Peace Prayers

[Guest guest]

We evoke your name, Avalokiteshavara. We aspire to

learn your way of listening in order to help relieve

the suffering in the world. You know how to listen in

order to understand. We evoke your name in order to

practice listening with all our attention and

open-heartedness. We will sit and listen without any

prejudice. We will sit and listen without judging or

reaction. We will sit and listen in order to

understand. We will sit and listen so attentively that

we will be able to hear what the other person is

saying and also what has been left unsaid. We know

that just by listening deeply we already alleviate a

great deal of pain and suffering in the other person.

 

We evoke your name, Manjushri. We aspire to learn your

way, which is to be still and to look deeply into the

heart of things and into the hearts of people. We will

look with all our attention and open-heartedness. We

will look with unprejudiced eyes. We will look without

judging or reacting. We will look deeply so that we

will be able to see and understand the roots of

ill-being, the impermanent and selfless nature of all

that is. We will practice our way of using the sword

of understanding to cut through the bonds of

ill-being, thus freeing ourselves and other species.

 

We evoke your name Samantabhadra. We aspire to

practice your aspiration to act with the eyes and

heart of compassion. We vow to bring joy to one person

in the morning and to ease the pain of one person in

the afternoon. We know that the happiness of others is

our own happiness, and we vow to practice joy on the

path of service. We know that every word, every look,

every action, and every smile can bring happiness to

others. We know that if we practice wholeheartedly, we

ourselves may become an inexhaustible source of peace

and joy to our loved ones and for all species.

 

We evoke your name, Ksitigarbha. We aspire to learn

your way as to be present where there is darkness,

suffering, oppression, and despair, so that we may

bring light, hope, relief, and liberation to those

places. We are determined not to forget about or

abandon those who are in desperate situations. We

shall do our best to establish contact with them when

they cannot find a way out of their suffering and when

their cries for help, justice, equality, and human

rights are not heard. We know that hell can be found

in many places on earth, and we do not want to

contribute to making more hells on earth. Rather, we

want to help unmake the hells which already exist. We

shall practice to realize the qualities of

perseverance and stability which belong to the earth,

so that like the earth we can always be supportive and

faithful to those who need us.

 

~~~ Plum Village Community

Founded by Thich Nhat Hanh,

Vietnamese Zen Buddhist, France

Page 260-261, (Prayers for Solidarity and Justice),

Prayers for a Thousand Years, Roberts and Amidon,

Harper San Francisco

 

**Meaning of the various Bodhisattva’s invoked in this

prayer

 

Avalokiteshavara (Quan Yin, The Dali Lama):

Bodhisattva of compassion.*

 

Manjushri: Master of emptiness and wisdom.*

 

Samantabhadra: “Is the Bodhisattva of enlightening

activity in the world (functioning in the world), who

also embodies the luminous web of the

interconnectedness of all beings.” Page 121*

 

Ksitigarbha: Monk as Earth Mother.*

 

 

* Bodhisattva Archetypes: Classic Buddhist Guides to

Awakening and their Modern Expression, By Taigen

Daniel Leighton, Penguin Books.

Information on Bodhisattvas:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodhisattva