It was a few weeks ago now and the words were nowhere to be found. Prayer seems so distant sometimes. It often seems offered anyway as an empty gesture but that’s ego isn’t it? You pray however it is you do and with passion and vigor and the world goes its own way despite the effort. You grow weary of words. Yet it’s wrong to offer nothing at all. It’s not truly about changing outcomes but simply acting in good faith. Pure acts beget pure acts. May that not be forgotten in my life.

This is for the Old Man who brought light into the people close to me.

Oh Buddhas and Bodhisattvas abiding in all directions,
Endowed with great compassion,
Endowed with foreknowledge,
Endowed with divine eye,
Endowed with love,
Affording protection to sentient beings,
Please come forth through the power of your great compassion,
Please accept these offerings, both actually presented and mentally created.

Oh Compassionate Ones, you who possess
The wisdom of understanding,
The love of compassion,
The power of doing divine deeds,
And of protecting in incomprehensible measure,
He is passing from this world to the next,
He is taking a great leap,
The light of this world has faded for him.
He has entered solitude with their karmic forces,
He has gone into a vast silence,
He is borne away by the great ocean of birth and death ..…

Oh Compassionate Ones, protect he who is defenseless. Be to him like a mother and father.

Oh Compassionate Ones, let not the force of your compassion be weak, but aid them.

Let him not go into the miserable states of existence.

Forget not your ancient vows.