Bodhisattva Prayer for All Humanity
“May I be a guard for those who need protection,
a guide for those on the path,
a boat, a raft, a bridge for those who wish to cross the flood.
May I be a lamp in the darkness,
a resting place for the weary,
a healing medicine for all who are sick,
a vase of plenty, a tree of miracles.
And for the boundless multitudes of living beings,
may I bring sustenance and awakening,
enduring like the earth and sky
until all beings are freed from sorrow
and all are awakened.”
– Shantideva, Indian Buddhist sage 700 A.D.
The prayer reminds me:
- We each carry within the bodhisattva of compassion when we help another and approach challenges with compassion rather than fear and anger.
- What matters most is how we are in the world.
- Our journey is one of continual awakening if we chose it to be.
May this prayer guide us throughout this new year — 2018.
Blessings, Susan
Thank you Susan for posting this powerful prayer. I came across it a couple of years ago and am so glad you reminded me of it. I believe we really need to circulate this and other similar prayers in these trying and difficult times to build a blanket of hope and resolution.
This is a description of this prayer I found years ago, I find the explanation very powerful and “a call to arms”!
“The vow of the Bodhisattva is that she will not go into Nirvana until every single suffering being has entered Nirvana. One has to understand what this means. Our awakening is not a personal triumph. We do not have to win a spiritual sprint. We are one mind. Awakening is to penetrate more and more deeply into this truth. The world is alive. And as long as there is suffering then this living whole is shattered. Whether it is my suffering or the suffering of another, when seen from the perspective of the Bodhisattva makes no difference, because, seen from this perspective there is no ‘me’ or ‘another.’ In the Diamond Sutra, “Although the Bodhisattva saves all sentient beings, there are no sentient beings to save.”
Also, thank you for your meditation guidance at the National Cathedral on April 2 and for your workshop last September Conversations with Our Souls.