Our Healing Oppression Group have created an ancestor prayer for XR Buddhists.
Before we take our next action we pause to remember our ancestors.
We remember our Indian ancestors, firstly Shakyamuni who was born in Lumbini and enlightened in Bodhgaya and set the dharma wheel turning in this age.
We remember those who came before Shakyamuni and passed their wisdom to him
We remember Mahapajapati who walked one hundred and fifty miles one step after another before becoming the first Buddhist nun.
We remember the monastic and lay disciples of the Buddha, and generations of teachers that spread Buddhism through the East and throughout the world and who refreshed the precious dharma
We remember awakened beings of all spiritual traditions trusting that wisdom appears in the world in many different ways, at many different times, in many different places.
We call to mind the wisdom of marginalised and oppressed groups, much of which has already been lost.
We remember our biological ancestors, our parents and grandparents, known and unknown, generations stretching back through time to the first humans in Africa.
We remember the ancestors of our chosen families.
We remember the ancestors of our own mindstream, the beings of our previous lives who practised dharma and brought light and joy to others.
We remember people across the world who stood against oppression and for human rights and the rights of all living things and for the earth.
We remember those who have oppressed and marginalised and harmed.
We carry the legacies of all of these ancestors, their gifts and their burdens. How wonderful to have the opportunity to work with all that has been handed down to us.
We remember our great ancestor the Earth and her great ancestor the universe itself.
“Ancient buddhas and ancestors were as we; we shall come to be buddhas and ancestors. Venerating buddhas and ancestors, we are one with buddhas and ancestors; contemplating awakened mind, we are one with awakened mind.”*
*From Eihei Koso Hotsuganmon