Arthur's Prayer

A prayer for my Grandson Arthur Joseph Babineau McBride.

A Prayer for Arthur Joseph Babineau McBride.

May Arthur have a long, happy, healthy, full, meaningful and fruitful life, with the help of his Parents and Grandparents including spiritual help from his Grandmother, and brother, Louden.

May he live in harmony with all of God's creation.

May he inherit the fruits of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Om mani padme hum
May he strive for perfection in generosity, ethics, tolerance, patience, perseverance, concentration, and wisdom.

May Arthur, like his parents, embrace learning to acquire knowledge that with experience will lead to wisdom.

May he inherit grit from his parents. The combination of concentration, perseverance and effort necessary to strengthen his mind, body and spirit, which with humility and sharing will earn him respect.

Last but not least may Arthur express and experience Love in abundance.

The first thing that came to mind for a prayer was "Meaningful and Fruitful life".
I don't know where that came from. I didn't want him to think that he needed to be so well known that a Wikipedia page is created for him to be successful.
In fact striving for "success" may not be a good life goal.
The people I admired, e.g. my parents were are not not nationally recognized personalities, Nobel Prize winners, elite athletes, award winning authors, successful politicians, powerful business people, entertainers, etc..
Studies have shown that these people are usually not as happy as those with less recognition.
In searching for good definitions of "Meaningful and Fruitful" a year later so I could explain the prayer to people I found this article

"A Fruitful Life Versus A Successful Life" by Nicole Zasowski. She says,
"What does it mean to have a fruitful life verses a successful life. What does it mean to have a life that is meaningful and not just impressive?"
...
"Success is insatiable. A drive for success leads to a life that always demands more of us. It makes us feel as though we are never enough, and peace never comes. Whereas a fruitful life begins with contentment - contentment about who we are and joy about the unique gifts we were given."

See also Meaningful Life

I kept expanding it as more things came to mind.

These traits come from Christianity, Buddhism and Native American Spirality.

The Buddhist Chenrezig mantra "Om Mani Paedme Hum" ( in sanskrit) is easy to say yet quite powerful. It is seen as a condensed form of all the Buddhist teachings:
It is taught to all Buddhist children.

It has no direct translation. Literally he first word Aum/Om is a sacred syllable in various Indian religions. The word Mani means "jewel" or "bead", Padme is the "lotus flower" (the Buddhist sacred flower), and Hum represents the spirit of enlightenment.
There are some attempts at definitions on the Buddhism page.

The description I used for the traits in Arthur's prayer is from the Venerable Gen Rinpoche, in his commentary on the Meaning of Om Mani Padme Hum, which links the six syllables to the six perfections of Mahayana Buddhist practice.

Om it is blessed to help you achieve perfection in the practice of generosity,
Ma helps perfect the practice of pure ethics, and
Ni helps achieve perfection in the practice of tolerance and patience.
Padd, the fourth syllable, helps to achieve perfection of perseverance, Me helps achieve perfection in the practice of concentration, and the final sixth syllable
Hum helps achieve perfection in the practice of wisdom.

Recitation of the mantra helps achieve the six perfections, or paramitas, of Mahayana Buddhist practice.
It is a path for transforming your impure body, speech, and mind into the pure exalted body, speech, and mind of a Buddha.

See Om Mani Padme Hum under my religion page.

Fruits of the Spirit in the New Testament of the Bible.
Paraphrase of Paul's Letter the the Christians in ancient Galatia. Galatians 5:16-25 - Fruits of the Spirit. Galatia was an ancient Greek area near what is now Ankara Trukey.

Paul tells them to walk by the Spirit and not the desires of the flesh. Acts of the flesh are things like drunkenness, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, envy... But live by The fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.

Note: There are similarities between the Om mantra originating in the first century CE and Paul's letter in Galatians in 50 CE, in that both talk about a path from impurity to purity. Buddhism preceded Christianity but the om mantra came later. There has been speculation of influence between the religions, but no real evidence.
See Common Characteristics of Religions.
Happiness vs Joy
Joy: We experience joy when we achieve selflessness to the point of personal sacrifice.

Living in harmony with nature - Native American Spirituality:.
A common thread in Native American's culture is that "Nature is the location of spirituality reality, both individual beings (usually animals) and a more general sense of the sacred."
See the story of Arthur's Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Grand Uncle, Henderson Lewelling's (1809-1883) encounter with Native American Spirituality.

May he embrace learning to acquire information which he will assemble into knowledge which with experience will lead to wisdom.
For Christmas '97, Thomas, a sophomore at MIT, gave me a copy of "Stephen Hawking's Universe"". We had lost his Mother to cancer a year earlier. He wrote a note in the book thanking Joanna and I for "Your inquisitive minds which encouraged me to learn more about the world around me." which he attributed to his academic success.
He promised to keep learning and I know he will pass that on to Arthur.

I've seen it as Data in context is Information, Information with underestanding is Knowledge, Knowledge with experience is Wisdom.
See What is the Data Information Knowledge Wisdom Pyramid (DIKW) ? | Ontotext

Kindness, Goodness and Generosity reminds me of his Great Grandfather Arthur Thomas (Sandy) McBride, my father's philosophy of pay forward not pay back.
I don't know how many times we stopped to help someone, whether it be someone with a boat problem in Lake Tahoe, who we towed in or a person at the the side of the road who seemed to be having car trouble. When they offered to pay him in some way he would always say "You can pay me back by doing a favor for someone else sometime."

Grit for a healthy mind body and spirit.
Grit to strengthen the body is effort in working-out that an athletes need to be successful.
Being a successful athlete does not necessarily mean winning an olympic gold medal, it may mean finishing 3rd in the over 65 age group in your first 10K.
Grit to strengthen the mind is concentration, learning and all the things necessary for academic success and in achieving wisdom.
Grit to strengthen the Spirit is developing an understanding that you are part of something much bigger than yourself. Facilitating a healthy spirit includes being part of a community to share yourself with others, and to give without expecting anything tangible in return.
Sometimes dedicating the time to relax can take some effort. Some things such as practicing mindfulness, meditation, or religion, a walk in the woods to appreciate nature and others will help build spiritual strength.
A healthy spirit requires love.

I have a prayer wheel I picked up on my Tibet trip in 2002. It didn't have any prayers in it so I put one for Arthur in it.

Tibetan Buddhist Prayer Wheel
Spinning a prayer wheel is just as effective as reciting the sacred texts aloud. Inside written on paper or skin, are esoteric texts, usually invocations (dharani or mantras) sutra or invocations to particular deities .

The practice of turning the prayer wheel, or even having in one's home, is said to be of immeasurable benefit. The wheels are known for their ability to quickly harmonize the environment, increase compassion, encourage a peaceful state of mind, and assist practitioners on their journeys to enlightenment. As such, the prayer wheel practice is an extremely quick, simple and profound method for developing compassion and wisdom.

Be a blessing.
This came from an On Being Podcast "Ariel Burger - Be a Blessing"
Burger says "The fundamental principle, for me, at least, of all of Jewish tradition, is three words: Be a blessing."
"If someone blesses you, they really see you, and they give their seeing of you to you. There’s a certain sense of responsibility that comes with that.
But a blessing is something that’s heavy, and at the same time, it lifts us up.
See "Be a blessing"