RPS - Puja

• Bowing can be used to recall the three refuges when bending the body three times in front of a shrine
• Bowing shows respect and acknowledgement of their superior knowledge and insight.
• Bowing can expresses humility and right intention as you show your wholehearted commitment to learning the Buddha's teachings. This makes them more receptive to the Buddha's teachings and enables them to attain further wisdom(panna) which directly leads to enlightenment
• Bowing is useful as it is a beginner form of worship - it is very simple and has low cost.
• Bowing may be ineffective if you do not have the ‘right intention’ whilst doing so. This hinders your development to enlightenment as you do not cover all aspects of the 8 fold path, recorded in Buddhist canon.
• Parable of the raft implies that bowing may be not be compulsory
• Making Offerings helps to illustrate and remind Buddhists different key teachings of Buddhism EG: Flowers dying = Anicca, Candle = driving out darkness with light Anatta
• Making offerings helps Buddhists to realise that the Buddha’s “place on the path of enlightenment” is higher than theirs and should be honoured with offerings or otherwise
• Making offerings takes effort - links to Eightfold Path (right action)
• Offerings can be made as a group and this would build a sense of community (sangha), thus helping Buddhists to rely on the Sangha (one of the Three Refuges/Jewels and a useful tool for Buddhists hoping to reach enlightenment)
• Making offerings could come across as giving gifts to Buddha because he is a superior or divine being which is not true, or a part of Buddhism
• Offerings does not do much in terms of focusing the mind or making much progress toward enlightenment (in the way that meditation does)
• Chanting helps to learn buddha's teachings - link to raft parable, humans can use buddhist teachers as a “raft to become enlightened”. Therefore if chanting can help a Buddhist to learn the teachings, that leads them to enlightenment.
• Chanting shows dedication as it works to focus the mind - link to meditation and concentration = Eightfold path. This could also be applied to right mindfulness.
• Chanting could influence you to think more like the buddha. The action of repeating a phrase spoken by Buddha could also lead to a greater understanding.
• Chanting the same phrase may cause it to lose its effect, it may become trivial and not mean as much to you after chanting it so many times.
• Chanting may be demanding if you have to learn another language and understand it.
• Chanting the Buddha Amitabha name can help invoke the presence of the Buddha Amitabha. This helps you attain a greater amount of compassion (karuna) and mercy (the key qualities of a Bodhisattva.) 
• Chanting Buddha Amitabha's name also helps express gratitude for the Buddha Amitabha, similar to bowing, which shows it is a devotional practice and expresses Right Intention( Eightfold Path)
• One of the downsides to chanting Buddha Amitabha name is that after chanting the name so many times, it loses the spiritual benefit and perhaps even becomes redundant.
• Mantras c an calm and focus the mind during meditation but can be a form of worship in its own right. Aids meditation so you can get more out of it. One of the most common mantras is om mani padme hum. This represents the sound of compassion.
• Some Buddhists believe that a mantra helps them become more receptive to compassion which in return allows them to use this quality in life to a deeper extent.
• One of the downsides to constantly chanting mantras is that after chanting something over and over again it's message may lose its effectiveness on you as it will just become something you do without thinking rather than being something you really are focusing on how you are applying it to your life. 
• Not an easy form of worship as mantra needs to be bought and be able to be read and understood.
• Not an easy form of worship as mantra needs to be bought and be able to be read and understood.
• Samatha meditation can help calm and focus the mind - preparation for being able to gain insight.
• Samatha meditation helps to practice one part of the Eightfold Path (an expression of magga) so we can become closer to attaining enlightenment
• Meditation is something that anyone can attempt - almost free of cost - easy access to teaching aids e.g. youtube
• Riddle Tree Parable - Samatha or Vipassana meditation alone cannot allow you to reach enlightenment, both Samatha and Vipassana needed.
• Once you have perfect concentration, there may no longer be any use for Samatha meditation
• Vipassana meditation helps us learn about the 8 fold path with a goal of achieving enlightenment. It involves the three marks of existence dukkha anatta and anicca as can focus on anything and not just one object like with samatha meditation your attention is more likely to switch between different things in vipassana meditation
• Visualisation is very interactive - you have to actively be involved in visualisation, which could develop greater concentration than samatha meditation.
• By visualising the Buddha, you are actively connecting with one of the three jewels, and you can be inspired to continue on your path to enlightenment.
• The Buddha himself never had to visualise a Buddha or a Bodhisattva, and through samatha and vipassana meditation, he was able to achieve enlightenment. This suggests that samatha and vipassana are more important forms of meditation.
• Not clear that you will gain any insight from visualisation the only thing you gain from this is what you gain in your head.
• Mandalas can help express a lot of Buddha's key teachings ie 3 marks of existence , annica the destruction of the mandala helps show them that nothing is permanent and that it doesn't really matter it helps them to lose the attachment to this world.
• Mandalas helps us to understand and deepen their understanding on dependant arising as the sand is poured into the river - visually accessible
• It is said that mandalas have a healing effect.
• Mandalas can have specific focus almost like kasinas where the mandala can symbolise things i.e. compassion.
• Mandala shows 8 fold path right concentration as if they make a singular mistake they may remove days of work. In Buddha's first sermon he taught the 8 fold path.