The Sevenfold Puja I Worship

The Sevenfold Pūjā is a Buddhist devotional ritual whose text is taken from The Guide to the Buddhist’s Way of Life (the Bodhicaryāvatāra) of Shāntideva.  It was written sometime in the mid 8th century in India. Shāntideva was a Buddhist monk, scholar, philosopher and talented Sanskrit poet.

The Pūjā (a Sanskrit word simply meaning ‘Worship’) is divided into seven distinct sections, each emphasising or expressing a particular emotional and spiritual aspiration, the verses of which are traditionally chanted in  call-and-response. They are: Worship; Salutation; Going for Refuge;  Confession of Faults;  Rejoicing in Merit; Entreaty and Supplication; Transference of Merit and Self-Surrender. The sixth section is often followed by the recitation of the Heart Sutra, one of the most important of all Buddhist texts.