Word: prayerize
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Polygyny & Prayer. The Tibet he would one day rule is a preserved relic of ancient oriental feudalism. Twice as large as Texas, lying in the very heart of Asia, it is a land of mountains and craterlike valleys that seem to have been ripped from the moon. Its people are handsome, cheerful and indescribably dirty. About four-fifths of them work to support one-fifth, who are shut up in lamaseries. What little land is not owned by the monks belongs either to the Dalai Lama or to about 150 noble families, who have kept their names and acres intact...
Religion is lived by all the people. Hundreds of lamaseries house thousands upon thousands of monks and nuns whose days are spent in meditation and prayer. There are nearly as many Living Buddhas as there are lamaseries, including one female incarnation whose name translates as "Thunderbolt Sow." Prayer is everywhere, on the lips of men and on flags and bits of paper stamped with woodblock imprints of the sacred words: "Om mani padme hum [Hail, the jewel in the lotus)." The phrase flutters from tall poles outside villages, from trees and cairns; it is stuffed inside the chortens' hollow...
Schisms. Buddhism split into two great branches: 1) the Hinayana, or Little Vehicle, which in modified form adheres to Buddha's original doctrines and survives in Ceylon and Southeast Asia; 2) the Mahayana, or Great Vehicle, which attaches importance to repetitive prayer and elaborate ritual, has taken on the trappings of magic and multiple gods, and is practiced also in China, Japan and Korea...
After more than 700 experiments conducted by about 150 people on 27,000-odd seeds and seedlings, concludes Experimenter Loehr, "our research has shown . . . that prayer can make a difference in the speed of seed germination and in the rate and vigor of plant growth. This in turn demonstrates two things: 1) that prayer is fact, and 2) that scientific laboratory research can be done in basic religious fields...
...author's odd conclusion is perhaps colored by the fact that Perry Madoc is all girl, and a parson's daughter. Anne Humphreys by name, she is a fortyish Welsh woman, chose the house of Collins as her English publisher "because you publish the Book of Common Prayer...