Buddhist Ways Of Puja

• Offer smell & colorful flowers for virtue powers of Lord Buddha, Dhamma & Noble Sangha
• Light sweet smells & offer odors for infinitive precepts & concentration of Lord Buddha
• Light oil lamps or colorful bulbs for wisdom of Lord Buddha
• Foods (drinks & meals) pujas for Lord Buddha & Sangha 
• Offer cloths & other important things for sangha or temple
• Bodhi pujas as respect to wisdom of Lord Buddha near Bodhi tree
• Stupa pujas as respect to enlighten monks & Buddha
• Visiting temples & meditation centers for calm our minds
• Help to maintain or build new temple or meditation rooms
• Visiting places related to Lord Buddha's life incidents for calm our mind
• Datu puja as respect Lord Buddha & Sangha
• Wisdom puja for last exited 28 Buddhas
• Blessing puja for Mitree Bodhi Sathwa, as future Buddha

Bodhi Puja
        This is common merit work done by very Buddhist for respect of wisdom of Buddha. Hence we decide to tell you how we can do right Bodhi puja. Before do body puja you must wash your body, clean your body & mouth. You must prepare fresh pure water mix with some sweet smells or flowers like jasmine into pitcher. also you need flowers, incense sticks & oil lamps for do Bodhi puja. This puja done for as respect to unlimited wisdom of Lord Buddha, this wisdom attained near the Bodhi three. It is good you choose temple with lack of people. After you prepare those goods & you must wear white or yellow color cloths. Firstly you must offer flower basket in front of Bodhi three, light oil lamps & incense sticks. After that little time you must do simple meditation. Then you can say Buddha worshiping verses or you can recall nine virtues of Lord Buddha on your mind. Then you must take water pitcher into hand, go around the Bodhi tree & while recall nine virtuous sentences of Lord Buddha, you want to put little water drops to roots of Bodhi tree in four directions. Till water pitcher become finish you must recall virtue powers of Buddha. After that you can sit down and say loudly Buddhist sutta such as KaraniyaMetta, Ratana, MahaMangala, AnattmaLakkana, DamsakPawatum, etc... for this puja you can used Buddhist books. Then again you must meditate some time such as 15 minutes then want to transfer did merits to gods. While do Bodhi puja it is good concentrate sounds of leaves of trees & feel the environmental calmness. You must use at least one hour to do right Bodhi puja. 
    
Stupa or Datu Puja 
        This also same as Bodhi Puja but you don't use water, only uses flowers, incense sticks & oil lamps. Stupa is building which have noble relics of Lord Buddha or noble Sangha. Every Bodhi tree, temple or stupa protected by particular god therefore while you do such puja, you can get attraction of this god too. This is powerful merit work can done by every one without waste money. Datu means Buddha's or enlighten monk's used goods, body part, signs, marks or symbols. Popular datu is Lord Buddha's left foot mark on the top of mountain called Siripadha in Sri Lanka. Other world famous datu is Lord Buddha's left tooth in temple of tooth in Kandy. In Kalani temple have gem chair which Lord Buddha used to sit when visiting Sri Lanka once time. White RumanWali stupa in Anuradhapura which was built by king Dutugamunu, have relics of Buddha's & enlightened Sangha's body parts. Cause of that Buddha & Noble Sangha got rid from every pains, sufferings & rebirthing hence we respect to those stupa & datu. 
   
Offer Flowers, Oil Lamps, Incense Sticks & Foods
       Buddhist people offer flowers for Buddha, Dhamma & Sangha for their virtue powers. These flowers must be small flowers such as jasmine. Flowers can be different colors. But normally not include heavy & big red flowers. These flowers must be put into basket made from woods, plastic, brass or gold. For datu pujas we only use white small flowers. Red, white & blue water flowers also used as such puja. When we keeping flowers we understand unsteadiness via seeing flowers are faded after some time. As well as flowers, we worship Buddha from oil lamps as respect to ultimate wisdom of Lord Buddha. Oils must made from coconut, king coconut or sandalwood. Lamp used to light oils must made from brass, gold or mud. Incense sticks used for as respect of great precepts & Samadhi concentration of Lord Buddha. Incenses must be flowers or sandalwood smells. Buddha puja room can made in neat room or tall table with Buddha statue, Bodi leave & small stupa where you can offer flowers, odors & oil lamp to Lord Buddha in your home. People used to offer meals for Lord Buddha in home because it is said merit incomes of this puja is as same as offer meals to living Lord Buddha. It is good to keep in mind that hard foods such as rice & curry offer only morning 5am to 8am & 11am to 1pm only. But soft drinks, juices & porridges can offer any time in day but perfect times are 10am & 3pm to 7pm.  
  
Visiting Places related to Buddhism
         Lord Buddha said in Parinirvana sutta that, visiting historic places & relics of Buddha or fullly enlightened sangha help to gain powerful merit incomes till we get nibbana. Buddha especially said that four places where related to buddh's life incidents are very helpful to visit & gain merits. Those are : place where Buddha born (Lumbini Sala park), location where Buddha enlighten (BuddhaGaya), places where Buddha preach first sutta called Dhamma Circle (Migadaya) & location where Buddha passed away (Kusiranawa) Apart from these places other places in India are very important such as temple which Buddha said lot of suttas & stay longtime such as Getawanaramaya & Isipatanaramaya. In Sri Lanka there have lot of places & temple where have Buddha's datus, branches of Bodhi trees, stupas & temples. When seen these places our mind become calm & relax, this is noble feeling which help to gain merits. All Sri Lankan Buddhist must worship these places such as : Temple of tooth where have left tooth of Buddha, Kiriwahera temple where Buddha stayed in Nirodha Samadhi in seven days, Kalaniya temple where Buddha preached Dhamma in Sri Lanka, Sri Padha mountain where have mark of Buddha's left foot & Sri Maha Bodhi tree where have first branch of Bodhi tree. Another bid merit which help gain bid merit powers & give unlimited luxury in every rebirths are offer cloths & other important things for sangha or temple, help to maintain or build new temple or meditation rooms for monks who do meditations. 
  
Puja For Past 28 Lord Buddhas
         Another puja done by Buddhist people is wisdom puja for past passed away 28 Buddhas. Some temples in Sri Lanka have stupas for 28 Buddhas, but some temples haven't. Hence we can do this puja near any Bodhi tree or temple or stupa. In this puja we offer & light 28 oil lamps for unlimited wisdom, knowledges & skills of past exited 28 Buddhas. As well as you can light 28 incense sticks for their precepts & Samadhi around the Bodhi tree. Our Lord Buddha also did this puja in his Bodhi Sathwa lives for gain merit for wisdom. Especially this puja help to gain merit for take right decisions & get rid of wrong decisions or ideas in our current life. This is very powerful puja therefore good to do in every months. Here are names of last 28 Buddhas :

Tanhankara - Madankara - Saranankara - Dipankara
Kondanghagha - Mangala - Sumana - Rawathi
Sohitha - Anomadassi - Paduma - Naradha
Padumothtara - Sumadha - Sujatha - Piyadassi
Athtadassi - Dhammadassi - Sidhartha - Tissa
Pussha - Vipassi - Siki - Vessabhu
Kakusandha  - Konagamana - Kassapa - Gautama