Author: Gibran

From: The Great Liberation upon Hearing in the Intermediate State. (Bardo Thodol)

Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, abiding in the Ten Directions, endowed with great compassion, endowed with foreknowledge, endowed with the divine eye, endowed with love, affording protection to sentient beings, condescend through the power of your great compassion to come hither; condescend to accept these offerings actually laid out and mentally created.

Compassionate Ones, who possess the wisdom of understanding, the love of compassion, the power of divine deeds and of protecting, in incomprehensible measure. 

Compassionate Ones, [one of us] is passing from this world to the world beyond. That one is leaving this world. They are taking a great leap, with no friends. Misery is great. [They are without] defenders, without protectors, without forces and kinsmen. The light of this world hath set.

They go to another place. 
They enter into thick darkness. 
They fall down a steep precipice. 
They enter into a jungle of solitude. 
They are pursued by Karmic Forces. 
They go into the Vast Silence. 
They are borne away by the Great Ocean. 
They are wafted on the Wind of Karma. 
They go in the direction where stability exists not. 
They are caught by the Great Conflict. 
They are obsessed by the Great Afflicting Spirit. 
They are awed and terrified by the Messengers of the Lord of Death. 
Existing Karma has put them into repeated existence. 
No strength have they. 
They have come upon a time when they must go alone.

Compassionate Ones, defend (who) is defenseless. Protect them who is unprotected. Be their forces and kinsmen. Protect [them] from the great gloom of the Bardo. Turn them from the red [stormy] wind of Karma. Turn them from the great awe and terror of the Lords of Death. Save them from the long narrow passage-way of the Bardo.

Compassionate Ones, let not the force of your compassion be weak; but aid them. Let them not go into misery [or into miserable states of existence]. Forget not your ancient vows; and let not the force of your compassion be weak.

Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, let not the might of the method of your compassion be weak towards this one. Catch hold of them with [the hook of] your grace. Let not the sentient being fall under the power of evil karma.

Holy Trinity, protect them from the miseries of the Bardo.

From: The Debate of King Milinda

Nāgasena to King Milinda. "Virtue (Pali: sīla) is the basis of all good qualities: the five controlling faculties and the five moral powers (confidence, energy, mindfulness, concentration, and wisdom), the seven factors of enlightenment (mindfulness, investigation, energy, joy, tranquility, concentration, and equanimity), the eight factors of the noble path (right view, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration), the four foundations of mindfulness (mindfulness of the body, feelings, thoughts, and mind-objects), the four right efforts (effort to prevent and remove unwholesome states and to develop and maintain wholesome states), the four bases of success (eagerness, energy, tenacity, wisdom), the four absorptions (four stages of one-pointedness or jhāna), the eight freedoms (eight stages of release of the mind by intense concentration), the four modes of concentration (meditations on love, compassion, sympathetic-joy, and equanimity), and the eight great attainments (four formless jhānas and four form jhānas)." 

"Each of these has virtue as its support and one who builds on it as the foundation all these good conditions will not decrease.”

“Just as all forms of animal and plant life flourish with the earth as their support, so does the recluse, with virtue as  support, develop the five controlling faculties and the five moral powers, the seven factors of enlightenment, the eight factors of the noble path, the four foundations of mindfulness, the four right efforts, the four bases of success, the four absorptions, the eight freedoms, the four modes of concentration, and the eight great attainments."

"Mindfulness (Pali: sati) is noting and keeping in mind [virtue]. As mindfulness springs up in the mind of the recluse, one repeatedly notes the wholesome and unwholesome, blameless and blameworthy, insignificant and important, dark and light qualities and those that resemble them thinking, ‘These are the four foundations of mindfulness, these the four right efforts, these the four bases of success, these the five controlling faculties, these the five moral powers, these the seven factors of enlightenment, these are the eight factors of the noble path, this is serenity, this insight, this vision and this freedom.’ Thus does he cultivate those qualities that are desirable and shun those that should be avoided.”