Naaruvadean Prayer Book (Common Edition)

Guest

Naaruvadean Prayer Book (Common Edition)

The Light loves all who love, and all who love, love the Light.
Complied, translated, edited and provided with commentary by Anchorite Thelos of Amenemonos

Table of Contents

3............Introduction
5............Mantra's
9............Mantra of Understanding
11.........Mantra of Education
13.........Unversial Mantra of Peace
15.........Mantra of the Clear Mind
17........,Mantra of Illumination
19.........Mantra of the Inner Light
24.........Hymns
29.........First Discourse
38.........Second Discourse
42.........Hindrance: Bodily Desires
46.........Hindrance: Anger
52.........Hindrance: Doubt
56.........Hindrance: Apathy
59.........Hindrance: Recklessness
62.........Closing Remarks

Guest

Introduction

These translations of ancient Draenic texts in to Common were commissioned by the High Priestess of the Aldor, Ishanah, with the purpose of providing a version of the Naaruvada teachings that is approachable for non-Draenic brethren of the Faith.

As always, the Anchorite must stress the necessity of the Living Revelation of the Naaru. The written word cannot capture the majesty of the Naaru's hallowed singing.

One must not look for the Light in dead ink on cold paper, but out in the warm and Light-lit world.
Open your heart to the Naaru, and all shall be laid upon you.

By the Naaru, may it be so.
-Anchorite Thelos.

Guest

Mantra's
A short introduction to the power of the Mantra, by Anchorite Thelos.

The hallowed singing of the Naaru is a comfort all Draenei are familiar with. It soothes our tempers, melts away poisonous thoughts and helps us focus and attune to our inner Light. However, one cannot reach true enlightenment by just soaking up the Naaru's warmth. Enlightenment is listening and acting; while the Naaru help us focus on the listening, we must travel far away from their reach to the Darkest places of the void-vast cosmos to spread their song ourselves.

To become a beacon of Light in the Naaru's image, we must seek out contrast; the Champion of Light must actively seek out the Darkness everywhere and anywhere in the Great Dark Beyond. It is when on these missions, when we are send far away to combat the Darkness that echoing the Naaru's song will help one recall that brilliant warmth that first led one to the inner Light. Sing, play an instrument, and above all keep on shining and being merry no matter the Darkness that surrounds you. When the night has all but fallen, we take a deep breath and turn to face the Legions of demons and chant the Naaru's brilliant war cry to show we are unafraid. The Light does not abandon its champions.
Similar to how a simple song can help to remember us to the Naaru's hallowed singing, so too can the sacred words of our most esteemed seniors on the Path help to give us focus on ours. The most illuminated of all of these words we cal Mantra's, and their power is so grand that by their mere utterance the speaker comes closer to the Light. They are the verbalization of the Light's will and their most direct expression in language. Different Mantras may be recited on different situations to strengthen our resolve or devotion in numerous ways. Though the compilation in these texts is by no means extensive, it offers an overview of some of the most commonly recited and best known Mantras.
Remember not just to read the Hallowed Mantra's, but to actively recite them. A Mantra has power only over an active speaker Let your voice echo through the Darkness like the echo of the Naaru rips trough the void-cast endless Dark.

By the Naaru, may it be so.

Mantra of Understanding

We meditate on the glory of the divine Light;
may it inspire our understanding.
may it inspire our intelligence.
By the Naaru, may it be so.

This Mantra may be recited and repeated at times when the speaker finds himself unable to summon up sufficient empathy to understand anther’s point of view. The Light feels only loving-kindness for all of her children; even to those it has all but completely withdrawn from. It is at times that the differences between the Faithful feel almost insurmountable that we recite the Mantra of Understanding to ask the Light to reinforce our intelligence, empathy and understanding, so that we may better materialize its will.

Mantra of Education

Let the Studies that we together undertake be effulgent;
Let there be no Animosity amongst us;
Peace, Peace, Peace;

By the Naaru, may it be so.

No soul walks the path of Light alone. Together we are stronger and wiser than we are apart. The juniors on the path will do well to listen and learn from their seniors, though while the seniors for their part will find that teaching their juniors will allow their inner lights to shine most luminously. This Mantra reminds the speak of this fact; that even though the relationship between teacher and student may seem asymmetrical, in that only the students gain by learning and the teacher by gains nothing by teaching, that in reality we are all equal under the Light and each, student and teacher, gains equally. Any tensions of powers between the learners and the teachers is therefore wholly irrational.

Universal Mantra of Peace

May there be peace for all
May all be fit for perfection,
May all experience that which is auspicious.

By the Naaru, may it be so.

As the name would imply, the Universal Mantra of Peace is one fit or any occasion and can and should be uttered on occasions where one generally feel a need to strengthen the resolve of oneself and others. It expresses the general will of the Light that each and every one of its children may flourish and reach enlightenment; a goal the Faithful will never seize working towards.

Mantra of the Clear Mind

The soul who dwells in loving-kindness,
who trusts in the Naaru's Teaching,
attains to that state of peace,
the blissful fading away of conditioned things.

By the Naaru, may it be so.

This Mantra is often recited before a communal meditation session. It beseeches the Light's aid to purge the mind of any foul poisons and taints which threaten to drown out the inner Light's guiding voice. A clouded and disturbed mind will not find its way to the Light; one must keep a clear head at all times. This Mantra, and the meditation that often follows it, will help keep the mind clean.

Mantra of Illumination

O Divine Light, our hearts are filled with darkness.
Please make this darkness distant from us
and promote illumination within us.

By the Naaru, may it be so.

This Mantra may be recited when the Darkness has made itself known and the Faithful requires the aid and inspiration of the Light to combat it. We beseech it to strengthen our inner Light and ward the Darkness away from within, pushing it outwards so that it may be vanquished in a brilliant flash. Reciting this Manta, similar to echoing the Naaru's song, will help one focus on one's inner Light. The Mantra of Illumination however differs in that it does so specificity to ward and dispel a known darkness.

Great Mantra of the Inner Light

When pursuing the Inner Light's depths
recognize the five hindrances as completely empty
and pass beyond all vexations and distress.

Appearances are not different from emptiness,

emptiness is not different to appearances.

Appearances are emptiness,

emptiness is an appearance.
Impressions, thoughts, associations
and knowing too, are also like this.

All the Naaru's songs are empty of appearances,

are not created,

are not extinguished,

are not defiled,

are not pure;

do not increase,

do not decrease.
For this reason, amidst emptiness there are no appearances,

nor are there any impressions, thoughts, associations and knowing,

There is no eye, ear, nose, tongue, touch, ideas.

There are no colors, sounds, smells,
tastes and touch.

There is no eye-element up to no imagining nor knowledge element.

Neither is any non-understanding,
nor is there any end to non-understanding up to no pain and death.

Neither is there any end to pain and death.

There is no suffering, cause,
extinction or path.
There is no knowledge nor anything to find.

Because there isn’t anything to find,
the Enlightened is free in reliance upon the Naaru's Teachings:

a heart without any obstruction.

Because there are no obstructions, there is no fear.

Abandoning, overturning dreams and concepts,

finally reaching unity with the Light.
For this reason, know that the Inner Light is the great spiritual mantra.

The great understanding mantra.

The supreme mantra.

The unequaled mantra, able to cut through all vexation

because in reality there is no emptiness.

Speak the Inner Light's mantra, speak the mantra’s words:

naaru naaru paranaaru parasmanaaru shakure.

(Untranslated from Draenic)

Guest

Hymns
The Hymns compiled here have no names or authors.

They are a pure expression of the Faith and Love of the Draenei people.

No further introduction is necessary.

I am a mass of sin;
Thou art all purity;
Yet thou must take me as I am
And bear my load for me.

No deeds I've done nor thoughts I've thought;
Save as thy servant, I am naught.

Guard me, O Light, and O, control
The tumult of my restless soul.

Ah, do not, do not cast upon me
The guilt of mine iniquity.

My countless sins, I say
Upon thy loving heart I lay.
Thy greatness none can comprehend;
All dumb us Eredari are.

Forspent the powers of mortal mind;
They cannot climb so far.

How can I compass the brilliant Light;
that illumes both sun and star?

A thousand servant's tongues
Cannot tell all they praise;

Then how, poor I? Thy children, we
Guardians of loving ways!

Within the shadow of thy grace
Ah, hide me, the mortal says.

The unsurpassed, deep, profound, subtle, wonderful Light,

In a hundred thousand million eons, is difficult to encounter;

Now that I've come to receive and hold it, within my sight and hearing,

I vow to fathom the Never-Was One's true and actual meaning.
Incense in the censer now is burning,
and all the Light's Realms receives its fragrance.

From afar the void-vast host of Naaru,

All inhale its sweetness.

In every place auspicious clouds appearing

Darkening mists dispersing

Our sincere intentions thus fulfilling

As all the Naaru sing their perfect songs

Guest

First Naaruvadean Discourse on The Inner Light

On the origin and presence of the Holy Light and the Darkness that ever threatens to consume it.
Every natural born creature is endowed with a soul. Every soul partakes in the glory of Light trough what we have come to known was our inner Light. This inner Light connects the soul to all other sources of Light and trough them all that is good in the universe. The Light is both in us and outside of us. The Light is a cosmic, eternal and perfectly benevolent force. It is endless, undying and infinite. It wishes only for the wellbeing for all of it's children indiscriminately. It is perfectly altruistic. In the soul that dwells in loving kindness and has naught but benevolent intent, the inner Light will flourish, enlightening the soul and cascading in comforting warmth. These souls will find inner peace and happiness, and will be delivered from suffering.

Yet, the Light does not rule unopposed. Where there is Light, there is also Darkness that threatens to consume the soul and blind it to the inner light which is its birthright. The Darkness has been known to take many forms. It comes in the shape of venomous thoughts that disturb and numb the mind to the guidance of the Light. It comes in the shape of material distractions that seduce and murk the body to meaningless physical distractions who more than often will proof to be harmful. Where Darkness enters the soul, the Light is forced to withdraw.
Those who forsake the Light are left in despair and in the loneliness of a soul trapped in the void. It is to these cold and abandoned souls the Fel presents itself. It is in their weakest moments that the Souls mistake the diabolical flames of Fel for the warmth of the Light to which they have grown a stranger. The Fel will twist and corrupt these poor soul into an unrecognizable demonic form. Embittered they fall prey to the maddening whispers of Fel and vow to destroy the Light they mistakenly feel has abandoned them, while it was actually originally them who forsook it. It is from these souls the Light has been completely forced out.

How do we ward our souls from the forces of Darkness? Only the soul in which the Light shines luminously will be protected from evil. And how does one nourish their inner light? By acting in accordance of it's will and doing good in the world. How do we know what it's will is? By materializing it. Only by doing good we grow more sensitive to the Light’s faint whispers, and only by listening to it’s whispers and heeding to it’s loving guidance do we learn how to do good. Listening and acting, acting and listening; these two reinforce and strengthen one another, and both fuel the spark of Light to set the soul ablaze. This Sacred Wheel of deed and thought, once properly put in motion, will spark the inner Light and will fuel it until the soul becomes a Beacon of Light.

Only a soul born as pure as the Light itself will be able to make out the Light's faint whispers and distinguish it from the distractions of Darkness by its own. Even though the Light has been within the souls of every natural born creature since the dawn, almost none of the Light's children have been able to recognize their benefactor on their own. The Sacred Wheel must first be spun by an exterior force; we must be made aware of our inner Light. This is the Gift that the Naaru have so mercifully bestowed upon us. The Naaru are beings of pure unaltered Light. Just by being in their presence, feeling the warmth of their light wash over us and listening to their timeless song we are inspired to do and think good.
The empty soul will open its heart to the Naaru by nature. Only a mind spoiled by evil thoughts or a body corrupted by foul influences will be blinded to the Naaru's magnificence. Creatures of such unfathomable purity are wholly incapable of dark thoughts and deeds. This is made obvious even to those yet unfamiliar to the voice of their inner Light trough their sublime splendor and magnificence. It is by accepting their warmth into our hearts that we first familiarize our souls with their inner light. Even when removed from their direct presence, the mere memory of their song is so powerful that it will guide us to our inner lights.

Besides the Naaru, we must also depend on the teachings of our peers that are further along the path of enlightenment. By adhering to the enlightened codes and dogma's laid down by our older siblings of the Light we will learn how to act in accordance to Light's will trough action. These codes and laws will substitute the voice of our inner light until we have grown sufficiently familiar with it. If we take the Naaru's song to heart and adhere to the code of our enlightened peers, ultimately our thoughts and deeds will synchronize with the Light. Our will becomes the will of the Light, our actions always the realization of this divine will.

Our souls will become Beacons of Light, like the Naaru we seek to emulate, and also like the Naaru we in turn will guide our juniors along the Magnificent Path. We will become wholly incapable of dark thoughts and deeds.. Our enlightened souls will no longer have any need for the dogma's or codes, as they have perfectly synchronized with their source, and have become immune to the Darkness they were designed to ward off. In being freed of Darkness we also become freed of evil intent and thus from suffering. The souls who have achieved this level of enlightenment will find that their unity with the Light will persevere trough death.

End of the First Discourse.

Guest

Second Naaruvadean Discourse on The Inner Light

Warding the Darkness: On the Purification of the Mind's Waters.
And
The Five Great Hindrances to Enlightenment

The origin of all Light in our souls is good intent, and the root of all good intent in our souls is the Light. Likewise, the origin of all Darkness is malintent, and the root of all malintent is the Darkness. The Light brings us pleasure and joy. The Darkness only suffering and despair. Just as we learn to act in accordance with the Light by listening and acting, so can we fall from grace by entertaining ill intent and acting upon said intent.
The Darkness can enter our souls trough two pathways, who open up due to our weaknesses of body and will. These are the paths of the body and passions on the one hand, and the path of the mind and thought on the other. Though distinct, these paths are certainly intertwined deeply, as faltering of the mind will often lead to bodily faltering and the other way around. Just as the mind instructs and guides the body, the body feeds and nourishes the mind.

The surest way to safeguard our souls against the darkness is by keeping a clear mind. The soul's vessel must remain pure at all times. One might see the mind as a vast expanse of water, with the inner light as a brilliant luminous globe at its center. When the waters grow murkier, the Light will become hidden amongst the muck, allowing the Darkness to slip in. We must keep our mind's waters clear. In their unfathomable wisdom, the wisest of sages that illuminate the path have identified five possible disturbances the mind may face in it's natural search for tranquility and purity. These are known as the Five Great Hindrances.

Bodily desires

Taken on their own are healthy and natural. Every sound soul must inhabit a sound body, and our bodily desires, when pure and uncorrupted, will sustain a sound body. It t is when we consume or sense more than is naturally necessary to sustain a sound body that our desires will inflate accordingly. As our minds grow accustomed an increased intake, we shall once again be lead to consume more than our inflated senses desire, leading said desires to once more be inflated, which will lead us to consume more, and so forth.

This vicious circle of increase in desires and consumption will always cause unrest, as we will inevitably run into the point that our consumption will no longer be able to answer to our inflated desires. This suffering may cast a vast Darkness upon our soul and lead us to acts of malintent in order to nourish our unnatural desires.

The taint of inflated bodily desires can be purged by reverting the viscous spiral of increased consumption and desire into a descending spiral of decreased consumption and decreased desire. This must be tackled trough the two paths; the bodily and the mental. We must reconnect our body and mind to rediscover our true sound and uncorrupted desires trough intensive meditation which focuses on the sensual and consuming parts of the body; the mouth, the stomach, the genitalia, and so forth.

At the same time we must consume and sense less. These two activities, mental and bodily, will reinforce each other; though we must be careful not to let our desires and consumption drop under that which a sound body requires. To ensure this we must meditate on the matter profusely. With the desires synchronized with what it naturally requires to sustain a sound body, the tension between consumption and desire will be resolved in a natural equilibrium.

Anger

or other wicked intentions directed at one's fellows are amongst the darkest of taints to threaten one's connection to the Light. Anger in the broadest sense are all feelings and thoughts based on harming our fellows in any shape or form trough any imaginable means. To inflict harm on others trough cruelty or violence rooted in anger is always an affront to the Light and a violation of its Divine Will.

Though anger will almost always be instigated by a flight of passions, it is one that always follows from a state and judgment of the mind. It is when said judgments are made in ignorance and insufficient empathy to our fellows that we are lead to feelings of anger. The Enlightened cannot become angry with the Light; for he knows It to be good and altruistic. Likewise, the Enlightened cannot become angry at his fellows, for he knows them to participate in the cosmic Light; trough it, they are part of it, and trough that part of himself. To inflict harm upon others is to inflict harm upon the Light, and trough that to the self. Therefore anger directed towards fellows cannot be anything but irrational.

One who is lead by his poisonous thoughts and ill passions to feel anger must never act upon this feeling. Trough a greater understanding of the circumstances that has lead one to feel such feelings it will be possible to remove them entirely; for anger is always irrational, and one who is wholly Enlightened will not feel it. If one is unable to achieve sufficient understanding of the circumstances and his fellows, one must place its faith in the Light and pray for guidance; if not by reason, then it must be by Faith that our feelings of anger must be overcome.

The Light loves all of its children equally, and all naturalborn are its children. Though its children may squabble amongst themselves, by realizing that they spring from the same loving source they may overcome their malintent. Even if the source of the anger does not come to realize this and continues his relentless assault on our patience and compassion, we must stay vigilant and remember this natural fact obvious to all.

Though violence ought to be avoided as much as possible, there are times that the forces of Darkness leave us with little other options. Some souls of which the Light has all but withdrawn completely will not be able to heed its voice.

With these souls it is nigh impossible to reach a mutual understanding of sorts. When these dark souls endanger their fellow children, they must be prevented from doing so; though not out of retribution or anger, but out of compassion. Violent and harmful actions based on violent and harmful thoughts will inspire more thoughts and deeds of the kind and will lead a soul further along the path of Darkness. To prevent these Souls from falling further we must impair their capacity to deeds of harm and violence. It is also trough this same compassion that we may be lead to vanquish lost souls and Demons. By ending their Lightless existence we grant these lost souls one last chance at peace trough unity with the Light in death.
When one is forced in to violence, it must always be motivated by pure intentions and compassion, like a parent disciplining their child, and never by anger or malintent.

Doubt

is the wavering of one's faith in the Light and its benevolence. The faithful are often caused to waver in their faith when faced with an overwhelming tragedy, be it on a personal or on a grander scale. One might be lead to thoughts like “If the Light is truly perfectly altruistic, everywhere and all powerful, how could it allow such a tragedy to occur?”.

The souls who are lead to waver because of these thoughts do so because great ignorance or hubris.

Ignorance, too, may lead one to perceive a natural part of the cosmic harmony as an evil. Death, for example, is not an evil; it is very much part of the cycle of life and has its undeniable place in the cosmic order as a part of life and trough it love. These ignorance’s are most often wrought forth by great hubris; to think on behalf of the Light as its equal. Who are children who question their mother's loving-kindness? The Light loves all its children equally, and to reason that it is not is nothing short of great ignorance wrought forth by hubris. No one child is worth more or less than the other; and only a soul who thinks itself greater than its fellows would be lead to humor such a thought.

To doubt is to suffer the ultimate separation with the Light; it is the rejection of the Light's extended hand. Through it, one will lose its comfort and warmth, leading one on a sure path of Darkness to loneliness and despair. Even a single doubt of the Light's benevolence might be enough to instigate this tragic wavering.

To abolish such doubts we need only to accept the Light's Divine authority. It is greater and grander than all of us; though it realized Its will trough us. This may tempt one to think that it is the will of the individual that is being realized when one does the Light's bidding. These are the poisonous thoughts that will lead an Anchorite blessed with the loving Light's healing powers to think that said powers are his own.

It is in their pride these wayward souls think themselves greater than the Light and fit to manipulate it and mold it to their wills. These souls must be reminded by their peers that it is not them who heal the innocent and smite the wicked; but the Light itself, and to think oneself as an equal to the Light is the height of Hubris, leading eventually to Doubts and the flickering of the inner Light. The Light's ways are incomprehensible; but Its splendor and sublimity are not.

Apathy

is the inability to appreciate and enjoy the world's gifts and pleasure, leading the soul to feeling empty and losing touch with the Light. Feelings of purposelessness, like malintent, may lead one to wander away from the Light and into the clutches of Darkness. The feeling of purposelessness originates, like the name suggest, a severing of the connection to the soul's purposes. Apathy is the tension or rather lack of tension that is created when one's capacity to do Light far exceeds the amount of Good one does in practice.

While the other three hindrances all describe instances of the forces of Darkness impairing our connection to the Light, Apathy and Restlessness are instances of a lack of Light itself, rather than an encroaching of Darkness. It may be caused by a separation with the fellow faithful and the Naaru for an extended period of time, or it may be brought forth by a lack of opportunities to realize the Light's will trough deeds.

For those souls who have been lead to feel apathy trough boredom, it is advised to seek out Darkness to combat and trough it re-establish their connection to the Light trough a reaffirmation of their duties. Sometimes though a soul can be lead to feelings of apathy exactly because of their extended struggle against the force of Darkness and separation of the Light. For those souls who are in danger of forgetting what it is exactly they are struggling for it is advised to seek out the Light instead. Seek out one's friends, make music, have fun, laugh and be merry; strengthen the inner Light by reaffirming its connection to others.

Restlessness

is the polar opposite of Apathy, being the result of too many impulses and stimulation overloading the mind. Restlessness is that state of which in wich the Lighttouched soul might feel overwhelmed by the struggle against Darkness by spending too much. While from a lack of stimulation we might grow apathetic and fall into a deep stupor, from an overload of stimulation we will grow restless and uneasy. Restlessness originates from a state in which one's practice of doing Light inspired deeds far exceed one's capacity for it and the strain from this great demand threatens to consume us.

And also in a reverse to Apathy, one can be lead to feel restless when one is overwhelmed by the forces of Darkness. For these souls it is advised to temporarily withdraw themselves from the struggle of Light versus Darkness and seek comfort amongst the warmth of ones fellows and the singing of the Naaru.

For those souls who feel that the pressure and demands of the Light and his fellows overwhelms them, it is advised to temporarily retreat from society and withdraw for some solitary meditation.

A soul strained to extremes must be allowed time to recover, unwind and relax, though if one spends too much time in withdrawal one might start feeling Apathetic, like one would start feeling Restless if one spends too much time in the fray of the battles against Darkness.

End of the Second Discourse. The Light does not abandon Its Champions.
-A'dal.

Admin Posts : 598 Join date : 2012-07-07 Age : 38

Copiable version carried around by the Northshire Librarian is now

Table of Contents</H1>

3............Introduction
5............Mantra's
9............Mantra of Understanding
11.........Mantra of Education
14.........Unversial Mantra of Peace
16.........Mantra of the Clear Mind
18........,Mantra of Illumination
20.........Mantra of the Inner Light
26.........Hymns
31.........First Discourse
40.........Second Discourse
44.........Hindrance: Bodily Desires
48.........Hindrance: Anger
54.........Hindrance: Doubt
58.........Hindrance: Apathy
61.........Hindrance: Recklessness
63.........Closing Remarks

Admin Posts : 598 Join date : 2012-07-07 Age : 38

Now in GHI

» The Book of Ur
» The Worst Mage in Dalaran - A Children's Book
» Prayers of the Light 1st and 2nd edition