[Last month, during a Prayer Circle for India amid the nation's escalating Covid crisis, Yuka, on behalf of her family and colleagues, offered this stirring prayer (at midnight in Japan!), transcribed below.]


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Hello everybody. Thank you so much for allowing me to be here. I see Maki, my sister also in the zoom room and of course not just Maki, my other sister Rika and our parents and our whole Goi Peace colleagues and staff are all here with you and us, at this special time. I want to first thank the two Buddhist monks that have planted the seed for this circle, and for the amazing hosts who made this possible in just two days.

Thank you for the stories of courage, stories of the willingness to open to connection during the pain, thank you for the selfless service, thank you for sharing with us about the situation of the slums and the villages, and the people who are working so hard in that area. Thank you for the stories of faith and hope and the stories of care and love for others during their own grief. Thank you. I just want to also thank you for the beautiful, powerful quotes, prayers and the Sanskrit prayers shared already. But I know I have to pray, too, so, on behalf of Goi Peace Foundation, the Byakko Shinko Kai, May Peace Prevail On Earth, I would first like to start with our prayer.

I would invite everyone to pray this prayer three times together, but rather than thinking in your minds of what it means, I would invite you to feel and sense into the energy of this prayer, because this prayer has been prayed for over seventy years from the end of World War II, and it has been prayed by thousands and thousands of people, and I think that this prayer has already created this energy field within this prayer, and our staff has been praying for India for a few days now, and so we just wanted to invite you to pray with us, not really focusing on the words, but diving into the energy of this prayer. I would like to pray three times together. Then we'll have a little moment of silence.

May peace prevail on earth.
May peace be in India.
May the people in India's mission be accomplished.
We thank you, guardian deities and guardian spirits.

[repeat 3 times.]

Thank you so much.

I just wanted to share with you one story, an episode during the tsunami and earthquake in 2011 in Japan. Many people lost their loved ones and many people could not find the bodies of their loved ones for days, weeks, months and years. And when they did meet their loved ones (this hasn't been much in the news), the body was totally different. Most of them had lost many parts of their bodies because of the tsunami and the huge current that was taking their bodies away.

At that time, my mother, who is very spiritual, who can see the different spiritual realms of the world, told me that even though the physical body may seem like it is in such suffering and pain, when she connected to their souls, she saw that at the moment of their death and even the moments just before their death, the soul was protected and embraced by this amazing sublime energy of love and light. And it was giving so much love and gratitude for their life in their physical body, and was really brought in such peace and calmness and stillness back into the divine world.

When she said that, it was true healing for me, but at the same time it makes you feel like, "Of course". I can say, "of course" because my mom has always been teaching us that we are the divine spark. We cannot be birthed unless we are given this divine spark in our body, and through this divine spark in us, we are connected to the universal source and although we may not know it or feel it or believe it, that is the truth, and no matter how it may seem in the physical realm -- no matter how painful and how much suffering it may seem to them and the loved ones that are surrounding them -- we know that the soul, the divine spark, is shining at the very last moment of their passing away, and they are given so much love and so much healing that they are just going back home.

I love the quote that says, "We are not human beings having a spiritual experience, but we are spiritual beings having a human experience."

I just wanted to say one more time the teaching of my mom who said that, we are all the divine spark, to remember and awaken that within ourselves, it is the most powerful source that you can use, because through you, you can send the energy of the divine spark to all humanity, and for this, my mother always teaches us this mudra, that allows us to bring out our divine spark. And it's a mudra using breathing and with each movement there is a meaning.

I would like to perform the mudra. I invite you to just breathe with me. I just recorded my breathing and the meaning of the movement beforehand. I am just going to play that and do the movement, but just let us all remember that we are the divine spark, and no matter what it may seem in the physical body, and I am not just trying to share this to lessen or miss out on the truth that is happening in the world, but at the same time, in parallel and at a different level, our soul is shining with such beautiful light and energy no matter what, in every moment of our life. I will just do one movement of the mudra of the divine spark.

While inhaling, we concentrate with our whole being.
While exhaling, we empty our mind.

While inhaling, we invite divinity from heaven.
While exhaling, our true self radiates light.

Inhale, we receive divinity from heaven.
Exhale, the same divinity is within us.

Inhale, all within us are harmonized.
Exhale, we send divine light to all humanity.

Inhale, the light spreads to every human being.
Exhale, all humanity resonates with the vibration of divinity and recalls their essential divine nature.

Inhale, all human beings are divine lives.
End Exhale.

Thank you so much.