Hello, my loves. I have for us today a very powerful prayer. It's always been my aspiration to

memorize this prayer. I attempted a few summers ago on a road trip. Alas, I haven't committed it to

heart, but I am committed to doing so. This is called the Shanti-Deva prayer, and it's by a Buddhist monk from the 8th century named

Shanti Deva.

He was a yogi, an Indian scholar, and he was a prince who became a monk, much like the Buddha.

And my feeling about this prayer is that whenever we ask for support on behalf of giving support to someone else,

that support is given to us. When we pray for strength to be more helpful, resilient, radiant,

I feel that it's a given that that light from our soul, the soul which is connected to source, is going to pour into us,

to enable us to be there for others and for ourselves.

The Shanti-Dava prayer is a beautiful reminder that to give is to receive.

And I feel that these times are calling us to serve in every way possible.

So as feelers, as healers, as seers, as everyday humans who want to help alleviate the suffering

and amplify the joy wherever we can.

This prayer is a testament to that simple and extensive dedication.

We have got to keep the pain moving through us like clouds through the sky.

We're the sky.

We're vast.

The heart center is expansive. The emotions, the pain, the suffering, passing through. We want to keep everything passing through to keep it from getting stuck. We don't hold onto the suffering. We expand ourselves and our commitment to be of service. We have faith that our resolve and our love

is stronger than the grief and the challenge. Shanti-Dava is a powerful prayer. It impresses

on our psyches that we are together in everything, in all of life's experiences. So we repeat this,

we listen to this, and it helps us to dissolve all the polarities, all those perceived sides,

the illusions of sides begin to dissolve, that hungry ghost within us that can never be satisfied

...