Venerable Master Hsing Yun, founder of Fo Guang Shan monastic order, wrote Pearls of Wisdom, in efforts to respond to the society’s demand and to propagate Humanistic Buddhism. This study takes Pearls of Wisdom as the research subject, mainly investigates the theoretical and cultivation foundation for considering praying as a Buddhist practicing method. It attempts to compose a practicing guideline for modern people to settle mind and body, and to pave a progressive pathway for prayers cultivation, which encompasses hearing-reflecting-practicing to accomplish prajñā then foster great compassion, in order to complete perfection and supreme enlightenment. Previous researches on prayers more emphasize on their implications for morality, literary criticism, ritual forms, social culture, folk customs and other aspects, which demonstrate great influences that prayers have imposed historically. Moreover, current academic studies have been limited on probing prayers’ literary and educational implications, leaving the cultivation perspective not being explored thoroughly. Given prayers’ historical contribution, this research firstly presents an overview of contemporary mainstream ideology and the development background of traditional prayers in the context of Buddhism being spread eastward. Then, it classifies the main categories of prayers and their corresponding dharma implications. An analysis is further extended based on traditional prayers. In Pearls of Wisdom, Venerable Master Hsing Yun adopts plain and straightforward way of expressions. It looks like that literature to express emotions, in fact these empathetic verbal images convey the Master’s sincere and willing heart, directly or indirectly, propagates core ideas of Humanistic Buddhism. In order to permeate the cultivation implications of Pearls of Wisdom to general public, this research attempts to examine the dharma doctrines underlying the verbal poetic images, to bridge core ideas with prajñā that relies on words, and to establish the cultivation framework consisted of dharma doctrines. By examining the Master’s praying experiences of four periods, the focal point has been shifted from oneself to teachers and relatives, and to the nation and society, and lastly shifted to the reliance on Buddha’s great compassion and original intent, when prayers turn into vow-making. These shifts demonstrate that cultivation, after a period of praying, has been accumulated to mature a fundamental breakthrough, which is vowing to persist through three great kalpas of practice. Therefore, this research could be further extended in the direction of exploring the lift from praying to make vows using Pearls of Wisdom.
