Prayer/Meditation for 2/14/10

"God comes to us disguised as our life." -- Paula D'Arcy.

Prayer/Meditation for 2/13/10

No loss,
No gain.
No praise,
No blame.

An interfaith prayer for the people of Iran in this time of tension

An offering for the people of Iran in this time of tension, inspired by the principles of the UUA and this blog...

“The Spirit of the transcending mystery and wonder affirmed in all cultures and spoken of in all religious traditions inspires our belief in the inherent dignity of every human being and the necessity of equality and compassion in human relations. This need affirms our commitment to supporting all people everywhere dedicated to peace, liberty, and justice. Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Iran as they struggle with how to move forward in a tense post-election period so fraught with anger, accusation, and anxiety. May they and all people of courage and good will be blessed and uplifted and taste the fruits of their noble convictions.”

Addressing tragedy and trauma

What one might consider a tragedy occurs daily in places all over the world, often silently and anonymously and typically outside of the consciousness of those not directly involved in such events. Sacred traditions and their scriptures and prayers offer a medium and a language to express what cannot be adequately expressed in other terms. They reflect our limitations and our triumphs - they follow us to our heights and to our depths.

While the following selections are dedicated to those who touched by the recent events at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church, it is offered for all who may be swallowed by confusion and despair. I don't presume they will be a magic bullet for deep pain, but rather an indication that there are those who are willing to join the hurting in their misery.

A selection from The Book of Lamentations (portions of chapter 3)...

He has driven me away and made me walk in darkness rather than light; indeed, he has turned his hand against me again and again, all day long.

He has made my skin and my flesh grow old and has broken my bones. He has besieged me and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.

He has made me dwell in darkness like those long dead. He has walled me in so I cannot escape; he has weighed me down with chains.

Even when I call out or cry for help, he shuts out my prayer. He has barred my way with blocks of stone; he has made my paths crooked.

Like a bear lying in wait, like a lion in hiding, he dragged me from the path and mangled me and left me without help.

He drew his bow and made me the target for his arrows. He pierced my heart with arrows from his quiver...

He has filled me with bitter herbs and sated me with gall. He has broken my teeth with gravel; he has trampled me in the dust.

I have been deprived of peace; I have forgotten what prosperity is. So I say, "My splendor is gone and all that I had hoped from the LORD."

I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope:

Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

And the Peace Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi...

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy;

Grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Contemplative Prayer and God

Contemplative prayer "can only be hinted at, suggested, pointed to, symbolized." It is "the experiential grasp of reality as subjective, not so much 'mine' (which would signify 'belonging to the external self') but 'myself' in existential mystery..." and "the humble realization of our mysterious being as persons in whom God dwells, with our infinite sweetness and inalienable power." It is not "mere inertia, a tendency to inactivity, to psychic peace", it is not "trance or ecstasy, nor the hearing of sudden unutterable words, nor the imagination of lights", and neither is it "the emotional fire and sweetness that come with religious exaltation" nor "the sense of being 'seized' by an elemental force and swept into mystical liberation by mystical frenzy." One shouldn't expect "an escape from conflict, from anguish or from doubt. Contemplative prayer is not a form of 'spiritual anesthesia.' " In fact "the contemplative suffers the anguish of realizing that he no longer knows what God is." Rather one discovers that "there is no 'what' that can be called God" and instead God "is the the 'Thou' before whom our inmost 'I' springs into awareness."

-originally quoted from New Seeds of Contemplation by Thomas Merton, pp.6, 8, 9-13, 15; excerpts taken from Prayer for People Who Think Too Much by Mitch Finley

"It is just this idea of religion which makes any understanding of religion impossible. If you start with the question whether God does or does not exist, you can never reach Him; and if you assert that He does exist, you can reach Him even less than if you assert that he does not exist. A God whose existence or nonexistence you can argue is a thing beside others within the universe of existing things... It is regrettable that scientists believe that they have refuted religion when they rightly have shown that there is no evidence whatsoever for the assumption that such a being exists. Actually, they have not only not refuted religion, but they have done it a considerable service. They have forced it to reconsider and to restate the meaning of the tremendous word God. Unfortunately, many theologians make the same mistake. They begin their message with the assertion that there is a highest being called God, whose authoritative revelations they have received. They are more dangerous for religion than the so-called atheistic scientists. They take the first step on the road which inescapably leads to what is called atheism. Theologians who make of God a highest being who has given some people information about Himself, provoke inescapably the resistance of those who are told they must subject themselves to the authority of this information."

-Paul Tillich, Theology of Culture, pp.3

"God does not exist. He is being-itself beyond essence and existence. Therefore, to argue that God exists is to deny him."

-Paul Tillich, Systematic Theology, volume 1, pp.206

The release and deliverance of the heart

The Blessed One said: 'Whatever grounds there be for good works done in this world, all of them are not worth one-sixteenth part of that love which is the heart's release. Love alone, which is the heart's release, shines and burns and flashes forth in surpassing them.'
Itivuttaka, I. 3, 7, Pali Canon

The purpose of the holy life does not consist in acquiring support, honour or fame; nor in gaining virtue, concentration, or the eye of knowledge. But that unshakable deliverance of the heart--that indeed is the object of the holy life: that is its essence, that is its goal.
Majjhima Nikaya, I. 204, Pali Canon


Translations take from the The Oxford Book of Prayer, edited by George Appleton, Oxford University Press, 1989 printing

That's not a half-bad prayer

I recently came across a prayer of sorts, an open letter addressed to God in which the author complains and criticizes and questions and doubts the nature and existence of a Higher Power. My immediate reaction? That's not a half-bad prayer.

Honestly.

If you read Psalms and Lamentations you will see people questioning God, getting angry at God, etc. If you read Job, in his prayers he comes fairly close to actually cursing God in his accusations. Some people think prayer is supposed to always be rigid and formulaic and is supposed to present the right and proper "image", even if it is a silent prayer, and even if it isn't what the person is really feeling. Prayer is an activity of the heart, and in many traditions, Christian and otherwise, it is in the heart that one truly gets to know and understand God/the Spirit/the Source/the Way, etc. Bringing an "offering" of insincere niceties and polite falsehoods may work for our ideas of the Divine, the idols that we create in our heads to either accept or reject, but it cannot ever bring us to that, whatever we call it, that we find when we sincerely open ourselves to the depths of our Being.

Sanctuary - Offering Alms of Prayers, Concerns, and Well-Being

Candles sit on the rocks and the ground, they fill the smooth tables and some even float on the small stone-lined pool. They flicker in the gentle breeze. This is a place to come and place offerings of remembrance, prayers, and well-wishes.

This space is non-partisan and completely ecumenical. Like many similar types of posts or threads for prayer requests, well-wishes, and the like, you can post about what is on your mind or in your heart. Topics can be as large as world peace or as small as grieving over a pet who recently passed away; it's about what touches you, not what others may deem important or otherwise.

Single-pointed focus and the heart

I ran across something this week that gave me a pause. I have heard dharma talks and read books by Buddhist monks and lay practitioners about methods for achieving and maintaining single-pointed focus. I have also heard/read contemplatives in other traditions talking about attaining and keeping such focus. There has been a lot about emptiness, form, potential, actual, mind/self, no-mind/no-self, and all of the usual stuff. I am not suggesting that such advice or description of experiences are bogus. However, for the first time the other day someone connected the idea of such a single-pointed focus with the heart. That is, while we live in our heads, and while our initial practice (focusing on a spot, bodily function, image, mantra, etc) is more or less done repetitiously by a conscious mental will or thought-process that initiates and maintains the activity, this is just the beginning.

In Prayer for People Who Think Too Much, author Mitch Finley cites an example involves a literary character taken from a Russian novel The Pilgrim who is a seeker of sorts. Following some advice he has been given, the character repeats a short prayer frequently when not engaged in activities that would distract him from it, and keeps doing so as suggested. Eventually, he gets profoundly bored with it, but he keeps repeating the prayer anyway. After a long dry spell of boredom and disinterest, an unanticipated change occurs and the prayer moves from his head to his heart. He no longer needs to say the prayer with his lips or in his mind, even though he still does at times, because it has become almost a living thing.

Interestingly enough, from what I have observed and read over the last few years, getting over an initial phase of interest or anticipation and then passing through a tedious period of seemingly endless and fruitless desert of monotony and a virtual loss of total interest seems to be a common theme/requirement of the basic prayerful and meditative practices of (most/all?) major religions. It's a test I haven't passed yet. I get bored, distracted, busy, or frustrated, and working along it is hard to maintain a serious commitment. But that aside, what is interesting is that Finley, as per his exemplar from The Pilgrim, equates having a single-pointed focus as something that comes from your heart rather than your head. That we rest in the deep spaciousness of our hearts once we have drilled through the layers of delusion, (false) expectations, and exaggerations that have accreted like arterial plaque, choking off our inherent awareness of ourselves. The prayer/meditation, according to this perspective, is no longer something we do but something that is that we become aware of (and follow along with in our devotions).

I have read and heard quite a bit about different methods for cultivating such focus, particularly in Buddhism but also from some Christian circles, and I have yet to have come across this explicit connection. I wonder if that is why so many people have trouble with working on this focus? and when we don't get the result we want as soon as we want, do we not then try this, try that, and try something else? To use an analogy Finley himself borrowed, it is like starting to dig a well several times and continually stopping and starting over somewhere else before you ever hit water. Which makes me wonder, how many people who are parroting and quoting the the teachings or insights of those who have successfully penetrated through such focus to the cave of the Heart and accessed the Spirit/Source/Nature/Way they had been alienated from have themselves realized such awareness for themselves?

(PS - And it reminds me of these musings and whether I in my ignorance and impatience might have, by serendipity, have skirted this insight before. To give a few examples that spring to mind...

A Little More On Sitting As Surrender
Sitting As Surrender
Pondering the Meaning of Liberation from Suffering, Part 4
Regarding Silence
No mind but Mind
Buddhism and the Divine)

Amidists performing Nembustu chants

Benedictines performing a Gregorian chant

Life shatters you

"Life does not accommodate you; it shatters you. Every seed destroys its container, or else there would be no fruition."

-Florida Scott-Maxwell

An interesting quote to contemplate when reflecting on growth, emptiness, disappointment, and gratitude. One of the many amazing quotes from the Word of the Day email by Gratefulness.org. This one was sent on Dec 12, 2007.

Book Review: Manifesting God

Manifesting God is the name of a very short, direct, and affective (that's not a typo) book written by Thomas Keating. I have promoted interspiritual, interreligious, or interfaith issues before and I was particularly moved by the writings of the late Brother Wayne Teasdale, who saw the contemplative dimension that is common to all religious traditions and spiritual paths as essential for one's personal fulfilment as well as the transformation of the human community to a more compassionate and mature state. Keating and his revival of Centering Prayer are frequently featured of such interspiritual dialogue. So when I saw slim, diminutive summary book on the topic by Keating himself dated to 2005, I decided to read it and see what the fuss was about.

I am not going to quote from the book here, but let me just that if you are a Buddhist, especially a Western-culture-raised Buddhist, regardless of whether you into Tibetan Buddhism, Chan/Zen/etc, traditional or Japanese Pure Land, or the many other varieties or combinations, I suspect you will frequently feel as if you are reading a book on Buddhism. That's right - whether you identify more with sitting silently while being open and nonjudgmental toward Ultimate Reality/reality-as-it-is or whether you identify more with the idea of faith in our True Nature (i.e. expressed as True Mind, a vision of a particular Buddha, as an ineffable Presence, etc) as the bedrock for all other practice, you will read passages that will resonate with what you have seen, read, heard, and/or experienced as a Buddhist practitioner.

I am not suggesting that what Keating is offering is simply Buddhism-lite dressed up a Christianity. However, as many have noted before while particular rites, rituals, prayers, and paraphernalia are important to beginning and sustaining a spiritual or religious path, it may be that where many of them lead is not so different (or in the end even identical). Naturally, similar traps crop up in all faiths leading at times to exclusion, fear, and hatred. That is because while religions express a shared understanding of who we are and how to live a meaningful life, they don't always come up with the same answers, even within themselves. Hence the familiar fallacy of what it means to be a "true" Christian, or Buddhist, or Muslim. This makes the commonality of the insights and resulting qualities of so many dedicated seekers quite fascinating.

Rather than call for a amalgamation of all religions into a theological gumbo, many contemplative masters and respected spiritual and religious leaders often point instead to the idea that there is a path in each system that works as to get people past the superficial (where much of the disagreements and disputes arise)to the more profound realization of their faith (where there is more commonality and less friction). To paraphrase Teasdale, religious systems are now open and interconnected with one another, able to borrow and learn from each other without completely absorbing or nullifying the others. If I recall correctly even the current Dalai Lama has suggested as much, encouraging people raised in Christianity to seek realization in that more familiar cultural paradigm of spirituality. Of course, that doesn't mean there aren't those who identify with more than one faith, but many I have heard of or know tend to see them as multiple incarnations or distinct expressions of human understanding. That is, I get the feeling they can identify with multiple religions without having to try to explicitly include all of their practices and symbols.

I bring this latter point up simply to remind readers of the complexity of and hence the potential for misunderstanding when discussing interspiritual topics. I have noted a defensive tendency at times(playfully addressed in a post titled "Don't taint my Buddhism with comparisons to Christianity"). Nor am I excluding myself from being more inclined to be argumentative first and respectful second. As for the book, Manifesting God is intriguing to me because yes, it does talk about God and Jesus and it includes quotes from the Bible (for more on my thoughts on these issues in general look here), but it also speaks to topics I have wrestled with in Buddhism.

Perhaps this is in part because so much of my spiritual cultural heritage was founded from such a different perspective than Asian spirituality. While some folks rush to exorcise God and any notion resembling God from their lives and their practice when embracing paths such as Buddhism, it is possible that at times that lacuna means that we have more difficulty processing certain images or messages. That is, even if one does not believe in the God of their childhood or church-going days, it is difficult to "get" some spiritual concepts without a reference that at least vaguely resembles that term because it occupies a unique linguistic and ontological space in our culture and society.

Here is a small sampling of what Buddhists might recognize in the book. The practice of getting past our assumptions, letting go of our false selves, and therefore not clinging to expectations (whether these expectations and judgements are about our formal practice or our lived experience). The idea of being an interdependent aspect of the greater whole of Ultimate Reality. The idea of challenging the view of the embodiment of Ultimate Reality as a transcendent, aloof, and judgemental ruler who only favors the (religiously) observant, the successful, and the upstanding with the view of an immanent Presence that is all-inclusive and is found in the broken, the vile, and the discarded as well as the pretty and the pleasing. (The transcendent aspect is not discarded but is taken from being aloof or inaccessible and recast as simply being ineffable.)

Additionally, Keating talks specifically about pre-conceptions of God (Ultimate Reality) that are commonly passed on to children and which can hinder their interest in or experience of the Divine. While I am not listing and discussing them here, I do believe that for many people raised with such notions these same hang-ups may manifest in subtle and not so subtle ways in their practice of Buddhism as well. Therefore even for those are not particularly interested in interfaith dialogue or Christianity per se, I do wonder to what degree reading this little book may be beneficial to other Buddhists with a Western/Christianized background. So I put the question out there and you can decide what, if anything, you will do with it. Those who practice and path involves both contemplation and faith as co-equal or even unequal elements (including the Zen folks, the Shin folks, etc) I anticipate it will be most useful. For those totally turned off by the association of Buddhism with or even the mere mentioning of Christianity, Jesus, God, etc I anticipate it will be even more useful.



PS- I am aware that Clark Strand, a name that produces strong reactions in English-speaking Buddhist circles, is supposed to have a new book out in the next several months How to Believe in God (Whether You Believe in Religion or Not). I have no idea what he plans to say in that book, but I am wondering if it will be along the lines of what I am discussing here? And if so, I wonder what kind of reaction it will generate?

Fiery Impulse

There is a fiery impulse
at the heart of prayer,
not saying prayers,
but primal prayer
the self's radical
turning toward God
in Whose incendiary gaze
ego's dross is consumed.

The essence left
after the conflagration
wears only the garb of light,
a radiance that passes
from soul to soul.
Glimpsed, not taught,
it illuminates a dark world
with a searing love
that beckons, burns,
ignites the fiery impulse.

-Bonnie Thurston

I ran across this poem on the Monastic Interreligious Dialogue (MID) website. It seems to fit well with the theme of recent entries here, especially this one on answering the call and that one on religious language.

A few words on prayer

If you've ever been on an atheism forum/message board odds are that you have seen the Robert Ingersoll quote "Hands that help are better than lips that pray." On the surface it presents a dichotomy - asking for a Higher Power (presumably through some form of supernatural intervention) or doing the work yourself. It assumes that prayer is either a form of magical incantation or a request list for a Cosmic Vending Machine. It shouldn't be surprising since many of those who pray give that very impression of the purpose of prayer. "Oh Lord, grant me this, let that happen, and bless us with the other thing." And when it doesn't seem to work, well, that is just the Higher Power saying "no". The wrangling over whether "prayer studies" are valid, that is, whether or not praying for people increases the odds of their recovery, reinforces the view of prayer as a way to manipulate the world through tapping into a loophole in the laws of nature.

Given such a view, in the above dichotomy, it may well seem logical to many to choose "hands that help" over "lips that pray".

But does prayer come from the lips? Is that where a prayer lies?

I have always though that prayer is the matter of the heart. What one hears on the lips or from the voice in our heads is a reflection of what is in our heart. It's like a mirror showing us what really matters to us. That is why trivial prayers sound so shallow. Not only does prayer reflect what is in our hearts, but it can also reflect things into our hearts. That is, sometimes by deeply considering certain things (for example certain principles or virtues or people) we can become more open to them.

But prayer, or silent reflection, or meditation, does not always need to be spoken. While spoken prayer can give voice to the heart as well as inspire the heart, silent prayer can also be very powerful. It can grant a perspective that is beyond our traditional words and categories and concepts. It can help to fundamentally change how we view and relate to the world.

So, then, this week there were many posts with the theme of prayer and peace. I hope that they touched something in your heart. But what about that dichotomy we started with? Well, it isn't likely to go away any time soon, but we don't have to be limited by it. I would say that given the kind the way that I tend to see prayer, that quote we started with just doesn't work at all. After all, hearts that pray can inspire and sustain the drive behind the hands that help. Let us keep that in mind - we are the answers to each others prayers.

Note: I wrote most of this last Saturday and saved it but I didn't get a chance to do the final edit and post until Thursday, in case you are wondering where this suddenly popped up from. I may have to go back to only a couple posts a week for a while. We'll see.

The War Prayer by Mark Twain

Continuing a general theme this week inspired by the Memorial Day holiday, allow me to present another prayer for peace. This one comes in the form of a short story written by Samuel Clemens in 1904 and published after his death. It has been rediscovered of late, and over the memorial day weekend an animated version was released (just over 14 minutes running time in two parts).

Here is the original text version...

It was a time of great exulting and excitement. The country was up in arms, the war was on, in every breast burned the holy fire of patriotism; the drums were beating, the bands playing, the toy pistols popping, the bunched firecrackers hissing and sputtering; on every hand and far down the receding and fading spread of roofs and balconies a fluttering wilderness of flags flashed in the sun; daily the young volunteers marched down the wide avenue gay and fine in their new uniforms, the proud fathers and mothers and sisters and sweethearts cheering them with voices choked with happy emotion as they swung by; nightly the packed mass meetings listened, panting, to patriot oratory which stirred the deepest depths of their hearts, and which they interrupted at briefest intervals with cyclones of applause, the tears running down their cheeks the while; in the churches the pastors preached devotion to flag and country, and invoked the God of Battles, beseeching His aid in our good cause in outpourings of fervid eloquence which moved every listener. It was indeed a glad and gracious time, and the half dozen rash spirits that ventured to disapprove of the war and cast doubt upon its righteousness straight way got such a stern and angry warning that for their personal safety's sake they quickly shrank out of sight and offended no more in that way.

Sunday morning came – next day the battalions would leave for the front; the church was filled; the volunteers were there, their young faces alight with martial dreams – visions of the stern advance, the gathering momentum, the rushing charge, the flashing sabers, the flight of the foe, the tumult, the enveloping smoke, the fierce pursuit, the surrender! – then home from the war, bronzed heroes, welcomed, adored, submerged in golden seas of glory! With the volunteers sat their dear ones, proud, happy, and envied by the neighbors and friends who had no sons and brothers to send forth to the field of honor, there to win for the flag, or failing, die the noblest of noble deaths. The service proceeded; a war chapter from the Old Testament was read; the first prayer was said; it was followed by an organ burst that shook the building, and with one impulse the house rose, with glowing eyes and beating hearts, and poured out that tremendous invocation:

"God the all-terrible! Thou who ordainest, Thunder thy clarion and lightning thy sword!"

Then came the "long" prayer. None could remember the like of it for passionate pleading and moving and beautiful language. The burden of its supplication was, that an ever-merciful and benignant Father of us all would watch over our noble young soldiers, and aid, comfort, and encourage them in their patriotic work; bless them, shield them in the day of battle and the hour of peril, bear them in His mighty hand, make them strong and confident, invincible in the bloody onset; help them to crush the foe, grant to them and to their flag and country imperishable honor and glory – An aged stranger entered and moved with slow and noiseless step up the main aisle, his eyes fixed upon the minister, his long body clothed in a robe that reached to his feet, his head bare, his white hair descending in a frothy cataract to his shoulders, his seamy face unnaturally pale, pale even to ghastliness. With all eyes following and wondering, he made his silent way; without pausing, he ascended to the preacher's side and stood there, waiting. With shut lids the preacher, unconscious of his presence, continued his moving prayer, and at last finished it with the words, uttered in fervent appeal, "Bless our arms, grant us victory, O Lord our God, Father and Protector of our land and flag!"

The stranger touched his arm, motioned him to step aside – which the startled minister did – and took his place. During some moments he surveyed the spellbound audience with solemn eyes, in which burned an uncanny light; then in a deep voice he said:

"I come from the Throne – bearing a message from Almighty God!" The words smote the house with a shock; if the stranger perceived it he gave no attention. "He has heard the prayer of His servant your shepherd, and will grant it if such be your desire after I, His messenger, shall have explained to you its import – that is to say, its full import. For it is like unto many of the prayers of men, in that it asks for more than he who utters it is aware of – except he pause and think.

"God's servant and yours has prayed his prayer. Has he paused and taken thought? Is it one prayer? No, it is two – one uttered, the other not. Both have reached the ear of Him Who heareth all supplications, the spoken and the unspoken. Ponder this – keep it in mind. If you would beseech a blessing upon yourself, beware! lest without intent you invoke a curse upon a neighbor at the same time. If you pray for the blessing of rain upon your crop which needs it, by that act you are possibly praying for a curse upon some neighbor's crop which may not need rain and can be injured by it.

"You have heard your servant's prayer – the uttered part of it. I am commissioned of God to put into words the other part of it – that part which the pastor – and also you in your hearts – fervently prayed silently. And ignorantly and unthinkingly? God grant that it was so! You heard these words: 'Grant us victory, O Lord our God!' That is sufficient. The whole of the uttered prayer is compact into those pregnant words. Elaborations were not necessary. When you have prayed for victory you have prayed for many unmentioned results which follow victory – must follow it, cannot help but follow it. Upon the listening spirit of God the Father fell also the unspoken part of the prayer. He commandeth me to put it into words. Listen!

"O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle – be Thou near them! With them – in spirit – we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe. O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with hurricanes of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with their little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it – for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen."

[After a pause.]

"Ye have prayed it; if ye still desire it, speak! The messenger of the Most High waits."

It was believed afterward that the man was a lunatic, because there was no sense in what he said.

The Universal Prayer of the World Peace Prayer Society

Continuing a general theme this week inspired by the Memorial Day holiday, allow me to present another prayer for peace. This one comes from the an multi-faith organization. [Here is some context for those who are new to reading my perspective or who have forgotten my approach to things like "God", "religion", etc.] You can view the prayer in 83 languages here. Here it is in English:


May Peace Prevail on Earth.

The Buddha's call for peace

Continuing a general theme this week inspired by the Memorial Day holiday, allow me to present another prayer for peace. This one comes from the Buddhist tradition, from a translation of the Dhammapada found at Beliefent [speaking of - here is some context for those who are new to reading my perspective or who have forgotten my approach to things like "God", "religion", etc.]

Let us live happily, without hate amongst those who hate. Let us dwell unhating amidst hateful men.
Let us live happily, in good health amongst those who are sick.
Let us dwell in good health amidst ailing men.
Let us live happily, without yearning for sensual pleasures amongst those who yearn for them.
Let us dwell without yearning amidst those who yearn.
Let us live happily, we who have no impediments. We shall subsist on joy even as the radiant gods.

Peace Prayer of St. Francis

Continuing a general theme this week inspired by the Memorial Day holiday, allow me to present another prayer for peace. This one comes from the Christian tradition, but it doesn't require much in the way of parsing symbolism to make it more ecumenical [speaking of - here is some context for those who are new to reading my perspective or who have forgotten my approach to things like "God", "religion", etc.]

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy;

Grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Jewish prayer for peace

Continuing a general theme this week inspired by the Memorial Day holiday, allow me to present another prayer for peace. This one comes from the Jewish tradition, specifically a quote from the prophet Micah (Micah 4:2-5). This particular version of that scripture comes from The Peace Abbey, whose website also has inspiring versions of common peace prayers from many different traditions. [Here is some context for those who are new to reading my perspective or who have forgotten my approach to things like "God", "religion", etc.]

Come let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, that we may walk the paths of the Most High. And we shall beat our swords into ploughshares, and our spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation - neither shall they learn war any more. And none shall be afraid, for the mouth of the Lord of Hosts has spoken.