REMAINING FAITHFUL MESSAGE FROM REV. MARY WHITE
Good Afternoon and Blessings,
What matters the most to you? “World peace” is the usual response from beauty pageant contestants. Which begs the question is world peace really accessible? According to the Dalai Lama as individuals, we can only contribute to world peace through inner awareness in our pursuit of happiness.
Given today’s current world instability, besides praying, we can sit in our quietness, focus on our inner self, come to a place of peace, and begin through compassion and love to calmly influence others. Therefore, doing our share of making a difference in the environment in which we live.
Stay safe. Stay connected.
Blessings and the strength of Love be with you.
Rev. Mary
Reading Sited in “Seeking the Heart of Wisdom”
There are many varieties of meditation, but what they generally have in common are techniques for making the mind peaceful. Two of the features which distinguish Buddhist traditions of meditation are insight and compassion. The more we become familiar with the mind and come to realize impermanence, suffering, and selflessness in our own lives through meditation, the more we empathize with other sentient beings and the kind heart of compassion grows naturally within us. This is important both in the individual’s pursuit of happiness and in their contributing to the peace of the world.
It is encouraging to find Westerners who have sufficiently assimilated traditions of the East to be able to share them with others. May such efforts further the peace of all beings.
– The Dalai Lama
Prayer
To be there before you, Creating One, that’s all.
To shut the eyes of my body,
To shut the eyes of my soul,
And be still and silent,
To expose myself to you who are there, exposed to me. To be there before you, the Eternal Presence.
I am willing to feel nothing, to see nothing, to hear nothing.
Empty of all ideas, of all images.
In the darkness.
Here I am, simply,
To meet you without obstacles,
In the silence of faith,
Before you, Creator.
– Michel Quoist
from “The Book of a Thousand Prayers” by Zondervan