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Archive for the ‘Metta Prayer’ Category

One World Family Live Event March 26 3-6 PM ET

Posted in BUddhism, Business, Christianity, discrimination, diversity, education, enlightenment, Ethics, fears, happiness, hate speech, human race, love, meditation, Metta, Metta Prayer, Mindfulness, planet earth, prayer, religion, self-help, sickness, suffering, Uncategorized, wisdom, Zen, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on February 24, 2017| 1 Comment »

one-world-family-logo-jpg

One World Family is an Interfaith Prayer Gathering on March 26th from 3-6 PM at Holiday Park/War Memorial Auditorium, Fort Lauderdale, FL.  The event will feature only prayer and music as members of our community from across the religious spectrum come together to stand in unity and pray for our community, our nation, and our world.  This is a non-political gathering, free of sermons or political rhetoric.  The goal of this event is to show our neighbors and the world that we can come together as people of faith, regardless of how we express that faith and to pray as a community for the betterment of our society and our planet as a whole.  We believe that we all pray to our creator and, in the eyes of that creator, we are all sisters and brothers in this One World Family.

Represented are many faiths and groups: Christians of all denominations, Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus, secular humanists, pagans, native and indigenous communities, individuals and groups of all persuasions, no persuasions, and more!

If you don’t live in Florida in the tri-county area (Broward, Dade, and Palm Beach) I hope you will gather up a group of people where you are and be there with us in prayer and song on March 26 from 3-6 PM ET !  I’d love to see a 1 million person event around the world.

Can you help make my vision manifest?!  Thanks! I know we can do it with your help!  Please share this information with your social media family and friends and with your help we can make the million person mark!

See us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/events/230824907379644/?active_tab=about

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If you would like to help sponsor this event we would be very grateful for your help.  Our costs to hold the event are over $6,000 so even a small donation would help defray the cost!  Contact Jay Donnelly at 954-294-0332 or send your check to Rev. Patrick Rogers, One World Family C/O UCC, 2501 NE 30th St. Ft. Ltd, FL 33306. Thanks!

SPONSORSHIPS:

Individual: One Level available

Contributing Member (families and friends) $25 or any amount chosen by the contributor will have your name listed on our Web page as a sponsor, if desired.

Corporate: Two Levels available

  1. Gold Sponsorship: $500-$999 Logo on all printed media, Web site, and Facebook page, right to use our logo on corporate sponsor’s Web site and any media they generate.
  2. Platinum Sponsorship: $1000 or more will get your logo on all printed media, Web site, and Facebook page, right to use our logo on corporate sponsor’s Web site and any media they generate, name recognition in all press releases, banner provided by sponsor on display at the even near the state, promotional items to be distributed to attendees if desired.

All donations will be tax deductible and you will receive a letter from our lead 501C3 for tax purposes. Make check payable to One World Family c/o United Church of Christ Fort Lauderdale. Mail to: One World Family C/O UCC, 2501 NE 30th Street, Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33306.

All proceeds above what is needed for event costs will be donated to the ACLU.

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The Zen of Emerson Part 13…Life is a progress…not a station

Posted in BUddhism, cause and effect, happiness, love, Metta Prayer, Mindfulness, self-help, Uncategorized, wisdom, Zen, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 13, 2016| Leave a Comment »

Emerson: “Man’s life is a progress, and not a station (page 51).”[1]world-peace-2

Zen: Robert Aitken “It is the peace of the self forgotten, doing the work of the world (page 24).”[2]

Life is progress, life is doing, and life is simply putting one foot in front of the other to discover the greatness of who you are.  When you move through the day focused on just this moment in time you will find great joy!  If, however, you get stuck in the past ruminating over something that did not go your way it will be like being on a merry-go-round.  You may be moving but it is not progressing!  You are simply going round and round and where it stops no one knows.

Or maybe you find yourself looking down a train track thinking of the thoughts of the past and living those thoughts and fears over and over again? Have you been stuck at a station where only the # 5 comes all day every day! Or maybe you are looking in the other direction in expectation of the future when you can see yourself riding on that train moving quickly to the next station where your good is waiting.  Maybe that perfect mate or job or health is there? Seeing what needs to be done to help move your family, community, or country into a better more peace filled and loving place is moving toward progress.  That progress only arrives when we live fully and mindfully in the present moment.

Are you progressing in life toward opportunities that arrive for good to enter your life? When we forget the “self” (ego) we find the “real” self and are automatically led to do the work of the world.  And boy it needs a lot of work! The work of spreading loving kindness is in dire need of help.

There is an old saying, “If it is to be, it is up to me.”  I hope you’ll progress in life and not stand still doing the work that the world is in desperate need of in this moment and every moment to come.

To be happy in life we must have progress in all aspects of our lives…so let me know how it goes!

In gassho,

Shokai

 

[1] Dillaway, N. (1949) The Gospel of Emerson Wakefield MA: The Montrose Press

[2] Aitken, R. (1984) The Mind of Clover Essays in Zen Buddhist Ethics New York: North Point Press

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Meet Your Good Today…Part 6 Freedom

Posted in BUddhism, campus unrest, cause and effect, Christianity, clinging, discrimination, diversity, education, enlightenment, Ethics, fears, happiness, hate speech, human race, illusions, love, Metta Prayer, Mindfulness, old age, oppression, prison system in America, protesters, psychology, religion, self-help, sickness, suffering, Uncategorized, wisdom, Zen, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on July 4, 2016| Leave a Comment »

What does it mean to be free?  There will be different connotations if you live in the middle of a war zone in the Middle East, or in a job that you feel chained to that is joyless and boring, or if you are incarcerated in a prison “behind the fence” as we say.  Then there is the prison of our minds and emotions that keep us from being free of our thoughts of lack, limitation, and ill health.

As a college professor I have seen that fear in my students eyes when they enter my developmental English class and know that they will not be free to take the “for credit courses” and earn a degree in their favorite area of study if they don’t pass my class. And yet at some time during that semester I can see the light go on in their minds when they finally “get it.”  They are finally free of their negative thoughts and fears and able to move on with their education.

H. Emily Cady in her book Lessons in Truth wrote:

You may think that something stands between you and your heart’s desire, and so live with that desire unfulfilled, but it is not true.  This “thing” is a bugaboo under the bed that has no reality.  Deny it, deny it, and you will find yourself free, and you will realize that this seeming was all false.  Then you will see the good flowing into you, and you will see clearly that nothing can stand between you and your own [good/freedom].[1]

You will be free!

Nelson Mandela was incarcerated for 27 years and yet he was still able to be a powerful symbol of black resistance to apartheid. On February 11, 1990 he was released by President de Klerk and in 1991 he was elected president of the African National Congress. In 1993 Mandela and President de Klerk were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their work toward dismantling apartheid.

A similar story can be told in our country about Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, Susan Bright Eyes LaFlesche (Omaha Native American civil rights activist.) and R.C. Gorman painter, sculptor and Native American the first Native American to be internationally recognized as a major American artist.

R.C. Gorman Native American artist

Freedom: Nothing stood in the way of their “hearts desire.” Do not let anything stand in yours either. Freedom is not a place—it is a consciousness.

Be free to meet your good today!  Let me know how that goes!

In gassho,

Shokai

[1] Cady, H.E. (1903).  Lessons in Truth. Unity Village, MO: Unity House

 

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Beyond Prayer Part 20…Metta Karuna Prayer

Posted in animal rescue, BUddhism, cause and effect, enlightenment, Ethics, fears, hate speech, love, meditation, Metta, Metta Prayer, Mindfulness, oppression, planet earth, prayer, prison system in America, religion, self-help, Shambhala, sickness, suffering, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 18, 2016| Leave a Comment »

Metta Karuna Prayer

 Oneness of Life and Light,
Entrusting in your Great Compassion,
May you shed the foolishness in myself,
Transforming me into a conduit of Love.
May I be a medicine for the sick and weary,
Nursing their afflictions until they are cured;
May I become food and drink,

During time of famine,
May I protect the helpless and the poor,
May I be a lamp,

For those who need your Light,
May I be a bed for those who need rest,
and guide all seekers to the Other Shore.
May all find happiness through my actions,
and let no one suffer because of me.
Whether they love or hate me,
Whether they hurt or wrong me,
May they all realize true entrusting,
Through Other Power,
and realize Supreme Nirvana.
Namo Amida Buddha [1]

 

Today I came across this beautiful prayer entitled “Metta Karuna Prayer.”  I had not read or seen it before. So I looked up what the two words meant. Metta means kindness and karuna means compassion. However, it is said that it must be combined with wisdom in order to be effective. The Shambhala Dictionary of Buddhism and Zen says “Compassion extends itself without distinction to all sentient beings. It is based on the enlightened experience of the oneness of all beings (page 113).” As you will discover when you read and use the prayer the combination of these three ideas kindness, compassion, and wisdom makes this a very powerful prayer.

The prayer ends with “Namo Amida Buddha” which translated means “Praise Amida Buddha.” Amitabha symbolizes mercy and wisdom in the Pure Land school of Chinese and Japanese Buddhism. Calling upon Amitabha Buddha is a perfect closing to the prayer since it is all about compassion, kindness, and wisdom.

It is not easy to have compassion for some people, it is not easy to be kind to some people as they try our patience and our ethics and sometimes even our laws. And yet with wisdom we can see beyond the physical, the mundane, the prejudice, the fear, and the pain. We can see them as someone who is in special need of kindness and compassion. That can only be done when we allow wisdom to be part of the equation. Visualize these three ideas as a three legged stool, without the three legs the stool would not stand. What do you stand for? Only one or two of the three legs of this stool?

Imagine what would happen within us and around us if we said the prayer every day. Imagine our heart being opened to every living being on the planet. Imagine our heart being open to the earth, the animals of the earth, the rivers, oceans, and streams, and the mountains and the valleys.

I am not asking anyone to be “perfect” what I am hoping for is that I and all others will be moving toward enlightenment which can only come when we sit on the stool with all three legs intact, strong, and stable.

I hope you’ll sit with me this week as we use this beautiful prayer to help us live a life of kindness, compassion, and wisdom for all.

Let me know how it goes!

ingassho

Shokai

[1] http://buddhistfaith.tripod.com/buddhistprayer/id2.html

[2]The Shambhala Dictionary of Buddhism and Zen (1991) Shambhala Dragon Editions, Shambhala: Boston, MA

 

 

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Beyond Prayer 9…Metta: goodwill and loving-kindness

Posted in administrators, bombing airplanes, Buddhaghosa, campus unrest, cause and effect, chant, death, discrimination, diversity, education, Ethics, extinct species, fears, happiness, hate speech, human race, Kazuaki Tanahashi, love, meditation, Metta, Metta Prayer, oppression, planet earth, prayer, prison system in America, protesters, religion, sexual assault, Shambhala, Zen Chants Thirty-Five Essential Texts with Commentary on November 13, 2015| 2 Comments »

Metta
May I be happy.
May I be free from stress and pain.
May I be free from animosity.
May I be free from oppression.
May I be free from trouble.
May I look after myself with ease.

May all living beings be happy.
May all living beings be free from animosity.
May all living beings be free from oppression.
May all living beings be free from trouble.
May all living beings look after themselves with ease.[1]

Kazuaki Tanahashi, in his book, Zen Chants Thirty-Five Essential Texts with Commentary, writes this:

Buddhaghosa does not recommend that the practitioners simply focus on an aspiration that they themselves be happy or attempt absorption. Instead, the meditators are urged to use themselves as an example: “Just as I want to be happy and dread pain, as I want to live and not die, so do other beings, too.” And thus when we pray the Metta we pray and chant for self and others (page 136).[2]

As we watch the news each evening and see the students on campuses around the country protesting for things that I thought would not still exist in 2015: hiring discrimination, race discrimination, hate speech, unresponsive administrations, sexual assaults, and more. Each of these protesters want for themselves the list of things we recite in the first verse of the Metta and they also want it for everyone else on planet earth. And thus, we chant for them in the second verse.

We can add those in the prison system in America and those in the Middle East who are being killed and bombed in their countries and homes, and in airplanes flying through the air after a family vacation. As a human race we need to work at learning how to live together with our diversity and cultures and religions or we will soon be an extinct species and all that will be left are the birds, the bees, and the trees.

Besides chanting this verse each and every day with love and passion, what can you do each day in your families, homes, workplaces and communities? Think small or think big but please think and then act. You just may save someone’s life. You never know.

May you be happy and find ways to share your happiness with everyone you meet.

In gassho,

ingassho
Shokai

[1] Tanahashi, K. (2015) Zen Chants Thirty-Five Essential Texts with Commentary. Shambhala: Boston & London

[2] Ibid.

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