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On my arrival at the Southern Palm Zen Group I asked the teacher, Mitch Doshin Cantor, if there was a special way to meditate here and, if so, could he give me some tips. He said, “Well as a beginner I would have you start by simply counting your breath and focusing your mind on the counting. You can count one on the in breath and two on the out breath and when you get to ten start over. Since the mind wanders you may not reach ten, but don’t worry just begin again at one. Then he said, another way might be to simply focus on your breath and feel your chest moving up and down as you breathe in and out. If your mind wanders on to your to-do list for the day, don’t worry just return your focus onto your breathing.

The next thing he said was you might want to set your intention for your time spent on the cushion. I asked how I could do that. He said we have a saying that I could use, it went like this: “Now I sit in order to save all beings.” I thought about that after saying it for a while and it came to me that our planet Gaia was a living thing as well and without working to save the planet from global climate change our children and grandchildren would have no place to live.

So I added some words to my opening: “I sit in order to save the planet and all sentient beings.”

Prayer and meditation is a process and the longer we do it–more is revealed to us. So as you can expect one day I was sitting with a guest teacher in dokusan (private meeting with the teacher) and we began talking about my relationship with my mother. She said if you want to improve that meditate on it and so I did.

I realized that dad loved people and mom loved the 10 commandments of her Protestant upbringing and followed the rules. She taught me how to live an ethical life working for the benefit of others. From there came this phrase which I added to my prayer of intention: “I sit in honor of my mother and father who gave me life and taught me to do good.”

And the last part of my intention came when I had the pleasure of volunteering with the Maitreya Project Relic Tour who were bringing their exhibit to the Unitarian Universalist Church in Boca Raton, FL, where our group meets. That experience brought extraordinary things into my life one was a prayer sheet that you got when you arrived. One of the prayers on it was called the “Seven Limb Prayer” and one of the phrases seemed to catch hold of me and stuck to me. So much so that I had to add it to my intention. It went like this: “With hands pressed together I request the buddhas of all directions to light the lamp of Dharma [teachings] for those who are groping in the darkness of suffering.”

This phrase, over time, was changed to include those who have specifically asked for prayers or those who I thought might be in need of prayers after things like the mass shootings in our schools. It now goes like this: “I ask the buddhas of all directions to light the lamp of dharma for all those on my prayer list named and UN-named, and for all those who are groping in the darkness of suffering.”

I hope that you will take the time over the next few months to go through this process yourself and to create a wonderful prayer to set your intention each time you sit in meditation. I’ll bet it will help both you and them. Let me know how it goes.

In gassho,

Shokai
My prayer of intention: I sit in order to save the planet and all sentient beings. I sit in honor of my mother and father who gave me life and taught me to do good. I ask the buddhas of all directions to light the lamp of dharma for all those on my prayer list named and UN-named, and for all those who are groping in the darkness of suffering.

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