View allAll Photos Tagged prayers
Gangasagar pilgrimage and fair, held annually, is the second largest congregation of mankind after the holy Kumbha Mela. Almost a million of Hindu devotees from all over India gather at Gangasagar for a holy dip.
Besides the devotees, hundreds of sadhus, priests and alms-seekers come to Gangasagar every year for a unique spiritual experience!
The river Ganga (Ganges) which originates in the Gangotri glacier in the snow clad high Himalayas, descends down the mountains, reaches the plains, flows through ancient pilgrimage sites, and drains into the Bay of Bengal. A dip in the ocean, where the Ganga meets the sea is considered to be of great religious significance particularly on the Makara Sankranti day (January 14/15), when the sun makes a transition to Capricorn from Sagittarius.
The Gangasagar fair (mela) exhibited a colorful ceremonial display of ritualistic acts, all being driven by deep faith in Hindu religion, directed for the sake of wealth and peace for self and for the dearest and nearest ones, for new generations to come, and of course in deep regards for the ancestors. I wondered by how for generations , the faith, devotion, endurance and love directed the people of my country in their continuous journey for eternal peace with all poverty acclaimed, other wise. I wondered by the gleaming faces of my country people who had no affluence of the west. I wondered by their enormous life forces with very ordinary food. I wondered by their grace with very ordinary cloths, and simplicity out of ignorance of the complex world. I found my religious India at a glance there. And I believe that my India isn’t a “Lost Paradise” even today, where humanity flourished for ever. Nikon D7000
Going to be having these printed for members of the congregation to use in an upcoming prayer drive. The bookmark will be perforated at the dotted line. Probably sending this to the printer tomorrow, any thoughts?
Buddhist prayer flags, colorful panels of rectangular cloth, are often found strung along mountain ridges and peaks high in the Himalayas. They are used to bless the surrounding countryside and for other purposes. Prayer flags are believed to have originated with Bön, which predated Buddhism in Tibet.
Traditionally, prayer flags come in sets of five, one in each of five colors. The five colors represent the elements, and the Five Pure Lights and are arranged from left to right in specific order: blue, white, red, green, and then yellow. Different elements are associated with different colors for specific traditions, purposes and sadhana. Blue symbolizes sky/space, white symbolizes air/wind, red symbolizes fire, green symbolizes water, and yellow symbolizes earth. According to Traditional Tibetan medicine, health and harmony are produced through the balance of the five elements.
Prayer flags have been used for centuries to promote peace, compassion, strength, and wisdom. The flags do not carry prayers to gods, a common misconception; rather, the Tibetans believe the prayers and mantras will be blown by the wind to spread the good will and compassion into all pervading space. Therefore, prayer flags are thought to bring benefit to all.
By hanging flags in high places the blessings depicted on the flags are carried to all the surroundings. As wind passes over the surface of the flags which are sensitive to the slightest movement of the wind, the air is purified and sanctified by the Mantras.
The prayers of a flag become a permanent part of the universe as the images fade from exposure to the elements. Just as life moves on and is replaced by new life, Tibetans renew their hopes for the world by continually mounting new flags alongside the old. This act symbolizes a welcoming of life's changes and an acknowledgment that all beings are part of a greater ongoing cycle.
Because the symbols and mantras on prayer flags are sacred, they should be treated with respect. They should not be placed on the ground or used in clothing. Old prayer flags should be burned.
Copyright © 2011. CoSurvivor. All rights reserved.
Monday 31 October 2011 - Day 10 - Trek Surke (2,300m / 7,546ft) to Phakding (2,640m / 8,661ft )
According to our itinerary, this was to be our last day as a fivesome as we were due to rendezvous with the Everest sirdar, our trio of fellow Three High Peakers and their porters at Phakding this morning. However, we woke to find the cloud had descended to ground level, and it didn't lift much all day. Little did we realise that last evening's glimpse of blue sky and a snowy peak was to be our last of either for another seven days... October/November peak trekking season in this part of the world, due to the "normal" weather conditions being cloudless blue skies, and the "inclement weather" caused havoc as bad weather = no flights, and we'd spent 6 days walking from the nearest roadhead....
The path to/from Lukla joined the main trail during our morning's walk, and we saw a lot more people today than for a long time. Lots of glum faces, hardly a "hello" amongst them - with hindsight, everyone must have been fretting about their chances of getting back the KTM in time for their international flight home. Still, we were cheery, passing plenty of well maintained mani walls under atmospheric cloud shrouds as we walked through Chaurikharka (2,760m / 9,055ft) and Chheplung (2,660m / 8,727ft), where we also just caught a glimpse of the Bhutan-esque gompa clinging to the mountainside. Lots of orchards and farms here too, and Daa Waa pointed out a small spritely blue and yellow crested bird in a bush, which put on a great performance. I think Daa Waa said it was a woodpecker, but it put me in mind of a blue tit.
At our tea stop by the river crossing at Thado Kosi we crossed paths with Brit+Kiwi, before continuing on through prosperous paved Ghat (lots more mani walls/stones and prayer wheels), and up to Phakding - the biggest place we'd seen since Jiri!
In the warmth of the sun room at Jo's Garden (which has been renamed the Himalayan Eco Resort, and is a sister operation to the Eco Lodge we stayed at in Lobuche), we tucked into a late lunch of veg pakora and papar (pancakes) whilst earwigging to a contest of traveller's one-up-manship between a Dutch father/daughter duo and a pair of Canadian ladies. Left to our own devices for the afternoon, while Daa Waa tried to find out what was happening with our fellow trekkers-to-be, we decided to do a spot more acclimatisation and cultural exploration, and walked up the trail to the Pema Chholing monastery. A good decision, as the path took us between stone walled fields and then up through pine forests giving a good view out over Phakding and the torrential Dudh Kosi down below. At the monastery, a monk opened up the main prayer hall for us and then showed us upstairs to the store of prayer books, masks, hats, trumpets and drums - all of which were very similar to items we'd seen in use at the Paro festival in Bhutan. Magic.
Back at base, we pottered around in our huge room, unpacking/repacking to take account of the change in weather conditions (it had started raining on our way back), and I decided to test out the Hot Shower in our En Suite.... only to realise that the heat is solar powered, and there hasn't been much sun... still my hair got its first wash for a while!
The bad weather meant that Phakding was a ghost town once the overnighters and Namche arrivals had departed for Lukla, and so having adjourned to the dining room we read the guide book, played travel scrabble and cards, and ate in splendid isolation - warmed by the yak dung powered stove in the middle of the room. I took the chance to recharge my camera battery too - at the time 200 (?) rupees seemed pricey... little did I know! After dinner, we chatted with Daa Waa for a while and he told us that we would be continuing up to Namche tomorrow in the hope that the other three would be able to fly in and catch up with us there in the next day or two... On the bright side, it meant one more day with the lovely Kumar and Mingma!
Read more: www.sparklytrainers.com/blog/archives/2012/03/17/three_hi...
DSC00786
Stitched for a friend going through chemo, when words just didn't seem enough.
More details: www.driftwoodthimble.com/blog/the-mindfulness-quilt-praye...
Delegates pause for a moment of prayer following the May 12 morning discussion and expressions of confusion in the plenary at the 2016 United Methodist General Conference. From left are Vasylyna Babych and Laszlo Vukszta, Ukraine-Moldava Provisional Conference, and Alexander Pererva and Alexandr Meinikov from the Southern Russia Provisional Conference, Photo by Kathleen Barry, UMNS
Delegates pause for a moment of prayer following the morning discussion and expressions of confusion in the May 12 plenary at the 2016 United Methodist General Conference. From left are Vasylyna Babych from the Ukraine-Moldava Provisonal Conference and Alexander Pererva and Alexandr Meinikov from the Southern Russia Provisonal Conference. Photo by Kathleen Barry, UMNS
Prayer wheel in Aba, Sichuan province,China. It is quite common to see in Tibetan area. The running water turning the prayer wheel down the neath,hoping that the traditions of Lamaism will never fade.
Chapelle Notre-Dame du Haut
ロンシャンの礼拝堂
architect: Le Corbusier
location: Ronchamp, Haute-Saône, France
completion year: 1955
I play ultimate frisbee with a group of friends. This picture was uploaded for a post on striving and rest for the prayer blog.
The Durutti Column
Book :
Ando
Masao Furuyama
Taschen
2017
CD :
The Durutti Column
Vini Reilly
Factory Benelux
FBN244
Design . Johnson / Panas
Photography . Mark Warner
Sounds . Vini Reilly & Bruce Mitchell
Published By The Movement Of 24th January
iMusic :
The Durutti Column
Domo Arigato
Factory
FAC144
GMA Dedications For Tadao ...
Press "L" to view in Lightbox.
Lumbinī is a Buddhist pilgrimage site in the Rupandehi district of Nepal. It is the place where Queen Mayadevi gave birth to Siddhartha Gautama. Siddhartha Gautama lived roughly between 623 and 543 BCE and he founded Buddhism as Gautama Buddha. Lumbini is one of four magnets for pilgrimage that sprang up in places pivotal to the life of the Buddha, the others being at Kushinagar, Bodh Gaya and Sarnath.
Lumbini, where the Buddha lived until the age of 29, has a number of temples, including the Mayadevi temple, and others under construction. Also located here is the Puskarini or Holy Pond where the Buddha's mother took the ritual dip prior to his birth and where he, too, had his first bath, as well as the remains of Kapilavastu palace. At other sites near Lumbini, earlier Buddhas were, according to tradition, born, achieved ultimate awakening and finally relinquished earthly form.
Prayer is comforting in the way shaving with a blade brings you intimately close to something powerful.
"Praying = Shaving" by Nathan T. Baker is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Day 5:
You put your head down on the ground and whisper a prayer yet it can reach paradise(Jannah, Heaven)
Islam is the official religion of Brunei Darussalam and more than half of the nation’s population are Muslims. The mosque is their sacred place of worship and it is important to follow the rules when visiting this holy place. It is the Muslim custom to remove the shoes and entering the mosque with the right foot first and exiting with the left foot. Modest dressing is the rule of the thumb and covering as much skin as possible is required. The mosque is open to the public and visiting is free but avoid doing so during prayer time. Though Brunei is a devoutly Muslim country, it is respectful and tolerance towards the practices of other religions and beliefs.
(By Brunei Tourism Board)
often when involving prayer to the Eternal Almighty God, the Word of God and the Breath of God, one may discover the Adversary creeping in his deceitful beauty.