Below are a few cherished poems and prayers...
Hildegard of Bingen, the 12th-century Christian mystic, refers to the greening love. She is referring to hope that arises when we have been able to touch the divine when she writes:
“Those who breathe this dew
yearn for heavenly things.
They carry within, refreshing, fulfilling, greening love,
With which they hasten to the aid of those in need. (Uhlein,1983 p.69)
This is a selection from the final discourse of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti. He is the founder of the Chisti Sufi Order. The Universalist Sufi order I have been associated with for the past 40 years is part of that lineage. This the final teaching he shared with his followers before in died in 1236 CE.
Love all and hate none.
Be overflowing with peace and joy,
and scatter them wherever you are
and wherever you go.
Be a blazing fire of truth,
be a beautiful blossom of love
and be a soothing balm of peace.
With your spiritual light,
dispel the darkness of ignorance;
dissolve the clouds of discord and war
and spread goodwill, peace, and harmony among the people.
A Prayer for Peace
Adapted from, Sufi master, Hazrat Inayat Khan
May we know peace,
Which is perfect and everlasting that our souls may radiate Peace.
May we know Peace,
That we may think, act and speak harmoniously.
May we know Peace,
That we might be contented and thankful for our bounteous gifts.
May we know Peace,
That amidst our worldly strife we may know thy bliss.
May we know Peace,
That we might endure all and tolerate all in the spirit of grace and mercy.
May we know Peace,
That our lives might become a divine vision and in this light darkness vanish.
May we know Peace,
Our Father our Mother, that we thy children on earth
may all unite as one family.
Call Me by My True Names
By Vietnamese Buddhist Teacher, Thich Nhat Hanh
Do not say I depart tomorrow, for even today I still arrive.
Look deeply: I arrive in every moment, to be a bud on a branch, to be a tiny bird with wings still fragile, learning to sing in my new nest, to be a caterpillar in the heart of a flower, to be jewel hiding itself in a stone.
I still arrive, in order to laugh and to cry, in order to fear and to hope. The rhythm of my heart is the birth and death of all that are alive.
I am the may fly metamorphosing, on the surface of a river, and I am the bird, which when spring comes, arrives in time to eat the mayfly.
I am the frog, swimming happily in the clear water of a pond, and I am the grass-snake who, approaching in silence, feeds itself on the frog.
I am the child in Uganda, all skin and bones, my legs as thin as bamboo sticks, and I am the arms merchant, selling deadly weapons to Uganda.
I am the 12 year old girl, refugee on a small boat, who throws herself into the ocean after being raped by a sea pirate, and I am the pirate, my heart not yet capable of seeing and and loving.
I am a member of the politburo with plenty of power in my hands, and I am the man who has to pay his "debt of blood" to my people, dying slowly in a forced labor camp.
My joy is like spring, so warm it makes flowers bloom in all walks of life.
My pain like a river of tears, so full it fills up the four oceans.
Please call me by my true names, so I can hear all my cries and my laughs at once,
So that I can see that my joy and my pain are one.
Please call me by my true names, so I can wake up, and so the doors of my heart can be left open, the doors of compassion.
God Makes the Rivers to Flow
Vedic Prayer, translation by Eknath Easwaran
God makes the rivers to flow.
They tire not, nor do they cease from flowing.
May the river of my life
flow into the sea of love that is the Lord.
May I overcome all the impediments on my course.
May the thread of my song be not cut,
before my life merges in the sea of love.
The Table is Set, a Thanksgiving
(A parts work poem)
Copyright by:
Alexandra Thoese
Translated from the German by Tom and Lauri Holmes