Thank you so much @fran and @teena for you question and answer on this subject. It's a big one and I'll return to it in the Thursday sessions on Atisha's Lamp. But I wanted to put in my tuppence worth. It's true that Buddhism is not a theistic religion - it doesn't posit a supreme being or a entity that we would pray or prostrate to. And on an ultimate level, there is no separate self or 'other'. We are all part of the play of shunyata (emptiness). However, when Buddhism moved from the path of individual liberation, represented by the Theravadan teachings, to the Mahayana teachings of universal liberation and universal responsibility then the role of the Other becomes more and more central on a relative level. In the Mahayana, through the teachings of emptiness and interdependence, there is no separation between self and other. And this opens the door to universal compassion: there is an infinite web of suffering beings and we cannot just liberate ourselves but have to liberate all. That is the ground of Great Compassion, recognising that there is no separation. However, the good news is that there is also no separation from the enlightened beings in the web either. And this is the ground of Great Devotion. We are all connected in a web of interdependence to all the suffering beings AND all the enlightened beings. It is this "Field of Merit", (that is to say, the web of enlightened humans and non-humans in the Universe), that we connect with through prayer, supplication, appreciation, rejoicing, offerings and contemplation. On an ultimate level, there is no separation and everything is empty-clarity, but, unless we have reached full liberation, we are not living in ultimate reality so these more relative forms are celebrated and offered in the Mahayana to uplift the mind by connecting it to the enlightened forces of the universe. As Teena suggests, ultimately, all these forms, "Buddhas", "Bodhisattvas", "Gurus", "Protectors" are empty of permanent existence but their beneficial energy does exist in the conditioned world and we can lighten our individual path with the light of their existence. In short, the rituals of prayer, prostration, confession, rejoicing and offering remind us that we're not doing this on our own and that there is a vast ocean of support out there that counters the vast ocean of suffering. I hope that makes a little sense!

How lovely and thoughtful ❤️ Hope you have a lovely day. There was a story on Instagram about a woman praying to what she thought was a Buddha ornament but was in fact one of Shrek. No idea if true but you can see the similarities. And anyway, she’d prayed 🙌