The Prayer of Mother Teresa:
People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies. Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and sincere, people my deceive you. Be honest and sincere anyway.
What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight. Create anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous. Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, will often be forgotten. Do good anyway.
Give the best you have, and it will never be enough. Give your best anyway.
In the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.
-This is the version found written on the wall in Mother Teresa's home for children in Calcutta.
The Lord's Prayer - "Our Father"
"Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one."
New International Version, Matthew 6: 9-13
In the Silence of One's Own Being
Inquire of the Stranger the earthly road you seek, but ask your higher self for the torch that will light you on your way. In the silence of one's own being, is lighted the candle of will and aspiration. No wind can put it out, no heat can melt it. The flame is of the spirit's quality - pure and of even temperature.
Wait in the morning for inspiration, at noon for guidance, and in the evening for a full understanding of the road thou hast traveled.
- Author Unknown
Prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi:
Lord, make me a channel of thy peace,
That where there is hatred, I may bring love -
That where there is wrong, I may bring the spirit of
forgiveness -
That where there is discord, I may bring harmony -
That where there is error, I may bring truth -
That where there is doubt, I may bring faith -
That where there is despair, I may bring hope -
That where there are shadows, I may bring light -
That where there is sadness, I may bring joy.
Lord, grant that I may seek rather to comfort than to be
comforted -
To understand, than to be understood -
To love, than to be loved.
For it is by self-forgetting that one finds.
It is by forgiving that one is forgiven.
It is by dying that one awakens to Eternal life.
The Anthem of Humanity by Kahlil Gabran
I have existed from all eternity and, behold, I am here; and I shall exist till the end of time, for my being has no end.
I soared into limitless space and took wing in the imaginable world, approaching the circle of exalted light; and here I am now, mired in matter.
I listened to the teachings of Confucius, imbibed the wisdom of Brahman, and sat beside Buddha beneath the tree of insight. And now I am here, wrestling with ignorance and unbelief. I was on Sinai when Yahweh shed His effulgence on Moses; at the River Jordan I witnessed the miracles of the Nazarene; and in Medina I heard the words of the Messenger to the Arabs. And here I am now, a captive of confusion. I behold the might of Babylon, the glory of Egypt, and the grandeur of Greece; and I still see the weakness, degradation, and pettiness in all those works. I sat with the sorcerers of Endor, the seers of Assyria, the prophets of Palestine; and I persist in singing the truth. I memorized the wisdom revealed in India, the heartfelt odes wrought by the inhabitants of the Arabian peninsula, and the music that embodies the sentiments of the Western people; yet still I am blind and do not see, deaf and do not hear. I endured the brutality of grasping conquerors, suffered oppression at the hands of tyrannical rules, and was enslaved by despots; yet a power remains where I struggle against the days.
I saw and heard all that while still a child, and shall see and hear the exploits of youth and their consequences; then I shall grow old, and achieve perfection, and return unto God.
I existed from all eternity and behold, I am here; and I shall exist till the end of time, for my being has no end.
Excerpt from The Tavern by Rumi
In the tavern are many wines - the wine of delight in color and form and taste, the wine of the intellect's agility, the fine port of stories, and the cabernet of soul singing. Being human means entering this place where entrancing varieties of desire are served. The grape skin of ego breaks and a pouring begins. Fermentation is one of the oldest symbols for human transformation. When grapes combine their juice and are closed up together for a time in a dark place, the results are spectacular. This is what lets two drunks meet so that they don't know who is who. Pronouns no longer apply in the tavern's mud-world of excited confusion and half-articulated wanting.
But after some time in the tavern, a point comes, a memory of elsewhere, a longing for the source, and the drunks must set off from the tavern and begin the return. The Qur'an says, "We are all returning." The tavern is a kind of glorious hell that human beings enjoy and suffer and then push off from in the search for the truth. The tavern is a dangerous region where sometimes disguises are necessary, but never hide your heart. Keep open there. A breaking apart, a crying out into the street, begins in the tavern, and the human soul turns to find its way home.
It's 4 a.m. Nasruddin leaves the tavern and walks the town aimlessly. A policeman stops him. "Why are you out wandering the streets in the middle of the night?" "Sir," replies Nasruddin, "if I knew the answer to that question, I would have been home hours ago!
