Buddhism consists of a number of sacred rituals and traditions used it aid it's worshippers on the path to enlightenment. Many Buddhist practices are taken from other cultures and religions (China, Japan, India etc.), but there are, of course, differences both sublte and large. There are plenty of different types of Buddhism and within those, plenty of rituals, but the two most common and seemingly important are meditation and prayer. There are a vast amount of rituals, too many to mention on one small page, but it is meditation and prayer that are performend on a daily basis by both monks and worshippers. Not only do buddhists take part in numerous traditions and rituals, they also celebrate quite a few holidays and hold a handful of festivals throughout the year.
Meditation, said to have originally been taught by Buddha himself, is key in every form of Buddhism in existence. The act of meditation is all about seeing things for oneself and being free of ignorance and confusion. Meditation is one of the many steps toward enlightenment and nirvana. It is, in a sense, a form of self-hypnosis that requires a large amount of concentration.Concentrating on focal points such as candles or cracks in a wall make it much easier while in the process of achieving inner peace. Not only does meditation help one to stay tranquil, informed and compassionate, some of the more experienced buddhists are said to experience frequent spiritual visions while meditating.
There are an incredibly large amount of different types of Buddhism and for each of those, different types of meditation. Fortunately, Western meditation teacher Kamalashila has reduced them all to five basic forms of meditation. Each have their own methods and each focus on different problem areas. Meditation is beneficial for those who wish to be rid of ways of thinking that hold quite a few people back on a day-to-day basis. Meditation is about being cleansed of things such as envy, cruelty, and ignorance and developing compassion, focus, inner peace and contentment toward