“Prayer is not asking. It is a longing of the soul. It is daily admission of one's weakness. It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without a heart.”- M.K.Gandhi

One day while Angulimala was on his way to the village to ask for alms, he saw a pregnant lady in a lot of labor pain. The condition was either the child or the mother might not survive. Angulimala’s heart was moved after looking at the suffering, so he went to Buddha and asked what he can do to support them? With a compassionate smile, Buddha asked him to retrospect all the good that he has done in this lifetime and share the merits of it. Angulimala took a few moments to retrospect his past life and realized that he has only afflicted pain and has done no good to humanity. When Angulimala shared this with Buddha, he told him to think again from the time he had stopped killing people and started walking on the path of the dhamma because that was indeed his new birth, and if he would have done any good, the merits of it will surely reach out. Angulimala did as told by his teacher and started dedicating his merits to the mother. Eventually, the child was born, and both of them survived.

Angulimala’s heart overflowed with joy after experiencing the power of Maitri, the power of prayers which a bunch of us felt after being part of the prayer circle hosted by Nipun Bhai and his family in Surat yesterday evening. Chirag Bhai shared this beautiful story to set the context of the power of prayer and transformation, which can go beyond the skies and heal the world. The circle naturally emerged with a minute of silence, after which each one shared a prayer. The intention was to connect to the goodness of the self with the goodness of others and share the merits with all sentient beings in this world. We ended the circle with the dedication of merit by Rev Heng Sure.



On that note, a singing bird told us that Surat Love warriors would host a weekly prayer circle from this month. What a joy it was to be part of the emergence that led us to dive deep into the ocean of Maitri, Prem & Karuna (Goodwill, Love, and Compassion).