Shakyamuni Buddha Puja is a source of good collections: a rite of homage, worship (making offerings) and prayers to the teacher, the King of Sages, remembering his previous lives and biography.
The main point of the puja is to develop one's faith in the Buddha and
collect vast merits by thinking about the wonderful things he has done -
both in his countless previous lives as a bodhisattva and in his life as
Shakyamuni, feeling joyful about them and making offerings, both real and
visualized. The framework of the central part of the puja is the seven
limbs. These are preceded by various preliminaries aimed at getting the
participants into the right frame of mind and at setting up the
visualization of the field of merit, to whom the seven limbs are
addressed. One also purifies one's negative karmas by confessing them with
regret and creates further merits by auspicious wishes and prayers for the
flourishing of the Buddha's doctrine. These are followed by prayers which
comprise the extensive limb of dedication and then saying goodbye to the
beings in the field of merit.
(Extracted from A Service Manual for Spiritual Program
Coordinators, FPMT and Shakyamuni Puja - Worshipping the
Buddha, Wisdom Publications, London.)
From Lama Zopa Rinpoche:
"I want to introduce the Guru Shakyamuni Puja, which I found very beneficial for the mind and especially, I thought for developing bodhicitta and entering into the Bodhisattva deeds - the extensive, hard Bodhisattva deeds. It gives great inspiration to sacrifice oneself for sentient beings equaling the sky."
Kadampa Center, Raleigh, NC, USA
Affiliated with the Foundation for
the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition in the lineage of His Holiness the Dalai Lama