Through the years I've sometimes pondered what a good simple prayer might be.
That is no denigration to the beautiful Lord's Prayer or to St. Francis' lovely Prayer or the many other great prayers that exist. Rather, I notice that the divine blooms millions of flowers every day and so a new prayer might add a tiny bit of color to an already-riotous hillside of flowers.
I was looking for a prayer that:
1) would be short and sweet, almost like a mantra;
2) could be used by anyone with no particular knowledge;
3) would fully "cover the bases."
That is, hopefully the prayer would cover the most important things that we might wish in our existence on earth; it would be accessible to anyone young or old; and be short, pithy and easily understandable.
Also, I thought the prayer should be usable by anyone of any religious or spiritual persuasion without feeling that their religion or spirituality is being compromised in any way. The only requirement would be that we want to pray.
Finally, I'd like to emphasize the mantra aspect. I was looking to find a prayer that was short enough to be easily repeated throughout the day, and yet have a certain poetry and vibration and magnetism about it.
Obviously the following can't satisfy all those criteria, but I offer it in the spirit of something that just might be an interesting distraction or experiment to try:
Beloved Lord—
Help me to know You,
to be happy,
and useful to the world.
Naturally, we can adapt it to whatever feels best. So we could, for instance, address the prayer to "God" or "Allah" or "the Source" or "the Tao" or "Infinite Spirit" and so on. Whatever feels right to you:
Help me to know You,
to be happy,
and useful to the world.
If we'd like to simplify it even further, we might note that true happiness—that is, a happiness that is not fragile—inherently involves some sense of or relationship to the universal, for the universal is after all who we are; it's our true Self. So we could say:
Help me to be happy and useful to the world.
Or phrased even more neutrally:
May I be happy and useful to the world.
It almost goes without saying that this does not imply great acts. As Mother Teresa said, there are no great acts. There are only small acts performed with great love.
—jim sloman, 4.14.04 for Jan 6
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