May I Be a Boat, a Lamp, a Wish-Fulfilling Jewel ...

One of the most challenging and perhaps most important things I have strived for is humility, to value others as more important than myself. And when I aim to be the best at this, I realize I have fallen short. The daily prayer of the Dalai Lama is below:

May I be a guard for those who are protectorless,

a guide for those who journey on the road; for those who wish to go across the water,

may I be a boat, a raft, a bridge.

May I be an isle for those who yearn for landfall, and a lamp for those who long for the light; for those who need a resting place, a bed; for all those who need a servant, may I be their slave.

May I be the wishing-fulfilling jewel, the vase of plenty, a word of power, and the supreme remedy. May I be the tree of miracles, and the ever-flowing spring.

Like the great earth and other elements,

enduring as the sky itself endures,

for the boundless multitude of living beings,

may I be the ground and vessel for their life.

Thus, for every single being that lives,

in number like the boundless reaches of the sky,

may I be their sustenance and nourishment

until they pass beyond the bounds of suffering.*

_______________________

*Dalai Lama, 1994, as cited in Rees, 2006 Being Prayer. Nutshell Publications.

Image: Rick Raymond, 2024. Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, Bethel NY