[phillip Gardner]

Since connecting with Rinpoche and this Chokling tradition I am beginning to see the relevance and importance of making aspiration prayers. It feels wonderful to be able to make an aspiration and an intention to benefit beings as we move from the meditation to post meditation state.

As for personalising them, I have mainly kept to the texts but I think it is also great to allow spontaneous prayers to manifest from our heart.

[PAULO ROBERTO DE MINERVINO]

Hi dear. first i want to say i miss you all

yes i put aspirations into my daily pratice. i can heard Rinpoche saying….dharma means devotion..dharma needs aspirations…

when i wake up the first think i do is put offerings in my shrine..ofter..water..flowers..incense..lamp..perfume..food and song…i burn a very good incense i take refuge in front my shrine…and with the refuge i do aspirations to Buddha and Guru rinpoche remove my intern, extern, secret and super secret obstacles and obscurations to pratice the dharma. i pray to guru rinpoche remenber me, because i want to see my teacher in nepal every year..i want to see y teacher in Gomde every year…i need more time to live because i not yet iluminate.

in the afternoon again…

before mahakala and kilaia pratice i do aspirations to my dharma protectors

when i not in formal pratice i do aspirations when i see photos from tibet, nepal, buthan, gomde…when i read ou listen Rinpoches teachings…when i read facebooks posts from gomde, from rinpoche or my dharma friends…an i ask for Guru Rinpoche and Buddhas please look for me i love stay with my rinpoche and my dharma family..please guru rinpoche think of me..protect me..

and every year i I can travel and see the Rinpoche in the USA, Nepal and Brazil

 

sorry my broke english :o)

[Kelly Coburn]

As some of you know, my daughter, Bailey has some challenging physical and cognitive disabilities.  She and her two brothers recently turned 18 (but that’s a whole different story…one of letting go).  :)

Bailey is the reason, directly and indirectly, that I became a Buddhist.  I think she is a bodhisattva…really.  (it certainly helps during the challenging moments to see her that way–and you never know, right?).  Recently, we were having a talk (after a disagreement–typical of teenage daughters and their mothers) and I said, “I love you, Bailey.  You know, I think you are a bodhisattva.”  She replied, “I know I am,” then paused and bowed her head and added softly and sadly, “sometimes I just don’t act like a very good one.”

Me neither.

So, I have added a new aspiration to my daily personal ones…”In all my activities of body, speech and mind, may I always act like a good bodhisattva.”

Thank you Bailey.

[Monica Lopez Fernandez]

Wow! Kelly, I did not know this about your daughter, but I will certainly copy your aspiration. Thanks for sharing!

[Juri Henley-Cohn]

Aspiration prayers are absolutely a part of my daily practice.  I do recite prayers, but then I also add my own personal way of making aspirations for me this connects me on a deeper level to the practice and those spontaneous, personalized aspirations often feel more sincere and genuine than the ones I formally recite.  Big hug to the whole sangha!

[Kelly Coburn]

Thanks Monica! I find it very interesting…Bailey is very aware and curious about words she doesn’t know. For example, if I say “it was radically different,” she will stop me and ask, “wait…what does radically mean?”  She has never once asked me what Buddha or bodhisattva mean. :)

[Ilya Natanzon]

Aspiration prayers are part of my daily practice. I feel very connected to this approach, feel as it has direct impact on outcomes of my practice. I remind myself that present availability of Dharma in it’s authentic form is a fulfillment of aspirations done by Masters of the past. Between the formal sessions I try to remind myself to make various aspirations for mundane and spiritual success of people and beings.