1. Prayer refers to expressing sincere prayers, prayers and thanks to supernatural beings such as gods, buddhas and bodhisattvas in religious ceremonies or personal beliefs. Prayer can be mainly in oral form, and it can also be expressed through actions such as material sacrifice. In different countries, different cultures and religions, the ways and objects of prayer are different.
2. In Christianity, prayer is a way to communicate with God and a way for people to establish contact with God. Prayer can express people's gratitude, repentance, praise, thanks, requests and other emotions and wishes. In Christianity, prayer is usually carried out with biblical texts or rituals, which is a very important part of faith life.
3. In Buddhism, the meaning of prayer is broader, including chanting, chanting Buddha, meditation, saying and other forms. Prayer in Buddhism mainly expresses piety to many objects such as Buddha, Bodhisattva, Tao Te Ching, merit field, etc. It can also be used to pray for peace of mind, growth of wisdom, elimination of karma and so on.
Origin:
1. As a religious ceremony and personal belief activity, prayer can be traced back to ancient civilization. In the history of mankind, prayer exists in almost all cultures and religions, whether in the East or the West.
2. In ancient China, prayer activities such as praying and offering sacrifices were often associated with natural mysterious forces such as mountains and rivers and ancestors' souls. For example, the Zhou Dynasty's "offering sacrifices to heaven", "offering sacrifices to land" and "offering sacrifices to water" and the Qin and Han emperors' offering sacrifices to heaven and ancestors. In addition, Buddhism, Taoism and other religions also regard prayer as an important belief activity.
In western culture, prayer can be traced back to ancient Egyptian civilization, when people had the tradition of praying to many gods, such as the sun god La. In Judaism, Christianity and Islam, prayer has always been one of the core contents of belief life, usually in group worship or personal practice.