A Prayer to Avert Nuclear War
by Chatral Rinpoche

Namo Guru Ratnatraya! To the Teacher and the Three Jewels I bow.

True leader of the golden age – Crown of the Sakyas!
Second Buddha, Prince of Oddiyana, Lake-Born Vajra, Bodhisattvas – eight closest spiritual heirs High Nobles, Avilokitesvara and Manjushri, Vajrapani and the rest! Twenty-one Taras, Host of Noble Elders, Root and lineage lamas, deities, Peaceful and wrathful gods! Dakinis in your three homes! (the earth, the heavens and the emanated worlds!) You who through wisdom or karma have become Defenders of the Doctrine!
Guardians of the Directions!
Seventy-five Glorious Protectors!
You who are clairvoyant, powerful, magical and mighty!
Behold and ponder the beings of this age of turmoil!

We are beings born at the sorry end of time;
An ocean of ill-effects overflow from our universally bad actions. The forces of light flicker, The forces of darkness, a demon army, inflames great and powerful men. And they rise in conflict, armed with nuclear weapons That will disintegrate the earth. The weapon of perverse and errant intentions Has unleashed the hurricane. Soon, in an instant, it will reduce the world. And all those in it to atoms of dust. Through this ill-omened devils’ tool. It is easy to see, to hear and to think about Ignorant people caught in a net of confusion and doubt, Are obstinate and still refuse to understand. It terrifies us just to hear about or to remember This unprecedented thing.

The world is filled with uncertainty, But there is no means of stopping it, nor place of hope, Other than you, undeceiving Three Jewels and Three Roots, (Buddhas, Teaching and Spiritual Community, Lama, Deity and Dakini) If we cry to you like children calling their mother and father, If we implore you with this prayer, Do not falter in your ancient vows! Stretch out the lightning hand of compassion! Protect and shelter us defenseless beings, and free us from fear! When the mighty barbarians sit in council of war - barbarians who rob the earth of pleasure and happiness - barbarians who have wrong, rough, poisonous thoughts. Bend their chiefs and lieutenants To the side of peace and happiness! Pacify on the spot, the armed struggle that blocks us! Turn away and defeat the atomic weapons Of the demons’ messengers And by that power, make long the life of the righteous, And spread the theory and practice of the doctrine To the four corners of this great world! Eliminate root, branch and leaf – even the names Of those dark forces, human and non-human,
Who hate others and the teaching!
Spread vast happiness and goodness
Over this fragile planet!
Elevate it truly with the four kinds of glory!
And as in the golden age, with all strife gone,
Let us be busy only with the dance of pleasure, the dance of joy!
We pray with pure thoughts –
By the compassion of that ocean the three supreme refuges
And the power of the Realm of Truth;
The complete sublime truth,
Achieve the goal of this, our prayer
Magically, just as we have hoped and dreamed!

Translated from the Tibetan by Richard Kohn and Lama Tsedrup Tharchin

 

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[Prayers]
Prayers for peace from many different traditions will be posted below, as we receive them from various groups participating in the Global Interfaith Prayer Vigil

The Great Invocation
>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 Hearth of God
Let love stream forth into the hearts of men
May Christ return on 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
Today and for all the Eternity. Amen.

This Invocation or Prayer does not belong to any person or group but to all Humanity. The beauty and the strength of this Invocation lies in its simplicity, and in its expression of certain central truths which all men, innately and normally, accept: the truth of the existence of a basic Intelligence to Whom we vaguely give the name of God; the truth that behind all outer seeming, the motivating power of the universe is Love; the truth that a great Individuality came to earth, called by Christians, the Christ, and embodied that love so that we could understand; the truth that both love and intelligence are effects of what is called the Will of God; and finally the self-evident truth that only through humanity itself can the Divine Plan work out.

Alice A. Bailey

Hello, I am Net, a Thai lady.

I am interested in praying for peace. Normally, I pray almost everyday, I believe that the power of goodness helps us to keep peace. I admire you to work for society, for human and for peace of the world.
Sincerly
Net

 

Those of you who are truly in agony and suffering from the discord and destruction and havoc wreaked by the wars, big and small going on in various parts of the world may find comfort, solace, and inspiration in my report of the ongoing PRAYERS FOR PEACE EFFORT made by us in India at the Zoroastrian College. Every cell of our human body works with Peace and Harmony with all the other cells - otherwise we would suffer diseases; and the discord amongst people arises mainly from the disobediences of the Divine Laws of Almighty God. Let us together breathe in PEACE BREATH, WITH PEACE MIND, AND PEACE TO ALL OUR SOULS.

Sharing the report of PRAYERS FOR PEACE, held at Zoroastrian College in Sanjan, India

11th to 21st March every year are sacred days for the Zoroastrians all over the world, who celebrate the Spring Equinox of 21st March as the New Year for the Northern Hemisphere. For persons living in the Northern Hemisphere close to the Artic Circle, the magnificent sight of the fully risen Sun occurs on this day after six months of darkness and night. The sun remains visible in the sky above the Artic horizon till 2nd October every year. For 10 days before sunrise, it slowly appears to rise a little higher every day over the horizon and for 10 days before the Sunset of 2nd October it slips slowly over the horizon until the night falls with the long twilight during October and the onset of winter during November.

Zoroastrians live in Tropical and Temperate zones mostly at present. For thousands of years we have observed the practice of offering Avestan prayers and performing special ceremonies in honour of the Guardian Angels of the departed souls of family members and friends. The Avestan name for the Guardian Angels is FRAVASHIS. They come to our help. They protect all the good persons and all the souls developing and evolving on planet Earth.

During these prayer ceremonies we invite the Fravashis to be present for these ceremonies and give us their Blessings and protection. The discipline of the ten days is like this. We wake up by 4.00 am well before dawn; have bath and then prepare special cooked food made of milk, rice, honey, nuts, and also put fresh fruits and fresh flowers on the prayer table cloth in the special room kept apart for the performance of the ceremonies. There is a silver vase separately prepared for the soul of every departed family member and friends with the name of the person inscribed on the vase; sometimes it is not possible to have a separate vase for every person. This year we invoked and invited over 300 Fravashis, but we could not provide so many silver vases, so we had to make do with about two dozen vases filled with roses and flowers for individual persons' names. We also prepared special "Daroon" (unleavened no salt, flat wheat, prayer bread), for offering to the Fravashis.In the prayer room a separate silver fire urn is specially kept for performance of ceremonies and prayers the sandalwood, other wood, and incense is placed on this fire urn (called Afarganyu) and the fire is lit and special Avestan prayers are performed over the sacred fire at Sun rise, noon and after Sun set.

Before Sunrise we went upto the terrace on top of the building to offer prayers to the Yazads (angels) who look after the Sun, spread the light of the Sun and the Moon, who look after Fire and Water and the planet Earth, who look after all the life supporting systems on planet Earth and offer special Avestan prayers to them. We invoke the Blessings and protection of the lights of the stars and the planets, the Sun and the Moon, coming to planet Earth, helping all the souls to evolve PEACEFULLY, HAPPILY, AND HARMONIOUSLY, and we invoke the Blessings of the Fravashis and all the lights to help the souls of the Mineral kingdom, Plants kingdom, the fish and the birds, the insects and the reptiles, the animals and the human beings to evolve peacefully and harmoniously with each other to make the soul of mother planet Earth Happy.

After Sun rise we go to the Fire Temple where special purification ceremonies are performed called "Baaj" invoking the names of the souls of the departed family members. About 9.00 am we return to the College bldg., and with the help of the Zoroastrian Priests (called Mobeds), we perform the special ceremonies for singing the praises of the Asho Farohars - the Holy Fravashis. In this we offer the cooked food, the daroon, milk, water, flowers, fragrance, as gifts to the Fravashis so that they feel welcomed. The departed souls accept these gifts by "tasting" the vibrationary frequencies of all these offerings and give us Blessings in return. The departed souls only want the loving thoughts, and prayerful words (Avestan Manthras) from the persons living on Earth. To those who give them these gifts and remember them by name and invite them to celebrate by performance of ceremonies they give wonderful Blessings and protection. Such blessed persons gain the Halo in their Aura and by the power of this Holy light they are saved from many calamities and misfortunes. These ceremonies are known as "Afringan", "Furrokshi" and "Satum". All these ceremonies continue till about noon. Then we the persons celebrating these ceremonies eat the food and fruits and drink the milk and water which has been blessed by the Fravashis.

Thereafter it is Siesta time till about 3.45 pm. Again at about 4.00 pm the Satum ceremony is performed reciting the over 300 names of all the Holy Fravashis who are invited and invoked by name. This continues till about one hour before sunset.

Again immediately after sunset the ceremonies for the night time are performed, including the fire ceremony and the Satum which continue till about 8.30 pm. By this time all the celebrants are ready for bed time after dinner.

The Zoroastrian College building is located in a rural area village, beside a river bank with beautiful fruit trees orchards and paddy fields around it in a place called Sanjan. Most of the time there was no electric power supply, so we depended on oil lamps and candles every night and also the light of the Moon. The telephone was not working. In rural India, out of 365 days of the year, usually telephones do not work for 360 days. So this was not unusual. Sanjan is a small village of about five-seven thousands persons. On one side of the river bank it is Gujrat and the population is mostly 90 percent Muslim, the other side is Maharashtra and the local area population is caste Hindu and out-caste Adivasi rural village people, who are mostly illiterate. There are also a few Christians and some Parsi Zoroastrians and Jains. In such a small place, there are Muslim Masjids, Jamat Khanas, and Mosques, Hindu Shiva Temple, Jain Temple, Parsi Fire Temple and a Church. Every morning at 5.00 am the loud speaker of the Hindu temple would relay Sanskrit manthras and Bhajans songs; followed by the Muslim Maulana making his loud speaker wake up call at 6.00 am to Allah; at sunrise the Zoroastrian Fire temple bell would be heard; and on Sundays the Church bells would ring in the morning about 9.00am.You will observe that these ceremonies were being performed when many sad events of war were taking place with American youth being dragged to the army lines in Iraq and innocent women and children becoming canon fodder for the attacking American and British armies. Yet in this small village in India, cut off from the rest of the world, people carried on living peacefully with each other, sitting glued to the TV screen to watch the World-Cup cricket matches being played in South Africa, cheering their favorite teams and living in Peace and Calm with each other. Business carried on as usual depending on whether the trains, the life line of transport, were functioning.

What is my purpose in sharing this with you all dear friends and good and noble persons?

Just to remind us all that, in the words of Shakespeare - "MORE THINGS ARE WROUGHT BY PRAYER THAN THIS WORLD DREAMS OF"

On 21st March we wished all friends NAVROZE MUBARAK - MAY THE COMING NEW YEAR BE AUSPICIOUS TO ALL - PEACE BE UNTO ALL.

With love from Dame Dr. Prof. Meher Master-Moos, President, Zoroastrian College

 

Inner Net of the Heart is a joint project of the Satyana Institute and the Manitou Foundation; both are charitable organizations based in Colorado. For more information, click here.

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original photo of M31 by Neyle Sollee, sangreobservatory.com    -  click here to view original photo