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As we all gather here today in friendship and community, taking a moment out of our busy lives,... to learn, share and reflect on the insights, experiences and wisdom of others, we are reminded of how blessed we all are. In the current world around us there are many who suffer and face grave challenges. We stand in solidarity with them in compassion and by practicing loving kindness to ourselves and all those around us.
Taking a couple of stanzas from Metta or compassion meditation, let us engage in the power of prayer that connect us - irrespective of religion - with our beliefs and ideals more deeply helping us to hold them in our minds as we go about our daily business, and helping us to develop a stronger sense of conviction. Let us pray the following in the name of all that is good.
May we all be well, happy and peaceful, May no harm come to us,
May we all also have patience, courage, understanding, and determination to meet and overcome inevitable difficulties, problems, and failures in life.
May our parents, our teachers and mentors, our friends and may all living beings across the world...be well, happy and peaceful. May no harm come to them,
May they also have patience, courage, understanding, and determination to meet and overcome inevitable difficulties, problems, and failures in life.
I don’t like happiness, I like suffering:
If I am happy, the five poisons increase.
If I suffer, my past bad karma is exhausted.
I don’t value high positions, I like low ones.
If I am important, my pride and jealousy increase;
If I am lowly, I relax and my spiritual practice grows.
The lowest place is the seat of the saints of the past.
personDon't believe everything you thinkthe liminal spaceVeteran
@lobster said: I don’t like happiness, I like suffering:
If I am happy, the five poisons increase.
If I suffer, my past bad karma is exhausted.
I don’t value high positions, I like low ones.
If I am important, my pride and jealousy increase;
If I am lowly, I relax and my spiritual practice grows.
The lowest place is the seat of the saints of the past.
When I read this, something in my heart just relaxed. It was like I was able to let go of a portion of my striving, my need to gain and maintain status. My need to sculpt the world around me so suffering cannot enter.
I keep coming back to it, but its nothing like the first time.
Every one under heaven says that our Way is greatly like folly. But it is just because it is great, that it seems like folly. As for things that do not seem like folly — well, there can be no question about their smallness!
Here are my three treasures. Guard and keep them! The first is pity; the second, frugality; the third, refusal to be 'foremost of all things under heaven'.
For only he that pities is truly able to be brave;
Only he that is frugal is able to be profuse.
Only he that refuses to be foremost of all things
Is truly able to become chief of all Ministers.
“Above you are the stars, below you are the stones.
As time passes, remember…
Like a star should your love be constant,
Like the earth should your love be firm.
Possess one another, yet be understanding.
Have patience with each other,
For storms will come, and they will go quickly.
Be free in giving of affection and of warmth.
Have no fear, and let not the ways or words of the
Unenlightened give you unease.
For the Old Gods are with you,
Now and always!”
To meditate with these metta phrases, just repeat a phrase to yourself then pause to allow your inherent instinct for care & compassion to well up…
... may all beings be well-loved. may all beings be filled with love. may all beings feel safe and secure. may all beings be a place of safety and refuge for others. may all beings be free of envy and emnity. may all beings delight in the joy of others. may all beings be free of suffering. may all beings be at peace.
Doing Medicine Buddha practice for @Shoshin1 in all her manifestations, also our Beloved moderators and owners @Linc & Co, @federica our resident library, @lobster our resident crustacean and all prisoners, in all dimensions and time lines .... https://liberationprisonproject.org/
Bless your enemies with the peace of absence
Bless your friends with their best blessed
Do not prey but be dear
OM MANI PADME HUM HRIH!
Give me energy for my heart to turn to the spiritual.
Give me energy for the spiritual to become a way.
Give me energy for this way to dispel confusion.
Give me energy for confusion to arise as wisdom. https://tricycle.org/magazine/buddhist-prayer/
Comments
An Invocation of Metta/Compassion
As we all gather here today in friendship and community, taking a moment out of our busy lives,... to learn, share and reflect on the insights, experiences and wisdom of others, we are reminded of how blessed we all are. In the current world around us there are many who suffer and face grave challenges. We stand in solidarity with them in compassion and by practicing loving kindness to ourselves and all those around us.
Taking a couple of stanzas from Metta or compassion meditation, let us engage in the power of prayer that connect us - irrespective of religion - with our beliefs and ideals more deeply helping us to hold them in our minds as we go about our daily business, and helping us to develop a stronger sense of conviction. Let us pray the following in the name of all that is good.
May we all be well, happy and peaceful, May no harm come to us,
May we all also have patience, courage, understanding, and determination to meet and overcome inevitable difficulties, problems, and failures in life.
May our parents, our teachers and mentors, our friends and may all living beings across the world...be well, happy and peaceful. May no harm come to them,
May they also have patience, courage, understanding, and determination to meet and overcome inevitable difficulties, problems, and failures in life.
Za vashe zdorovye.
Heaven bless you both! Na zdorovye!
To your health,
and may we live together in peace.
(1:13 for the relevant section. Are my references too opaque?)
Lachaim!
https://buddhaweekly.com/dharma-in-motion-buddhism-vajrayana-buddhist-tantra-and-zen-have-as-much-in-common-with-martial-arts-as-religion/
I don’t like happiness, I like suffering:
If I am happy, the five poisons increase.
If I suffer, my past bad karma is exhausted.
I don’t value high positions, I like low ones.
If I am important, my pride and jealousy increase;
If I am lowly, I relax and my spiritual practice grows.
The lowest place is the seat of the saints of the past.
Patrul Rinpoche
https://www.lionsroar.com/simple-man-extraordinary-yogi-the-life-of-patrul-rinpoche/
Everyday I count mine...
When I read this, something in my heart just relaxed. It was like I was able to let go of a portion of my striving, my need to gain and maintain status. My need to sculpt the world around me so suffering cannot enter.
I keep coming back to it, but its nothing like the first time.
In one very important sense, when we are moulded by others constrictions, this is our blessing …
Cherish all life, respect all beings, honor all belongings, voice only kind honesty, and clear the mind of all intoxicants.
My 5 sila cheat sheet
https://www.accesstoinsight.org/ptf/dhamma/sila/pancasila.html
Every one under heaven says that our Way is greatly like folly. But it is just because it is great, that it seems like folly. As for things that do not seem like folly — well, there can be no question about their smallness!
Here are my three treasures. Guard and keep them! The first is pity; the second, frugality; the third, refusal to be 'foremost of all things under heaven'.
For only he that pities is truly able to be brave;
Only he that is frugal is able to be profuse.
Only he that refuses to be foremost of all things
Is truly able to become chief of all Ministers.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Treasures_(Taoism)
Pagan Blessing by Ed Fitch
“Above you are the stars, below you are the stones.
As time passes, remember…
Like a star should your love be constant,
Like the earth should your love be firm.
Possess one another, yet be understanding.
Have patience with each other,
For storms will come, and they will go quickly.
Be free in giving of affection and of warmth.
Have no fear, and let not the ways or words of the
Unenlightened give you unease.
For the Old Gods are with you,
Now and always!”
If you are alive - the greatest blessing is already yours. All else is decoration upon the cake.
Peace to all
To meditate with these metta phrases, just repeat a phrase to yourself then pause to allow your inherent instinct for care & compassion to well up…
... may all beings be well-loved. may all beings be filled with love. may all beings feel safe and secure. may all beings be a place of safety and refuge for others. may all beings be free of envy and emnity. may all beings delight in the joy of others. may all beings be free of suffering. may all beings be at peace.
You lucky, lucky, lucky people.
Been dong ... eh I mean doing ... then again ...
Doing Medicine Buddha practice for @Shoshin1 in all her manifestations, also our Beloved moderators and owners @Linc & Co, @federica our resident library, @lobster our resident crustacean and all prisoners, in all dimensions and time lines ....
https://liberationprisonproject.org/
Like so:
Tadyatha Om Bhekhaze Bhekhaze
Maha Bhekhaze Bhekhaze
Radza Samungate Swaha
https://www.buddhistdoor.net/features/the-medicine-buddha-and-the-power-of-healing/
ah BLESS YOU ALL … even Russians, Reads, Reds and the [insert worst enema]
Deer Friends,
Here are the Blessings of Hafez
https://quotefancy.com/hafez-quotes
… Talking of Buddhas from all blessed realms:
Bless your enemies with the peace of absence
Bless your friends with their best blessed
Do not prey but be dear
OM MANI PADME HUM HRIH!
Give me energy for my heart to turn to the spiritual.

Give me energy for the spiritual to become a way.
Give me energy for this way to dispel confusion.
Give me energy for confusion to arise as wisdom.
https://tricycle.org/magazine/buddhist-prayer/