Pilgrimage Statistics
Consecutive Days Riding: 22 Consecutive Days Blogging: 23
Today’s Mileage: 10 Total Trip Mileage: 218
As promised, today I will introduce a new feature to the Blog site, my Pilgrim’sPrayer Flag. In an earlier Blog I noted that prayer is an important part of the Longing which motivates us to start a pilgrimage. We often carry prayers for ourselves, for others, or for larger causes (world peace) with us as we journey to sacred sites, places where we converse with and/or experience the divine. Prayer is an important ritualistic aspect in all of the major world wisdom traditions. While the exact form of the prayer rituals will vary greatly from tradition to tradition, and even within traditions, they all represent an interaction, on some level, with the divine.
In my Psychology of Religion class, I teach that prayers can be divided into two general groups: Petitionary Prayers that make a request of the divine for some individual or group cause (health, wealth, happiness, victory) and Praise Prayers which express thanks, gratitude and recognition of greatness and power. The website www.worldprayers.org uses a system that has four categories of prayer. These include: Adorations – prayers of devotion, surrender, love, praise and offering; Invocations – prayers of petition, supplication, calling forth and healing; Celebrations – prayers of thanksgiving, initiation, affirmation and blessing; and Meditations – prayers of reflection, contemplation, being and teaching.
One does not have to look very hard to recognize the importance of prayer. I conducted a Google search on prayer and received over 37 million sites. Limiting the search to prayer requests narrowed it to just 2.5 million sites!
Back to my Pilgrim’sPrayerFlag. Prayer Flags are a colorful are highly visible component of Tibetian Buddhism. They are often transported by pilgrims to sacred sites and were used to promote peace, compassion, strength and wisdom. Traditionally these prayers were not prayers to “gods” but were meant to wave in the winds and spread goodwill and compassion to all. There were two types: Lung ta – colorful squares printed with woodblocks strung in a horizonal fashion; and Darchor – verticle streamers meant to increase life, fortune, health and wealth of all sentient beings. For purposes of my Blog and pilgrimage, I am going to embrace the Darchor physical style (see the streaming banner attached to the staff on my pilgrim symbol) but open it to all four forms of prayer. I will carry the prayerflag with me and retire it on a weekly basis, replacing it with a new clean virtual banner. Please click on the tab at the top of this page to leave a prayer or review the prayers shared by others.
I have included photos from our route through the Everglades. In one of my upcoming Blogs we will “contemplate” this beautiful expanse of grass, swamp and waterways as a pilgrimage site.
A special thanks to the photographers associated with Panramio for the beautiful scenes from along the roadside.
i have been catching up. i have not read in days. first…i pray for your son. i know the pain you carry in your heart must be so heavy. but i am sure all of the things you have taught him in words and action will win out in the end. thank you for all you are sharing with all of us.
i have been praying for your friend as well. hope she is doing well.
you have a way of keeping a sense of peace which reminds me of …. thict naht hanh
……..peace is every step
peace and blessings on your journey
Thank you Becky. I pray for him… I know he is capable of good… he will have to decide whether to follow that path. He wanders in the wilderness right now… I will always love him. I will carry you in my thoughts and prayers… give up the pain, but keep with the struggle! You have a way of bring a smile to my face… :o)
I have really enjoyed your blog – all of it: the maps and photos, the quotes from other writers, your poetry and the replies of some of your followers. The video of Rumi was particularly nice, as I am a fan of Rumi.
Most especially, I admire your “devotion” if you will, to good health through exercise. Lots of luck, and lots of Ben Gay lotion.
Luci
Thank you Luci! All of the separate parts are becoming a whole, which was one of my goals with this journey! Runi has some powerful poetry and messages I am sure I will revisit his work time and again. So far my body has responded well to the riding, I don’t intend to over do it, I am in this for the long run. Have a wonderful day and welcome to my journey!
Hey , it is Thanksgiving Day! I’m happy with my extra day off, and I am planning to doing something fun that’ll probably involve a bike ride and seeing something new in Pottsville I haven’t seen yet.
You write something new at Thanksgiving?