Poems and Prayers, Part 2

Talk to Yourself

In quiet and calm solitude
Talk to yourself, about you
Don't be shy
Don't hold back anything
Your innen-most secrets remain secret with you
Talk about your embarrassments & achievements
Your dreams & aspirations
Fulfilled or not yet fulfille

Talk about your weaknesses and strengths
Your failures and success
Your aims and ambitions

Talk about your giving and getting love
Affections, hates and rebuffs
Your dilemmas & delusions

Talk about chances missed or cashed
Battles, wars and conflicts
Within & without
Talk with your heart & soul
to your heart & soul
Talk to yourself
YOU ARE PRAYING
- Shiv Nath Mehta

An Auspicious Prayer

May the winds bring us happiness.
May the rivers carry happiness to us.
May the plants give us happiness.
May night and day yield us happiness.
May the dust of the earth bring us happiness.
May the heavens give us happiness.
May the trees give us happiness.
May the sun pour down happiness.
May the cows yield us happiness.

May my body become pure.
May i be free from impurity and sin.
May i realize myself as the Light divine.
May my mind become pure.
May i be free from impurity and sin.
May i realize myself as the Light divine.
May my self become pure.
May i be free from impurity and sin.
May i realize myself as the Light divine.

May my body become pure.
Salutations to Brahman.
Salutations to the God in the fire.
Salutations to the God in the earth.
Salutations to the God in the plants.
Salutations to the God in speech.
Salutations to the Lord of speech.
I offer my salutations to the
Supreme Being, the all-pervading Spirit.
Taittirya Aranyaka

Prayer for Peace

Peace, unto this house, I pray,
Keep terror and despair away;
Shield it from evil and let sin
Never find lodging room within.
May never in these walls be heard
The hateful or accusing word.

Grant that its warm and mellow light
May be to all a beacon bright,
A flaming symbol that shall stir
The beating pulse of him or her
Who finds this door and seems to say,
"Here end the trials of the day."

Hold us together, gentle Lord,
Who sit about this humble board;
May we be spared the cruel fate
Of those whom hatreds separate;
Here let love bind us fast, that we
May know the joys of unity.

Lord, this humble house we'd keep
Sweet with play and calm with sleep.
Help us so that we may give
Beauty to the lives we live.
Let Thy love and let Thy grace
Shine upon our dwelling place.
Collected Verse of Edgar Guest

Prayer for World Welfare

From the point of Light within the Mind of God
Let light stream forth into the minds of men.
Let Light descend on Earth.

From the point of Love within the Heart of God
Let love stream forth into the hearts of men.
May the Buddha return to Earth.

From the centre where the Will of God is known
Let purpose guide the little wills of men --
The purpose which the Masters know and serve.

From the centre which we call the race of men
Let the Plan of Love and Light work out.
And may it seal the door where evil dwells.

Let Light and Love and Power
restore the Plan on Earth. the great invocation - maitreya

Earth Teach Me

Earth teach me stillness
as the grasses are stilled with light.
Earth teach me suffering
as old stones suffer with memory.
Earth teach me humility
as blossoms are humble with beginning.
Earth Teach me caring
as the mother who secures her young.
Earth teach me courage
as the tree which stands alone.
Earth teach me limitation
as the ant which crawls on the ground.
Earth teach me freedom
as the eagle which soars in the sky.
Earth teach me resignation
as the leaves which die in the fall.
Earth teach me regeneration
as the seed which rises in the spring.
Earth teach me to forget myself
as melted snow forgets its life.
Earth teach me to remember kindness
as dry fields weep in the rai
Ute, A Native North American Prayer

Disagreement About Names

Every war and every conflict between human beings
has happened because of some disagreement about names.
It's such an unnecessary foolishness, because
just beyond the arguing there's a long
table of companionship, set and waiting for us to sit down.

What is praised is one, so the praise is one too,
many jugs being poured
into a huge basin. All religions, all this singing,
one song.
The differences are just illusion and vanity.
Sunlight looks slightly different
on this wall than it does on that wall and a lot different
on this other one, but
it is still one light. We have borrowed these clothes, these
time-and-space personalities,
from a light, and when we praise, we pour them back in.
mevlana jelaluddin rumi - 13th century