[spycatcher]

As Daliai Lama says:

"To recite the Medicine Buddha Mantra brings inconceivable merit... If you recite the mantra every day, the buddhas and bodhisattvas will always pay attention to you, and they will guide you. All your negative karmas will be pacified and you will never be born in the three lower realms.... and all your wishes are fulfilled." The audience was instructed to "recite mantras of Medicine Buddha at least three times a day. "Imagine all elements... and perfect balance restored... [to] assure longevity," he added with a reminder to "practice... day and night." He warned his audience not "to visualize the rituals of tantra for purpose of gaining wealth."

as Wilkinson writes,

"You don't reach the next level of blessing and stay there. You begin again -- Lord, bless me indeed! Lord, please enlarge...! And so on. As the cycle repeats itself, you'll find that you are steadily moving into wider spheres of blessing and influence, spiraling ever outward and upward into a larger life for God.... You will know beyond doubt that God has opened heaven's storehouses because you prayed."

"The world of American religion is going through enormous change. It will be increasingly difficult to distinguish Christians and Buddhists." -- University of Chicago sociologist Stephen R. Warner. Buddhism on the Move

Maybe I need to go Walk the Labryinth

Or better yet just let my fingers do the walking Ouija-style!

[Sans-Culotte]

I don't know why you addressed that "Walking the Labyrinth" stuff to me, as I said I don't do the Jabez prayer. I also would dispute with Wilkinson the story of Jabez as he interprets it. However, the book makes plain that the enlargement of territory is not about material things, and the passage you quoted does not refer to material things.

As to the constant repetition or chanting of the same prayer-I suppose one would do it in a meditative way so as to not let your mind be distracted during the prayer. This sort of approach (and indeed the Labyrinth thing) are not IMO unlike the ancient practice of Lectio Divina, which also involves meditation in addition to conscious prayer. I don't do Lectio Divina either, but it has been around for centuries and does not represent a new Buddha-izing of Christianity.

I agree that the merchandising of the Jabez thing is rather tasteless, but I cannot think that praying to God to enlarge one's area of influence to bring people to the faith is a bad thing.

[Illbay]

Bodhisattva, would you take me by the hand
Bodhisattva, would you take me by the hand
Can you show me the shine in your Japan
The sparkle of your China, can you show me
Bodhisattva

Bodhisattva, I'm gonna sell my house in town
Bodhisattva, I'm gonna sell my house in town
And I'll be there, I'll shine in your Japan
I'll sparkle in your China, yes I'll be there
Bodhisattva, Bodhisattva

{Repeat both}

Bodhisattva, Bodhisattva
Bodhisattva, Bodhisattva
Bodhisattva, Bodhisattva
Look out

-- Steely Dan, Bodhisattva, from "Countdown to Ecstasy" (1973)