right.
3. The monarch who uses the Dhamma doctrine to govern his land.
4. Fathers, mothers, and older relatives who are well-behaved.
5. Teachers who knowledgeable and display positive behavior.
6. Virtuous employers are those who act as a positive role-model, and apply Dhamma in their daily life.
7. Anyone who is considered to be the wise and who are in a higher position.
The following items are also considered to be worthy of respect.
1. The Buddha’s Dhamma teachings, Buddha statues, or any locations associated with the Buddha, e.g. his birth place.
2. Anything that is related to the monastic community, such as images of the monks.
3. The moral teachings of the wise, photos of the parents, teachers, virtuous employers, monarchs who take their role as the wise seriously.
Ways to Show Respect to Worthy Ones
1. Physical Respect: We should pay respect when being in front of images or statues representing those worthy of respect regardless of whether we are sitting, walking, or sleeping. It is not enough just to “have respect” but one should “express respect” by bowing putting one’s hands in a gesture of prayer in greeting or by other methods.
2. Verbal Respect: We should show respect by sincerely saying good things when being in front of and behind those worthy of respect. For example: This can be done through saying prayers to the Buddha, to praise him.
3. Mental Respect: We should always remember and remind ourselves of the teachings given to us by those worthy of respect.
Two Ways to Express Respect
1. Physical Token of Respect: This refers to a gift that is used as a way for us to express our respect to our parents or teachers. For example, sharing our wages with parents or saying prayers to the Buddha’s statues.
2. Gesture of Respect: This refers to consistently apply the teachings of those worthy of respect into our own lives. For example, try to stop our own anger, rage, greed, and indulgence by practice giving, keeping precepts, and meditating regularly.
Those that are not worthy of respect
1. Do not express respect, support, or praise the fools even if they are in a high position and a high social standing.
2. Do not worship anything related to fools, such as images, sculptures, or objects that used by fools. Also, do not follow their advice.
3. Do not worship anything that is empty of virtue, such as the pictures of actors, singers, or athletes who do not have moral principles.
4. Do not worship anything that is useless and does not create wisdom, such as trees, mountains, shrine, ghosts or spirits, and animals.
Three ways to bow
The way Buddhists worship the Buddha is by bowing. But those who bow can be placed in three categories.
1. The more they bow, the more they are tired. These individuals are those who bow to imitate others without understanding the reason.
2. The more they bow, the more stupid they become. These individuals bow and pray for something inappropriate, such as asking to win the lottery or getting good grades without studying.
3. The more they bow, the more intelligent they become. These individuals hold on to the Buddha’s Dhamma and follow his footsteps.
* The first bow: reminds us of the wisdom the Buddha.
* The second bow: remind us of the purity of the Buddha.
* The third bow: remind us of the Buddha’s kindness for preaching to so many people without thinking of his own tiredness.
The benefits of expressing respect to those worthy of respect
1. Have continued right views in any situation.
2. Have polite and gentle behaviors; to become a respectable person.
3. Have a clear mind, because of the constant positive thinking of doing the right thing.
4. Gain intelligence because of the careful and calm behaviors, which dissolve one’s carelessness.
5. Safe from negative thinking and behaviors.
6. Gain a confidence and able to protect oneself from any disasters.
7. Free to worship those who are worthy of respect because the unworthy no longer exists in one’s life.
8. Express respect to these individuals is to praise the wise highly.