Prayer for Tuesday (Yom Kippur)

The Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur begins at sundown today.

Focus on the journey,
not the destination.
Joy is found not in finishing an activity
but in doing it.
~ Greg Anderson

I now intensely cultivate universal love,
wishing for all conscious beings only true happiness,
fulfillment, peace and freedom from suffering.
I experience great ecstatic joy
at the very thought of conscious
beings abiding forever in equanimity and bliss,
free from every obvious fear and subtle anxiety.
As universal love increases in this mind stream,
harmful forces cannot affect me,
and I become a protector of living beings.

I deeply rejoice in all authentic religious
and moral teachings which have elevated
any person into selfless love.
I rejoice as well in all kind actions
performed by or for even the least evolved sentient being.
I remember constantly that all societies and relationships,
in order to be fruitful, can be based upon
and sustained by loving-kindness alone.

(Buddhist prayer)

This Week’s Affirmation:

“Every atom of my being is resonating with joy and happiness now.”

(For more on Affirmations, go to my Affirmations Page.)

Prayer for Thursday

Quiet the mind,
and the soul will speak.”
~ Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati

The sound of wonder, the sound which observes the cries of the world
The supreme sound, the sound of the rising tide
The sound which goes beyond the sound of ordinary life
We should be permanently mindful of all of these

Every moment of mindfulness without doubt
The purity of the being of Avalokita*
Is the place where we need to take refuge
In times of danger and the suffering of death

Let us bow deeply to one
Who has laid the causes for every possible happiness
Who looks on the world with eyes of love
Whose ocean of well-being cannot be measured.

(from The Lotus Sutra)

* Avalokita or Avalokiteśvara (“Lord who looks down”) is a bodhisattva who embodies the compassion of all Buddhas.

This Week’s Affirmation:

“I have faith in the Universal Spirit and the Universal Spirit takes care of me.”

(For more on Affirmations, go to my Affirmations Page.)

Prayer for Thursday

“What day is it?”
“It’s today,” squeaked Piglet.
“My favorite day,” said Pooh.”
~ A.A. Milne

Through the working of Great Compassion in their hearts,
May all beings have happiness and the causes of happiness,
May all be free from sorrow and the causes of sorrow;
May all never be separated from the sacred happiness, which is sorrowless;
And may all live in equanimity, Without too much attachment and too much aversion; and live believing in the equality of all that lives. Namo Amida Buddha

(Buddhist prayer; Source: Past Forward)

This Week’s Affirmation:

“I forgive all past experiences.
I choose to live in the joyous now.”

(For more on Affirmations, go to my Affirmations Page.)