Poems and Prayers, Part 6

A Buddhist Prayer

May I purify the power of karma,
May I crush the powers of delusion,
May I render powerless the powerful maras,
And may I perfect the powers of sublime ways.
May I purify an ocean of realms,
May I liberate an ocean of sentient beings,
May I see an ocean of truths,
And may I realize an ocean of wisdom.
May I perform an ocean of perfect deeds,
May I perfect an ocean of prayers,
May I revere an ocean of buddhas,
And may I practice untiringly for an ocean of eons.
Through my practice of the sublime bodhisattva ways
May I gain the enlightenment of buddhahood
And then fulfill the enlightened and sublime aspiration
Of the buddhas past, present, and future.
- From the King of Prayers

HYMN TO *PANU

OPANU,
Son of the Sun!
Offspring thou of the dear day.
Lift the fire up to the sky.
In the middle of the golden ring,
Within the rock of copper,
Carry it as a child to its mother
Into the lap of the ancient mother.
Place the fire to shine by day,
And to rest at night.
Let it rise every morning
Let it rest every evening
A Finnish Prayer
(*Panu, is God of fire, child of the Sun-mother)

A Buddhist Prayer

May I never be separated from the good friends
Who reveal the path of the sublime ways
And who wish only to benefit me;
May I never disappoint them for even a moment.
May I constantly envision the perfect buddhas,
The protectors who are surrounded by bodhisattvas,
And in the future may I never weary
Of devoting myself to them with all my strength.
May I forever uphold the holy Dharma of the buddhas
And illumine the sublime way of enlightenment;
May I practice throughout all future ages
The ways of deeds of the sublime path.
- Samantabhadra Devotions
The King of Prayers

Invocation to Waters

YE, Waters, are beneficent: so help ye us to energy
That we may look on great delight.
Give us a portion of the sap, the most auspicious that ye have,
Like mothers in their longing love.
To you we gladly come for him to whose abode ye send us on;
And, Waters, give us procreant strength.
The Waters. be to us for drink, Goddesses for our aid and bliss:
Let them stream to us health and strength.
1 beg the Floods to give us balm, these Queens who rule o'er precious things,
And have supreme control of men.
Within the Waters-Soma thus hath told me-dwell all balms that heal,
And Agni, he who blesseth all.
O Waters, teem with medicine to keep my body safe from harm,
So that I long may see the Sun.
Whatever sin is found in me, whatever evil I have wrought,
If I have lied or falsely sworn, Waters, remove it far from me.
The Waters I this day have sought, and to their moisture have we come:
O Agni, rich in milk, come thou, and with thy splendour cover me.
- Rigveda, Invocation to Waters

Prayer to Visvakarman (Architect of the Universe)

THE Father of the eye, the Wise in spirit,
created both these worlds submerged in fatness.
Then when the eastern ends were firmly fastened,
the heavens and the earth were far extended.
Mighty in mind and power is Visvakarman, Maker,
Disposer, and most lofty Presence.
Their offerings joy in rich juice where they value One,
only One, beyond the Seven Rsis.
Father who made us, he who, as Disposer,
knoweth all races and all things existing,
Even he alone, the Deities' narne-giver,
him other beings seek for information.
To him in sacrifice they offered treasures,
Rsis of old, in numerous troops, as singers,
Who, in the distant, near, and lower region,
made ready all these things that have existence.
That which is earlier than this earth and heaven,
before the Asuras and Gods had being,-
What was the germ primeval which the waters received
where all the Gods were seen together?
The waters, they received that germ primeval
wherein the Gods were gathefed all together.
It rested set upon the Unborn's navel, that
One wherein abide all things existing.
Ye will not find him who produced these creatures:
another thing hath risen up among you.
Enwrapt in misty cloud, with lips that stammer,
hymn-chanters wander and are discontented.
-Rigveda

HAIL to our Mother

HAIL to our Mother who makes
the yellow flowers to bloom
who scatters the seeds of the
maguey as she comes from the
Land Divine!
Hail to our Mother who casts forth
white flowers in abundance
!
Hail to our Mother who shines in
the thorn bush as a bright butterfly!
Ho ! She is our Mother—the woman
god of the earth. In the desert
she feeds the wild beasts, and
gives them to live.
Thus—thus you see her ever abundant
in gifts to all flesh.
And as you see the goddess of earth
give to the beasts, so also she is
giving to the green herbs and the
fishes.
Hail to our Mother who casts forth
yellow flowers to the sun from the
Land Divine!
A Mexican prayer to Teteo-inan, the Mother of Gods