What is prayer in a universal context? (Excerpted here.)
Prayer is a way of channelling and transmitting energy. It can bring joy, inspiration, healing, peace, exhilaration – and even bliss.
Dynamic prayer is…
not a dull duty or a meaningless chore, but a vibrant, living power.
not the deluded hope of someone crying out in desperation, but the practical solution to many problems.
not an act of fear or false piety, but one of courage and true love.
If prayer were understood and practiced every day by more people, not only would those people’s lives change, but the whole world would change.
For particular faith orientations, I would simply zip out "energy" and zip in your understanding of the Divine. But if we all used our particularities to respond to the world's pains in a universal way, we could absolutely change the world!
And so, I offer a prayer for internal peace in hopes that together, we may transform pain to peace.
On the day when
the weight deadens
on your shoulders
and you stumble,
may the clay dance
to balance you.
And when your eyes
freeze behind
the grey window
and the ghost of loss
gets in to you,
may a flock of colours,
indigo, red, green,
and azure blue
come to awaken in you
a meadow of delight.
When the canvas frays
in the currach of thought
and a stain of ocean
blackens beneath you,
may there come across the waters
a path of yellow moonlight
to bring you safely home.
May the nourishment of the earth be yours,
may the clarity of light be yours,
may the fluency of the ocean be yours,
may the protection of the ancestors be yours.
And so may a slow
wind work these words
of love around you,
an invisible cloak
to mind your life.
...
beannacht - john o'donohue, Found in Anam Cara
CC (BY-NC-SA)
I call this a flock of colours!