Healing "Rituals"

Metta: "metta" is the Buddhist ritual of "loving kindness".

The Buddhist speak of four "Brahma-vihara" or "four divine states of dwelling." These are loving kindness metta, compassion karuna , sympathetic joy mudita and equanimity pekkha.

My teacher's teacher say to practice thus... say the prayer first for yourself. Then imagine some one* who you love and esteem (sitting to your left), and say the prayer for them. Then for someone towards who your feelings are neutral (sitting across for you). Finally for someone you find problematic/an enemy (sitting to your right). Mel says to do the practice until you feel an equal love and compassion for each party. And, she says, you will know when your heart has opened because you will feel a deep ache in the heart when this happens!

May I be filled with happyness and well being.
May I befree from all afflictions of the heart and mind,
        free from all harm.
May I rejoice in the happiness of all beings.
May I be at peace, at ease.

and follow this with a similar prayer for the "loved one", the "anyone", and the "enemy"...

"May X be filled with happiness and well being...."

* who is not in the set of   possible sexual objects

Gratitude: from the Iroquois tradition:

as I/we walk of this sacred mother earth, I/we look around me/us and I see that it's a new day, it's a beautiful day, and I join my/our mind/s to the spirit of the people to make our hearts as one, and to give a great thank you to (and repeat the above with each of the following...)

~ thank you to all the plant life, the trees, shrubs, bushes, flowering plants and grasses, ferns, mosses, algae, bacteria and fungi, and I/we thank the plants for the seeds, fruits, vegtables which sustain and nurish us, for the medicines, and for beautiful green raiment the adorns our sacred mother earth. These plants are our ancestors and I/we offer our heart felt thanks: meegwetch meegwetch, kolaval, kolaval, nau.wen !

~ thank you to all the all the waters, our mother's sacred blood, the life-giving waters, this sacred drink our mother gives us, her blood : matrix of life : and I thank all the water, (all the water in the bio.ome), the moisture in the soil, the springs and fountains; puddles pool ponds. lake; rivers, seas, oceans, the moisture in the air, the, clouds, rain, snow, ice, the water in the plants and creatures that sings electrically with their life - I thank all the water - meegwetch meegwetch, kolaval, kolaval, nau.wen !

~ thank you to all my relations, the four-legged-ones, the winged-ones, the fish people, and the invertebrate people. These too are our ancestors. And I/we thank all my relations for their companionship, and for the leasons they give us when we ask and listen. And I/we offer this heart felt thank you to all my relations: meegwetch meegwetch, kolaval, kolaval, nau.wen !

~ thank you to our sacred mother earth, Eeteenouwa, and to thank her for all her gifts and kindnesses: meegwetch meegwetch, kolaval, kolaval, nau.wen !

~ thank you to my brother the sun. Thank you uncle sun for fullfillinf all your duties.: for lighting the world and warming the world, and nurishing the plant life, a great thank you: meegwetch meegwetch, kolaval, kolaval, nau.wen !

~ thank you sister moon. Thank you grandmother moon fo fulfilling all your duties: for lighting the night sky, in your pahses,: for guding the women, and guiding the waters, a great thank you, meegwetch meegwetch, kolaval, kolaval, nau.wen !

~ thank you to all the celestial bodies, all the heavenly bodies, the planets, stars, galaxies, constellations. Our elders tell us that we came from the stars. That these too are our ancestors: and so we honour you, and give a great thanks: meegwetch meegwetch, kolaval, kolaval, nau.wen !

~ as I/we walk of this sacred mother earth, I/we look around me/us and I see that it's a new day, it's a beautiful day, and I join my/our mind/s to the spirit of the people to make our hearts as one, and to give a great thank you for all the gifts the creator has given us :I thank the creator, Shengwadushi, for the colours and the sounds that bring us harmony: for the very air we breathe; for the winds, the winds of the four directions: the spirits of the four directions, and of the earth and sky: the spirits of the centre - and you, great spirit - and i thank you for the ancerstor spirits, the grandmothers and grandfathers, for the four protectors, and the thunderbeings, those voices in the sky that tell us of the coming of the rain, and of the continuation of days, and of a good way of life: and I thank you for all the benefactors of the people: for the clan mothers, and the elders, the singers, pipeholders, fire-keeper, for the artists, the medicine people, teachers : and for the ceremonies! for all the gift the great creators has given us, our heart felt gratitude : meegwetch meegwetch, kolaval, kolaval, nau.wen !

Shengwadushi Shengwadushi Shengwadushi nau.wen
Shengwadushi Shengwadushi Shengwadushi nau.wen
Shengwadushi Shengwadushi Shengwadushi nau.wen
all my relations !

Ho'oponopono: from the Kahuna, Hawaiian, tradition. Ho'oponopono 101:

Ho'oponopono is a Hawaiian ritual for resolving personal, social (and spiritual) conflicts - in which you say:           "I'm sorry.          Forgive me.            I love you.     Thank you."           And surely, ideally you say this face to face, but failing that, you say it anyway, with intent and sincerity,
          I used to often yell at my beagle, Rita. It seemed to me that she would only respond if I yelled. I took to calling her "miss decilbels". I once also nearly lost it. Thought I might thrash me, till strangers intevenion sobered me. Some time after she died I found myself adressing her: I'm sorry. Forgive me. I love you. Thank you."
           I found it (somewhat) healing

Wikisays: "Ho'oponopono" is defined in the Hawaiian Dictionary as "mental cleansing: family conferences in which relationships were set right through prayer, discussion, confession, repentance, and mutual restitution and forgiveness." Literally, ho'o is a particle used to make an actualizing verb from the following noun, as would "to" before a noun in English. Here, it creates a verb from the noun pono, which is defined as:

...goodness, uprightness, morality, moral qualities, correct or proper procedure, excellence, well-being, prosperity, welfare, benefit, true condition or nature, duty; moral, fitting, proper, righteous, right, upright, just, virtuous, fair, beneficial, successful, in perfect order, accurate, correct, eased, relieved; should, ought, must, necessary.

Ponopono is defined as "to put to rights; to put in order or shape, correct, revise, adjust, amend, regulate, arrange, rectify, tidy up, make orderly or neat."

Mantras: from the ayavadic tradition

Mantra works on many levels:
~ the simple repetition of a wholesome phrase or verse is in itself calming
~ an/the object of meditation in the Buddhist tradition is to "stop" the verbal mind: mantra can help to focus the verbal mind and so still it.
~ many patternings of vibrations can be very healing/salubrious in themselves, in there healing effects on living systems. See the Medicine show's page on "vibration".
~ and then many people attribute various magic, spiritual, religious powers to mantra.

There are so many mantra! However, it is quite difficult to find accurate translations. (Most translations are totally overblown and far from the literal meaning!)

Two great Buddhist mantras are...

OM mani padme hum (sanskrit)
                                                                  OM mani pema hung (Tibetan)

I had always heard this translated as "Behold the jewel (mani) in the lotus (padme)" - and that has been good enough for me. That told me "hum" indicates an injunction to "behold", to observe, to watch. ("Watch" was the teaching Trumpa gave me - my first instruction way way back.) And I take the mantra to mean "in the myriad things, observe consciousness."


Om Ah Hum Vajra Guru Padma Siddhi Hum. (Sanskrit)
                          Om Ah Hung Benza Guru Pema Siddhi Hung. (Tibetan)

My teacher's teacher, Mel, works with this mantra (which extols the "Guru Rinpoche" how brought Buddhism to Tibet).

Two great Hindu/Vedic mantras are...

Gayatri Mantra

OM bhur bhuva svaha
tát savitúr váreinyaham
bhárgo devásya dhimahi
dhíyo yó na prachodayat

My understanding of Gayatri mantra is:
~ I make offerings/surrender to seen/manifest and unseen/unmanifest
~ that creator who is worthy (of praise)
~ I contemplate/meditate on the lunimous/devine god/deity
~ so that my mind may bring me harmony

two words of interest here:
"prachodayat" is often translated as "correct". That puzzled me, till saw wiki's translation of ho'oponopono. Prachodayat is pono! harmonious!

"svaha" (Tibetan "soha") is a very common ritual word in the vedic and Buddist tradition... and hard to grasp, to translate. My key is that in a fire ceremony, at dawn, as butter/ghee is ladeled into the fire as an offering to Shiva, we say "svaha". So, as close as I can get is that svaha is offering, offering the self to the transendent... surrendering to the divine.

The "Tejase..." mantra

I found this on one of Mooji's videos. I love it (because I feel I can understand it)

OM namah shivaya gurave
sat chit ananda murtaye
nishprapanchaya shantaya
niralambaya tejase

~ I bow to the divine/God/Shiva, my teacher,
~ whose form is sat: truth/the existant, chit: mind/experiance,
   ananda: tranquil abiding (the "substance" of the divine) (see ananda)
~ who is ever present peace
~ and self existant light/luminousity

pray for the wicked... Ma Brahmanjnana's pray ...

may the wicked become noble
may the noble find peace
may the peaceful find liberation
and may the liberated, the enlightened, quide us