A prayer for peace today

image courtesy of  http://vicpeace.ca/vpc.gif

From his holiness the Dalai Lama, in his book, "How to Be Compassionate".

"If we allow love and compassion to be dominated by anger, we will sacrifice the best part of our human intelligence - wisdom, which is our ability to decide between right and wrong.  Along with selfishness, anger is one of the most serious problems facing the world today...These conflicts arise from a failure to understand how much we have in common.

"Answers cannot be found in the development and use of greater military force, nor can they be purely political or technological. The problems we face cannot be blamed upon one individual person or a single cause, for they are the result of our own negligence.

"Hatred and fighting cannot bring happiness to anyone, even to those who win. Violence always produces misery, so it is fundamentally counterproductive."

"The sale of weapons, thousands and thousands of types of arms and ammunition by manufacturers in big countries, fuels the violence, but more dangerous than guns or bombs are hatred, lack of compassion, and lack of respect for the rights of others.

"External peace is impossible without inner peace. As long as hatred dwells in the human mind, real peace is impossible. We can only solve our problems through truly peaceful means--not just peaceful words, but actions based on a peaceful mind and heart.  This is the way we will come to live in a better world."

So my prayer for the world is to bless everyone with a peaceful heart and mind today.

Amen.