A report by the Rev. Marie Wilson
Dharmapala Buddhist Centre, in Fremantle, Western Australia, is part of the New Kadampa Tradition - International Kadampa Buddhist Union (NKT-IKBU). Their centre in Fremantle is in an historic house in High Street – not far from where I live so I pass it frequently. On Saturday 29th January the Centre held an open day, complete with white elephant stall; tea and cake was served; and a tour of the building was offered, along with an information session.
At 12 noon there were prayers for Peace which I attended along with over twenty other people. This was an introduction to the Centre's weekly Prayers for Peace at lunchtime on Fridays. There was a written set of prayers for chanting, which reminded me very much of Anglican chanting.
I really liked the introduction to the prayers which said:
We should know that learning to cherish others is the bet method for establishing world peace in general, and for our own peace of mind in particular.
If everyone sincerely prays to be able to cherish other living beings, then gradually through the power of this prayer everyone will actually cherish each other. The world will then be permanently at peace and pure and everlasting happiness will pervade the entire world.
In the introduction to the prayers it was mentioned that when we pray we are not asking the Buddha to do these things for us, but praying that we might be transformed and that the power of praying together give us strength to put this into practice.