Something to pray for

Put down your weapons and listen

we are all asking for the same thing

to be heard

to be understood

to be accepted

we are not many but one

the wounds you cause others leave marks on your own soul

stop long enough to feel your current state

know that every being breaths the same air

 is made of the same matter 

and lives by the warmth of the same sun

take the hand of your enemy for it will lead you to peace

It is hard to know what to pray for in times of so much uncertainty and pain.  France is living an instability that is the same instability felt by so many other countries at this moment.  People struggle to make sense of the violence and look for answers to stop the suffering.  The perceived happy ending for one group means the destruction of another.  What do you ask for when all options lead to more division and hatred?  I was lucky enough to spend the two days following the current attack on Paris with the sisters at a Buddhist monastery.  As the world outside buzzed with emotion, the monastery remained a place of peace.  The gift of enlightened clarity is the capacity to remove oneself from emotional situations and avoid programmed reactions.  This allows one to consciously decide which action will be most beneficial.  The sisters know that the right action is to continue to be a source of peace and love despite the level of hatred and violence around them.  Distraught Parisians came to the monastery spinning with emotion.  Their hearts opened absorbing the healing of the sisters and they left in a state of peace.  When I first learned of the attack sitting on my meditation cushion, a wave of doubt came over me.  I thought "what am I doing here and what good will all of this do against all of this violence?"  In witnessing the transformation of the mental states of these troubled individuals I realized that this is what the practice is doing.  It is transforming violence into love one person at a time growing an energy of healing and spreading it into the world.  This is what I want to pray for.  An awakening of humans to the reality that we don't have to continue watering the seeds of anger and violence.  We can make a conscious decision to take a different path; a path to healing.