spend 3 minutes praying for peace in syria

sova

spend 3 minutes praying for peace in syria

then post a thumbs up here when you're done. (top right of submit window has emoticons)

:thumbsup:

Vastmind

:thumbup:

vinlyn

Hmmmm...prayers on a Buddhist website. First tell me who we should be praying to.

Vastmind

Oh...vinlyn...you are in rare form tonight....lolololol....
From buddhanet.net:

"Buddhists don’t pray to a Creator God, but they do have devotional meditation practices which could be compared to praying. Radiating loving-kindness to all living beings is a practice which is believed to benefit those beings. The sharing of merit is a practice where one dedicates the goodness of one’s life to the benefit of all living beings as well as praying for a particular person.

In Tibet prayer is going on most of the time. Tibetans pray in a special way. They believe that when certain sounds and words, called mantras, are said many times, they arouse good vibrations within the person. If a mantra is repeated often enough it can open up the mind to a consciousness which is beyond words and thoughts.

In Japan millions of Buddhists pray to Amida Buddha, the Buddha of Infinite Light. They believe that Amida has created a Pure Land in the west and that those who have faith and repeat Amida’s name in prayer will go there. Yet they also believe that Amida is really within them."

From me:

The definetion of prayer is pretty wide, ....so let's all
just pray how we normally do it.

May there be peace in the world.
May there be peace in my community.
May there be peace in me.

vinlyn

I'm not trying to be in rare form. I am part-Christian, so I do pray, although in reality I don't believe in a micro-manager God. But when I mention something along Christian lines on this forum I often get heavily chided by a number of people here.

And, I must admit, that most Thai Buddhists that I have known or seen do pray...although sometimes it is -- unfortunately -- for silly things like a good lottery ticket. And I do see many Thai Buddhists praying in front of Hindu statues...which I really don't understand! Maybe they think, "What if I'm wrong?" An awfully lot of funny ideas out there about prayer and prayer-type techniques.

I don't pray to Buddha, except as an exercise to focus my thoughts.

Thank you, Vastmind, for filling me/us in on some traditions outside of Thailand.

Jeffrey

I pray to Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. They can help us but they need to be aroused with prayers. In Tibetan Buddhism there is prayer though often it is opening to the enlightened energy. Trungpa said tonglen was real which is to say when you send peace or whatever it really goes to someone else and depletes your own peace. The peace you lose is an egoic peace if you try to control gain/loss with your peace so it is no big loss. It is like laundering merit so that you clean it to the vast Mahayana vision. Peace isn't the only thing you can wish.

oceancaldera207

Its not about praying to God, its about sending our love to the innocents :thumbup:

Victorious

sova said:

spend 3 minutes praying for peace in syria

then post a thumbs up here when you're done. (top right of submit window has emoticons)

:thumbsup:

:om: :clap: :thumbsup:

Victorious

vinlyn said:

And I do see many Thai Buddhists praying in front of Hindu statues...which I really don't understand! Maybe they think, "What if I'm wrong?"

Wrong about what exactly?

:-/

vinlyn

No thanks, Victorious.

TheEccentric

:thumbup:

sova

thank you all for your good energies.

here is my deliberately vague explanation of prayer:
you know how food made by someone who loves you is the most delicious ?

MaryAnne

I suggest spending 3 minutes for each email and/or website comment we can send to each of our congresspersons, senators, speaker of the house, John Kerry, and President Obama telling them all WE DON'T WANT ANOTHER WAR.

Most likely that would be 3 minutes better spent than praying

how

There u go again MaryAnne,
Spanking someone else's magical ass
with a practical solution to help others.

MaryAnne

how said:

There u go again MaryAnne,
Spanking someone else's magical ass
with a practical solution to help others.

I'm such a trouble maker, ain't I? Sowwy.

MaryAnne

Good place to start:

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/

Sign the petition to tell President Obama we don't want to get involved with Syrian civil war...

also: http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact (to post comments on line).

Then look up your own State's web pages and contact /comment sections for senators, and other elected officials, to voice your opinion regarding this new, looming involvement in Syria.

NMADDP

Pray for universal peace.

Jade Buddha for Universal Peace.

http://www.jadebuddha.org.au/en/

Peace

Vastmind

:thumbup:

You know what they say....prayer AND a plan !

I will pray for peace today.
I will also get involved so my voice can be heard.

May there be peace in the world.
May there be peace in my community.
May there be peace in me.

footiam

sova said:

spend 3 minutes praying for peace in syria

then post a thumbs up here when you're done. (top right of submit window has emoticons)

:thumbsup:

Will Buddhist prayers work for non -buddhists?

karmablues

vinlyn said:

And, I must admit, that most Thai Buddhists that I have known or seen do pray...although sometimes it is -- unfortunately -- for silly things like a good lottery ticket.

@vinlyn

In fact, quite a lot of Thais do more than just pray for good lottery tickets. Some even go to temples to ask the monks for the numbers or will try to deduce them from various signs such as the number of drips from candles being used in ceremonies, but the most popular way is to look for signs in the dhamma talks of meditation monks.

I think this story (some of which is quite amusing) that Paul Breiter, a former Western monk studying under Ajahn Chah in Thailand, recounted in his autobiography illustrates it well:

Once I asked [Ajahn Sinuan] about the practice of the lay people. He told me that the only thing they came for was to get lottery numbers. They would spend the whole night at the [temple] to glean some numbers from the talk; they were all convinced that the meditation monks had the power to see winning numbers, and that they gave them out in subtle ways. If the Ajahn talked about the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path, they would derive 48, or add the digits to get 12, or multiply them.... Sinuan was convinced that every layperson who came to the monastery was like that. I don't think it was quite that bad, but there were some who came only for a number, as I was to see when we [Westerners] had our own [temple] at Bung Wai later on, and there were a lot of regulars who came out of devotion but also believed that we did have the numbers to give. When Sumedho became abbot at Bung Wai he mentioned the silliness and impropriety of this custom in his lectures to the lay people in no uncertain terms, and occasionally came down quite hard on those who came only for a number and got pushy or obnoxious about it.

When I visited in 1982, I took a taxi from town to the [temple] one day, and the driver mentioned Ajahn Sumedho. He indicated his high regard for Ajahn Sumedho, and I agreed with him. "He really gave good numbers," he said. "Correct every time." I replied that Ajahn Sumedho never gave lottery numbers, but he was certain of it. "Oh sure, he sat up there and gave out the numbers when he spoke...." I realized there was no way to convince him otherwise.

Ajahn Chah himself [seemed to be] discouraged with the general level of interest Thai people had in Dharma. He often said that he felt like a monkey on a string. People came to look at him, poked him to watch him jump around; "When I get tired maybe they throw me a banana," [he used to say.] Especially after his trips to America and England, he spoke about Buddhism dying out in Thailand; he saw that it was different in the West.

Kundo

footiam said:

Will Buddhist prayers work for non -buddhists?

Why not? Christians pray for non Christians all the time without wondering if it will work for non Christians.

IMO it's the intent that matters. If you are wishing happiness, safety and health for all sentient beings and you are sincere in your wishes, that's more powerful than any spell, ritual or other "gimmick" (as some are inclined to call it).

YMMV

DairyLama

I'm going to include the Syrians in metta bhavana practice. May they be well, may they happy, may they free from suffering.
We take so much for granted, don't we?