View allAll Photos Tagged prayers
Mother, may this prayer be granted:
That Christ's love may be implanted
In the depths of my poor soul.
At the cross, your sorrow sharing,
All your grief and torment bearing,
Let me stand and mourn with you.
Fairest maid of all creation,
Queen of hope and consolation,
Let me feel your grief sublime.
The Bhutanese government has warned its citizens not to cut down thousands of young trees every year to make poles for hoisting Buddhist prayer flags.
It said that the felling of trees is a threat to the tiny kingdom's beauty and undermines the government's duty to promote "Gross National Happiness".
The flags are flown by Himalayan Buddhists to help the dead find the right path in their next life.
They believe that the more flag poles put up for the departed the better.
Buddhist monks say fresh poles must be used each time.
Government figures show that between June 2007 to June 2008, 60,178 trees - about 165 every day - were felled to meet the demand for poles.
About 550 trees were felled daily for other uses.
'Merit earned'
"There's an immense pressure on the forest," forestry department spokesman Gopal Mahat told the Kuensel newspaper.
The government has a constitutional duty to protect forestry
"We can't stop granting permits, especially for important religious rites because it involves sentiments," he said. "The demand is for straight, young trees, which have the potential of becoming crop trees."
Many Bhutanese Buddhists believe that the ideal number of prayer flags for deceased people is 108, preferably made from freshly cut trees.
"If you reuse an old flag pole, you aren't putting in enough effort, which means the merit earned is compromised," Buddhist monk Gyem Tshering told Kuensel. "Ideally, you should hoist 108 flags, but if you can afford more, it'll help the dead find the right path."
Officials warn that this approach means that most of Bhutan's forest will be gone within the next 20 years and that trees are already being cut down deeper and deeper within forests.
The problem has become so serious that forestry officers in the capital Thimpu have restricted the number of prayer flags posts to 29.
Plans are also afoot to persuade people to switch to bamboo for prayer flags, but a similar initiative recently launched to encourage people to use steel was unsuccessful.
Bhutan's constitution, which emphasises the importance of Gross National Happiness over Gross Domestic Product, stipulates the country must have at least 60% forest cover.
I helped host a week of 24-7 prayer. It ended on Sunday. This was our second week this year and I think we're getting a bit addicted.
Here are some of the prayers/prophecies/artwork from the room.
These prayer cards were in a book (title above), given to me by a retired Dutch couple who were missionaries. The book, I think it says Old Testament, was full of prayer cards from their youth - most of the card are New Testamant Subjects.
When i walked in i saw cloth laid out on the table with tinfoil in the shape of fish and pebbles and gold & silver thread, and paper boats with prayers on them, we had to choose what we wanted to put on this table that resembeld a river, a river of prayers and our journeys with God.
I choose to write a prayer to God and then made it into a boat and i also picked a pebble that had deep scars, but on the surface where smaller and lighter scars, this pebble was a reflection of my life and i had to give it all to God.
Members of the Vicenza Military Community join together to attend the annual prayer breakfast Feb. 7. The guest speaker was the U.S. Army Chief of Chaplains Maj. Gen. Donald L. Rutherford. Photo by Julie M. Lucas/USAG Vicenza
Learn more about us on www.usag.vicenza.army.mil and www.facebook.com/USAGvicenza
Muslim high school girls at Koh Yao Wittaya in southern Thailand say their afternoon prayers on June 27, 2008. Many followers of Islam in Thailand are not strict, but even at this rural high school, girls and boys say prayers separated by a curtain, with the boys by the window, facing toward Mecca, and the girls behind them, entirely shrouded in robes in the sticky tropical heat.
||=========================================||
==> Music / Musique: Prayer - Disturbed
==> View / Voir: On Black / Sur Fond Noir
||=========================================||
A telephone pole at the corner of Kling and Wheeler streets, near the University of Akron campus, is covered with messages, stuffed animals and other remembrances of one of two people killed when a gunman fired on a crowd after a street fight. A third person was wounded in the attack.
Bhutan, that once-secretive, still-exotic, Himalayan Kingdom, is a sensory feast for the photographic enthusiast. You could be nowhere else!
According to legend, prayer flags started from the battle flags used by the Gautama Buddha against the evil asuras. The five flag colors represent the five elements: blue for the sky and space, white for air and wind, red for fire, green for water, and yellow for the earth.
For the story, please visit: www.ursulasweeklywanders.com/travel/prayers-on-the-wind-f...