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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/
“By this practice of Medicine Buddha, may I (or the being for whom I am practicing), and all beings, be free from pain, disease, and suffering, and quickly achieve complete and perfect enlightenment.”
The greatest blessing you can receive is the permission you give yourself to be happy.
It matters little what others do to "make you happy". Only you can allow yourself the be happy. Just as you can not awaken others, though, you may give them the tools that they may awaken themselves.
JeroenLuminous beings are we, not this crude matterNetherlandsVeteran
I found out that many old sannyasins, those who knew Osho in the early 1970’s, sign letters with the lines:
Love.
His Blessings.
It affected me to read this, because if there ever was a person who could truly give out blessings, it was Osho. He had an extraordinary presence, like there was behind him the light of the full moon shining, an extraordinary cleanliness and love. He said he showered his presence on us.
"Emptiness is form and form is emptiness." Physicists explain the beginning of emptiness across space-time as being eternally forced into a cat-A-list of bright glittering. Schrödinger like pre-instances of [insert nothing of current pre-absence].
Equally fantastic events are written into every grain of Truth, leading to the continuum of influence and evolving complexity. It is why nothing is lost and everything matters. Even nihilists have their unique opportunity of being in error correction.
It is why we can declare Peace on the world, rather than war and opposition. Love, devotion and surrender as the rainbowing worriers might sail into the sun setting ...
That's right. Move along. Nothing here for you, everything elsewhere. Where? Everywhere!
JeroenLuminous beings are we, not this crude matterNetherlandsVeteran
edited March 23
I came across this…
Maha Mangala Sutta - The Discourse on Blessings
Thus have I heard: On one occasion, the Blessed One was living in Sāvatthi at Jetavana at Anāthapiṇḍika’s monastery. Now when the night was far advanced, a certain deity, whose surpassing radiance illuminated the whole of Jetavana, approached the Blessed One, respectfully saluted him and stood to one side. Standing thus, he addressed the Blessed One in verse:
Many deities and humans longing for happiness have pondered on the questions of blessings. Pray, tell me what are the highest blessings?
Not to associate with the foolish but to associate with the wise and to honour those worthy of honour these are the highest blessings.
To reside in a suitable locality to have performed meritorious actions in the past, and to set oneself in the right direction these are the highest blessings.
Vast learning, skill in handicraft, well grounded in discipline and pleasant speech these are the highest blessings.
To support one’s father and mother, to cherish one’s wife and children, and to be engaged in peaceful occupations these are the highest blessings.
Generosity, righteous conduct, giving assistance to relatives, and doing blameless deeds these are the highest blessings.
To cease and abstain from evil, to abstain from intoxicating drinks, and to be diligent in practising the Dhamma these are the highest blessings.
Paying reverence to those who are worthy of reverence, humility, contentment, gratitude, and the timely hearing of the Dhamma these are the highest blessings.
Patience, obedience, meeting monks and timely discussions on the Dhamma these are the highest blessings.
Self-control, chastity, understanding the Noble Truths, and the realization of Nibbāna these are the highest blessings.
The mind that is not touched by the ups and downs of life; the mind that is free from sorrow, stainless and secure these are the highest blessings.
Those who have achieved these blessings are victorious everywhere, and they succeed in all their goals. For them, these are the highest blessings.
"Actually, in our practice, when you do walking meditation, you should really determine to walk; when sitting in meditation, you should concentrate on doing just that. Whether you are standing, walking, sitting or lying down, you should strive to be composed. But when people do a lot of study, their minds are full of words, they get high on the books and forget themselves. They get lost in externals."
The bird is a small egret, incidentally. @Dhammika I like the word 'composed'. This is where we are the calm in the storm, rather than the storming...
It is why I am never angry or decomposed when engaged in wrathful or crazy wisdom online posting. After all, being crazed is not skilful. It is ignorant madness.
They even have Theravadin zoom Meditation sessions, from the hermitage, twice a week on Monday and Friday evenings, on Zoom at 8pm. (GMT)
Meeting ID: 928 2943 2020
Passcode: 909442
Might have to check it out... 3 jewels... Here I come...
1
JeroenLuminous beings are we, not this crude matterNetherlandsVeteran
It doesn’t look that small. Could be a bloody huge heron for all I can tell.
Bhante Gunaratana, abbot of the Bhavana Society Buddhist retreat center and monastery in the back hills of West Virginia, is still going strong at age 96. He leads a half-hour ZOOM Dhamma talk at 10 a.m. on most Saturdays, followed by a silent, half-hour meditation; and then on Sundays at 10 a.m. he takes Dhamma and meditation questions via ZOOM for a half-hour, followed by a half-hour meditation. Often, if there is a Bhavana retreat, they will broadcast his Dhamma talks on the same ZOOM channel.
BHANTE G Zoom Meditations, talks and Q-A: 10-11 am, most Saturdays and Sundays https://us04web.zoom.us/j/668674778
Meeting ID: 668 674 778
Password: metta
PS: On the occasion of Bhante Gunaratana's 96th birthday this past December 7, I delivered an address at the ceremony about his long gift of Dhamma to the world and the history of the Bhavana Society's founding in the West Virginia hills, in remarks at the monastery which Tricycle later reprinted: https://tricycle.org/article/bhante-gunaratana-birthday/
“This story is about someone I met in the hospital some weeks ago when I went for a routine checkup.
I was in a queue at the café and lines of people were in front of me, and also behind me. Everyone was so preoccupied with their own woes, nobody noticed that the man behind the counter was run off his feet trying to serve everyone.
When I eventually reached the counter, and exchanged some polite chit-chat, upon receiving my change I smiled at him and said: “Thank you and bless you so much.”
With that he looked at me and said: “I am an atheist and I don’t believe in anything like that.” I smiled again and said: “My angel, this blessing is coming from my heart to yours with love. A blessing has no religious connotations and it transcends all religious boundaries, all creeds, all race. A blessing is a gift I give to you today.”
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/
“By this practice of Medicine Buddha, may I (or the being for whom I am practicing), and all beings, be free from pain, disease, and suffering, and quickly achieve complete and perfect enlightenment.”
https://www.lionsroar.com/how-to-invoke-the-medicine-buddha/
Dear Friends of the Blessed,
All my practices come to 'bubble blessing'. This is how it can be done (Tantric Style).
https://www.davidlai.me/2014/02/14/buddha-image-galore/
Mantra is one of my favourite practices. A Blessing for the practitioner and others ...
https://blog.buddhagroove.com/seven-buddhist-mantras/
Do you know Deva Premal @lobster? She sings mantras as popular songs, many people listen to her music.
I love Deva Premal. Her music and mantras are amazing.
Well sung or spoken mantras, affirmations are all fine with me ...
surrender, in NewAge Buddhism, is called letting go, emptying or Śūnyatā …
Meanwhile for the neti-neti blessing …
Not this, not that
not here, not there
knot ravelled, not free
Neti fishy, not court, swimmy swim 🫶👼💔
“If you let go a little, you will have a little peace. If you let go a lot, you will have a lot of peace.” ~Ajahn Chah
How?
https://tinybuddha.com/blog/40-ways-to-let-go-and-feel-less-pain/
Peace Be with You!
The greatest blessing you can receive is the permission you give yourself to be happy.
It matters little what others do to "make you happy". Only you can allow yourself the be happy. Just as you can not awaken others, though, you may give them the tools that they may awaken themselves.
Peace to all
https://www.contemplativemind.org/practices
I found out that many old sannyasins, those who knew Osho in the early 1970’s, sign letters with the lines:
Love.
His Blessings.
It affected me to read this, because if there ever was a person who could truly give out blessings, it was Osho. He had an extraordinary presence, like there was behind him the light of the full moon shining, an extraordinary cleanliness and love. He said he showered his presence on us.
"Emptiness is form and form is emptiness." Physicists explain the beginning of emptiness across space-time as being eternally forced into a cat-A-list of bright glittering. Schrödinger like pre-instances of [insert nothing of current pre-absence].
Equally fantastic events are written into every grain of Truth, leading to the continuum of influence and evolving complexity. It is why nothing is lost and everything matters. Even nihilists have their unique opportunity of being in error correction.
It is why we can declare Peace on the world, rather than war and opposition. Love, devotion and surrender as the rainbowing worriers might sail into the sun setting ...
That's right. Move along. Nothing here for you, everything elsewhere. Where? Everywhere!
https://www.electronicspecifier.com/industries/aerospace-defence/schr-dinger-equation-appears-at-the-astronomical-scale-1
HALLELUJAH! as we Buddhists say.
I and I as We buddhist Queens and Kings say.
Shalom, Salami as we peace Buddhists say.
if Buddhist, we are blessed and a blessing …
BLESS us all, everyone 🫶🫂😎
I came across this…
... Because there are no others.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engaged_Buddhism
Yes, I am engaged to watch the Tantric, mutant, Saint, Xavier 'Cabrini'
In other words, as you label, thus will it be. As you reject, so shall you be a reject.
tsk, tsk ... What is a blessing? A gain?
🎶 ' ... And I am singing, just singin' in the rain ...' 🎶 Gene Kelly
Splish-splosh everyone ❤️
It is a blessing to be happy.
BE HAPPY
https://buddingbuddhist.com/how-to-be-happy-in-life/
Being alive is the blessing
Gratitude is appreciating the blessing
Happiness is celebrating the blessing
Challenges strengthen the blessing
Peace to all
Walked along the river, saw this fine birdy. I consider it a blessing...
"Actually, in our practice, when you do walking meditation, you should really determine to walk; when sitting in meditation, you should concentrate on doing just that. Whether you are standing, walking, sitting or lying down, you should strive to be composed. But when people do a lot of study, their minds are full of words, they get high on the books and forget themselves. They get lost in externals."
~ Ajahn Chah
The bird is a small egret, incidentally.
@Dhammika I like the word 'composed'. This is where we are the calm in the storm, rather than the storming...
It is why I am never angry or decomposed
when engaged in wrathful or crazy wisdom online posting. After all, being crazed is not skilful. It is ignorant madness. 
And now to Be Blessed
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ajahn_Chah
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ajahn_Khemadhammo
They even have Theravadin zoom Meditation sessions, from the hermitage, twice a week on Monday and Friday evenings, on Zoom at 8pm. (GMT)
Meeting ID: 928 2943 2020
Passcode: 909442
Might have to check it out... 3 jewels... Here I come...
It doesn’t look that small. Could be a bloody huge heron for all I can tell.
Failed again. Did not feel like virtual sitting around with a bunch of hermits. Another time, maybe.
Anyways, I will be dedicating any merit for the foreseeable future to @Federica and those in dire need.
Namo guru!
https://www.lotsawahouse.org/tibetan-masters/gyalse-thogme-zangpo/how-transform-sickness
Bhante Gunaratana, abbot of the Bhavana Society Buddhist retreat center and monastery in the back hills of West Virginia, is still going strong at age 96. He leads a half-hour ZOOM Dhamma talk at 10 a.m. on most Saturdays, followed by a silent, half-hour meditation; and then on Sundays at 10 a.m. he takes Dhamma and meditation questions via ZOOM for a half-hour, followed by a half-hour meditation. Often, if there is a Bhavana retreat, they will broadcast his Dhamma talks on the same ZOOM channel.
BHANTE G Zoom Meditations, talks and Q-A: 10-11 am, most Saturdays and Sundays
https://us04web.zoom.us/j/668674778
Meeting ID: 668 674 778
Password: metta
PS: On the occasion of Bhante Gunaratana's 96th birthday this past December 7, I delivered an address at the ceremony about his long gift of Dhamma to the world and the history of the Bhavana Society's founding in the West Virginia hills, in remarks at the monastery which Tricycle later reprinted: https://tricycle.org/article/bhante-gunaratana-birthday/
“This story is about someone I met in the hospital some weeks ago when I went for a routine checkup.
I was in a queue at the café and lines of people were in front of me, and also behind me. Everyone was so preoccupied with their own woes, nobody noticed that the man behind the counter was run off his feet trying to serve everyone.
When I eventually reached the counter, and exchanged some polite chit-chat, upon receiving my change I smiled at him and said: “Thank you and bless you so much.”
With that he looked at me and said: “I am an atheist and I don’t believe in anything like that.” I smiled again and said: “My angel, this blessing is coming from my heart to yours with love. A blessing has no religious connotations and it transcends all religious boundaries, all creeds, all race. A blessing is a gift I give to you today.”
He then smiled and leaned over the counter and looked directly into my eyes and said “Well, in that case, I bless you too.”
https://gentleartofblessing.org/meditations/
Time for a Blessing!
May we all be contented rather than content.
May we bring Peace and Well Being.
Health and Care for All, from ALL directions.
May we transform and grow in virtue and capacity to receive.
May our Horizons be infinite.
May we be more than we are.
mais oui (as they in France)