By Venerable Master Hsing Yun
Founder of Fo Guang Shan
Oh great, compassionate Buddha!
We would like to tell you:
It is unfortunate to be born as a human,
For we experience the unbearability of racism, and
The sadness of poverty and inferiority.
Moreover, being born as a woman means
We are harshly disciplined by parents in childhood,
Burden with hardships as a wife,
And saddened by the departure of our children in old age.
Oh Buddha!
Please protect the safety of women,
Please preserve their dignity;
Please see to the well-being of their home lives,
Please grant them happiness in life.
Oh great, compassionate Buddha!
Please gaze upon the suffering of women
With your wise and compassionate eyes
Please stop the tears arising from mistreatment,
By expounding the Dharma of the equality of all sentient beings.
Please unravel the grudge of injustice,
Through the power of your Dharma.
Oh great, compassionate Buddha!
Please bless all women in distress:
Let them be protected and cared by all Buddhas;
Let them receive kindness from the world;
Let them be supported by faith;
Let them have freedom of mind.
Oh great, compassionate Buddha!
Many women live in
Helpless and hopeless circumstances,
And often endure the trial of many hardships.
May all men in the world
Eradicate their sense of superiority and egotism,
And never be violent towards women,
Or humiliate or trample on them.
May all people in the world
Overcome selfishness and restore etiquette,
And cultivate the manner of the virtuous.
Be compassionate and kind
And have the spirit of bodhisattvas.
Oh great, compassionate Buddha!
Please grant women the courage
To rebuild a pure land in their hearts.
Please grant them the wisdom
To realize the true nature of the world.
Let them receive the sweet dew of the Dharma
Let them bath under the light of the Buddha
Let them enjoy the breeze of joy
Let them breathe in the air of freedom
Oh great, compassionate Buddha,
Please accept my sincerest prayer!
Oh great, compassionate Buddha,
Please accept my sincerest prayer!
(Excerpted from “A Prayer for Women in Distress (為受難婦女祈願文)” from Pearls of Wisdom: Prayers for Engaged Living II by Venerable Master Hsing Yun)