Ahimsa, January 20, 2008

Opening Prayer 1-20-07


Send Thy peace O Lord, which isperfect and everlasting,that our souls may radiate peace.Send Thy peace O Lord, that we may think, act and speak harmoniously.Send Thy peace O Lord, that we may be contented and thankful forThy bountiful gifts.Send Thy peace O Lord, that amidstour worldly strife, we may enjoy Thy bliss.Send Thy peace O Lord, that we may endure all, tolerate all, in the thought of Thy grace and mercy.Send Thy peace O Lord, that our lives may become a Divine vision and in Thy light,all darkness may vanish.Send Thy peace O Lord, our Father and Mother,that we Thy children on Earth may allunite in one family.
prayer for peace -
pir-o-murshid inayat khan - 1921




Violence at its worst may be non-physical. A violent act is a desperate act. It is the demand of a person to force another to honor his desire and his need to be cared for, to be understood above the other’s need. It is a plea. A begging or a demand to have one’s need to belong fulfilled.
Howard Thurman

Non violence arises from a deep inner unity and an expression of divine oneness – an endless sea of mercy.
Non violence of the Divine calls us to an act of transformation, to recognize that power and to never believe that negativity is a final condition.
No one can prevent us from loving.
Beverly Lanzetta


If everything is connected, we cannot disconnect.To disconnect is not a real choice.This is why we are always spiritual no matter what we do.Every alcoholic is spiritual. All our brothers and sisters are spiritual.We may not be behaving correctly, but nevertheless, we arespiritual. Our choice is to live out of harmony with spiritual ways orin harmony with spiritual ways. Everything is spiritual.Great Spirit, give me the knowledgeto be in harmony with the spirit today.
It's all spirit and it's all connected."--
Grandfather William Commanda, ALGONQUIN

What is this self inside us, this silent observer,Severe and speechless critic, who can terrorize us,And urge us on to futile activity,And in the end, judge us still more severely,For the errors into which his own reproaches drove us?--
T. S. Eliot

Self-acceptance is my refusal to be in an adversarial relationship tomyself.-- Nathaniel Branden
Everytime we heal ourselves we participate in non-violence.
Beverly Lanzetta

Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive and then go do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.
Howard Thurman


Contributor: Rachel
Location: Bloomington, IL
Country: United States of America
Series: Contemporary

This I Believe
Growing up, the name Douglas Wright was a source of fear: a dread that the man who murdered my maternal grandparents would somehow be able to hurt me too. He was my boogeyman, my nighttime terror; as a child, I had a vague impression that he existed somewhere, but it was not until I realized the true meaning of my grandparents' murder that the man became a source of bitter anger.I stayed angry from the time I was eleven till the summer I turned thirteen. My mother and I returned to California, an odyssey which was as essential as it was heartbreaking. With every turn down the streets of Fairfield, I saw my grandparents' ghosts: I wondered as we passed every street, every park, "Where they here? Did they laugh as they watched their children play? What would it have been like to have met them, seen them, spent time with them?"One morning, my mother took me to the Fairfield Public Library; I was allowed, for the first time, to view the legal details surrounding my grandparents' murder, Douglas Wright's trial, and his subsequent conviction.What struck me most was a quote from his mother: she told the media, the entire state of California, that she loved her son and planned to stand by him. Reading that quote became one of the most important moments of my life: Douglas Wright was a son he was no longer a vague impression of a night terror. He was someone's son, and she loved him more than life.Before that moment, I had never realized that Douglas Wright is not solely a murderer but is also a son, a living, breathing person. There must have been, at some point in his life, moments during which he felt love for others. All people, even murderers, are human beings they are capable of feeling love and being loved. I cannot hate Douglas Wright; I have not hated him since the summer I turned thirteen. His mother loved him, and I cannot hate him. I can only remember the love I have been given, and use that love to forgive





Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light; and where there is sadness, joy.
St Francis


O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.
Amen.
St Francis