Topic: Prayer

[Michael]

It's possible that Julie was reading this in the past, and it caused some discussion.

[Nichi]

I totally enjoyed it. I've been searching for online excerpts of it (to no avail), because there's a scene in it where she was sitting before a campfire, and a rabbit immolated himself for her, jumping into the fire.... I wanted to re-read that.

I read the book as an assignment in a Women's Studies class, way back when. 

[Nichi]

Give Us Courage

Give us courage, gaiety and the quiet mind.
Spare us to our friends, soften to us our enemies.
Bless us, if it may be, in all our innocent endeavors.
If it may not, give us the strength to encounter
that which is to come, that we be brave in peril,
constant in tribulation, temperate in wrath,
and in all changes of fortune and down to the gates
of death, loyal and loving to one another.

~ Robert Louis Stevenson ~

[Nichi]

Sutta Nipata

Discourse on Good Will

May all beings be filled with joy and peace.
May all beings everywhere,
The strong and the weak,
The great and the small,
The mean and the powerful,
The short and the long,
The subtle and the gross:
 
May all beings everywhere,
Seen and unseen,
Dwelling far off or nearby,
Being or waiting to become:
May all be filled with lasting joy.
 
Let no one deceive another,
Let no one anywhere despise another,
Let no one out of anger or resentment
Wish suffering on anyone at all.
 
Just as a mother with her own life
Protects her child, her only child, from harm,
So within yourself let grow
A boundless love for all creatures.
 
Let your love flow outward through the universe,
To its height, its depth, its broad extent,
A limitless love, without hatred or enmity.
 
Then, as you stand or walk,
Sit or lie down,
As long as you are awake,
Strive for this with a one-pointed mind;
Your life will bring heaven to earth.

 

From the Metta Sutta, part of the Sutta Nipata, a collection of dialogues with the Buddha said to be among the oldest parts of the Pali Buddhist canon.

[Nichi]

Rig Veda, tr. by Ralph T.H. Griffith, [1896], at sacred-texts.com

HYMN CLXXXV. Heaven and Earth.

1. WHETHER of these is elder, whether later? How were they born? Who knoweth it, ye sages?
These of themselves support all things existing: as on a car the Day and Night roll onward.
2 The Twain uphold, though motionless and footless, a widespread offspring having feet and moving.
Like your own son upon his parents’ bosom, protect us, Heaven and earth, from fearful danger.
3 I call for Aditi's unrivalled bounty, perfect, celestial, deathless, meet for worship.
Produce this, ye Twain Worlds, for him who lauds you. Protect us, Heaven and Earth, from fearful danger.
4 May we be close to both the Worlds who suffer no pain, Parents of Gods, who aid with favour,
Both mid the Gods, with Day and Night alternate. Protect us, Heaven and Earth, from fearful danger.
5 Faring together, young, with meeting limits, Twin Sisters lying in their Parents’ bosom,
Kissing the centre of the world together. Protect us, Heaven and Earth, from fearful danger.
6 Duly I call the two wide seats, the mighty, the general Parents, with the God's protection.
Who, beautiful to look on, make the nectar. Protect us, Heaven and Earth, from fearful danger.
7 Wide, vast, and manifold, whose bounds are distant,—these, reverent, I address at this our worship,
The blessed Pair, victorious, all-sustaining. Protect us, Heaven and Earth, from fearful danger.
8 What sin we have at any time committed against the Gods, our friend, our house's chieftain,
Thereof may this our hymn be expiation. Protect us, Heaven and Earth, from fearful danger.
9 May both these Friends of man, who bless, preserve me, may they attend me with their help and favour.
Enrich the man more liberal than the godless. May we, ye Gods, be strong with food rejoicing.
10 Endowed with understanding, I have uttered this truth, for all to hear, to Earth and Heaven.
Be near us, keep us from reproach and trouble. Father and Mother, with your help preserve us.
11 Be this my prayer fulfilled, O Earth and Heaven, wherewith, Father and Mother, I address you.
Nearest of Gods be ye with your protection. May we find strengthening food in full abundance.