Let's say for a moment that Tibetan Buddhists are correct and that divine energy can lift a prayer written on a piece of fabric and blow it into the wind for the benefit of all of mankind. The more the wind blows, the wider the healing. Technologically, it seems to me, on a spinning planet, the wind becomes a pretty clever delivery system for an inspired task. The scientists out there can just sit back down.
The Wind Horse is the specific divinity in the Tibetan tradition but the prayers are universal: peace, prosperity, health, for everybody, even people who don't believe in the Wind Horse. Anyone touched by the wind, and that really would be everybody.
This is prayer at the moment of incarnation, pointing out towards the infinite and I just love the idea. Really so much more thoughtful than Western flags which advertise particular acts of imperialism, are bracketed by historical wars, and are as exclusionary as passports.
Here's an experiment: Close your eyes for a moment and imagine that the little breeze blowing across your cheeks holds a sweet prayer for you from someone you've never met. Lift your head and smile, and inhale that breeze. Really. Receive the gift and let it swirl around your loving heart. As you exhale it, add your own little prayer and let it lift back out to the Wind Horse for the next person.
The Rubin Museum, which is dedicated to the art of the Himalayas, has a little side exhibit where visitors are invited to write their definitions of peace on blocks of paper of traditional blue, white, red, green and yellow, and then hang them with those of other visitors. This is lovely because it engages each of us in sharing the prayers we hold for each other. Regrettably, I did not stop to see what people had written or share a prayer of peace myself. Nice, right? I was actually trying to find someone when I walked by and never got back to it.
It seemed to me recently, though, that if the Wind Horse is really doing such a thing, imagine if we could also further bounce those prayers off satellites and move them around the planet at light speed to many places at once: beneficent text messaging as prayer practice.
I tried this once, but my carrier was not enthused and only a few people received my text message, or got it. What I sent was a quick explanation, and what seemed the most appropriate prayer to begin my practice: Om Mani Padme Hum. This mantra (prayer) is taught by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and is about compassion. The Dalai Lama is the spiritual and exiled political leader of Tibet and is said to be the incarnation of Avalokiteshwara, the buddha of infinite compassion.
I don't know the names of the satellites I was trying to use, or if they have names as wide and beautiful as Wind Horse, but maybe someone could think about that. One person called me in response and when I explained what I was aiming at, suggested that standard computer email might work better, but somehow that feels like chain mail and just not the same.
I wonder, would we feel differently about people using their cell phones around us if we knew they were whispering prayers up into the atmosphere? Om Mani Padme Hum.
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