http://video.yahoo.com/watch/4552841?fr=yvmtf from Vo_Nga

Mười Hai Lời Nguyện Của Bồ Tát Quán Thế Âm

1. Nguyện thứ nhất khi hành Bồ Tát
Danh hiệu tôi Tự Tại Quán Âm
Viên Thông Thanh Tịnh Căn Trần
Nơi nào đau khổ tầm thanh cứu liền
Nam Mô Quán Thế Âm Bồ Tát

2. Nguyện thứ hai không nài gian khổ
Quyết một lòng cứu độ chúng sanh
Luôn luôn thị hiện biển Đông
Vớt người chìm đắm khi giông gió nhiều
Nam Mô Quán Thế Âm Bồ Tát

3. Nguyện thứ ba Ta bà ứng hiện
Chốn u minh nhiều chuyện khổ đau
Oan gia tương báo hại nhau
Nghe tiếng than thở mau mau cứu liền
Nam Mô Quán Thế Âm Bồ Tát

4. Nguện thứ tư thanh trừ yêu quái
Bao nhiều loài ma quỷ gớm ghê
Độ cho chúng hết u mê
Dứt trừ nguy hiểm không hề nhiễu nhương
Nam Mô Quán Thế Âm Bồ Tát

5. Nguyện thứ năm tay cầm Dương Liễu
Nước Cam Lồ rưới mát Nhân Thiên
Chúng sanh điên đảo, đảo điên
An vui, mát mẻ ưu phiền tiêu tan
Nam Mô Quán Thế Âm Bồ Tát

6. Nguyện thứ sáu, thưởng hình bình đẳng
Lòng Từ Bi thương sót chúng sanh
Hỷ xả tất cả lỗi lầm
Không còn phân biệt sơ, thân mọi loài
Nam Mô Quán Thế Âm Bồ Tát

7. Nguyện thứ bảy dứt ba đường dữ
Chốn ngục hình ngạ quỷ, súc sanh
Cọp beo, thú dữ vây quanh
Quán Âm thị hiện chúng sanh thoát nàn
Nam Mô Quán Thế Âm Bồ Tát

8. Nguyện thứ tám tội nhân bị trói
Bị hành hình rồi lại khảo tra
Thành tâm lễ bái thiết tha
Quán Âm phù hộ thoát ra nhẹ nhàng
Nam Mô Quán Thế Âm Bồ Tát

9. Nguyện thứ chín làm thuyền cứu vớt
Giúp cho người vượt khúc lênh đênh
Bốn bề biển khổ chông chênh
Quán Âm độ hết an nhiên Niết Bàn
Nam Mô Quán Thế Âm Bồ Tát

10. Nguyện thứ mười Tây Phương tiếp dẫn
Vòng hoa thơm, kỷ nhạc, lộng tàng
Tràng phang, Bảo cái trang hoàng
Quán Âm cứu độ đưa đường về Tây
Nam Mô Quán Thế Âm Bồ Tát

11. Nguyện mười một Di Đà Thọ ký
Cảnh Tây Phương tuổi thọ khôn lường
Chúng sanh muốn sống miên trường
Quán Âm nhớ niệm Tây Phương mau về
Nam Mô Quán Thế Âm Bồ Tát

12. Nguyện mười hai tu hành tinh tấn
Dù thân này tan nát cũng đành
Thành tâm nỗ lực thực hành
Mười hai câu nguyện độ sanh đời đời
Nam Mô Quán Thế Âm Bồ Tát

Have you made plans for Pi Day? Do you even know what Pi Day is?

As the name implies, it’s a day to celebrate 3.14. The Exploratorium, a San Francisco museum, hosts an annual homage to the number that never knows when to stop. In fact, the museum claims to have invented this celebration 21 years ago. It has since spread across the country (among mathletes, at least).

We spoke to Larry Shaw, technical curator emeritus, who takes partial credit (or blame) for Pi Day’s conception.

Why celebrate Pi Day?

It’s a transcendental number.

Um, what does that mean?

You have integers. You have fractions, which are ratios of integers. And then you have things like the square root of two, which is an irrational number. It cannot be expressed as a ratio of two numbers.

Pi is definitely irrational. It is also transcendental.

Do go on.

Basically no matter what you do with pi [or any transcendental number], you never get back to the integer realm. Apparently there are a lot more transcendental numbers than fractions or merely irrational numbers.

And why is that so transcendental?

To have the ratio of the circumference and [the] diameter of a circle be transcendental means there’s nothing you can do to make it even, or ever come out. It’s indicative, I think, in a bizarre way of what the physical universe is about. It is not as determinant as science would like to have it, but nobody knows why.

Can you restate that for the non-math people among us?

I just think it’s intriguing that this ratio between a circle’s dimensions should not be something you can pin down. That’s sort of a mystery.

Is there a life lesson to be learned from that?

I don’t know.

And how far out has pi been calculated?

I don’t know the current number of digits. Last I heard it was 1.2 trillion.

Do other numbers have holidays?

We just had Square Root Day, which was 3/3/09.

I guess that doesn’t happen very often?

Another one was 2/2/04.

Is Pi Day celebrated around the world?

With the way people write the dates in Europe [date first, then month], you can’t have Pi Day. You can have Pi Approximation Day, which is the 22nd of July—22/7. [Note: that’s because 22 divided by 7 yields an approximation of the value of pi.]

I understand that devotees of pi memorize many of its digits.

Oh, yeah, yeah—there’s a club who[se members] have memorized it to 100 digits.

How do you do that?

Just work on it.

Have you tried?

I haven’t. We have a parade [at the Exploratorium] where we give people a yardstick that has a pie plate stapled to its top, with a digit of pi on it. They line up in appropriate order and march [through] the museum. I have a boombox with a computer voice singing [the digits] of pi to “Pomp and Circumstance”: (sings) Three point one four nine five …

It turns out that March 14, aka Pi Day, is more than just Pi Day.

My daughter said, “That’s Einstein’s birthday,” and it is. So now [at the museum] we march around the pi shrine and sing happy birthday to Albert.

Are there any other ways to celebrate pi?

One always looks for patterns in pi, but nobody’s found any yet. There is a website where you can find where your birthday first occurs in pi.

[At this point in the interview, he hands his cell phone over to Ron Hipschman, who says he’s a systems administrator at the museum,  Shaw’s sidekick (only without a cape), and, according to his business card, “a loose cannon.”]

Not everyone is a fan of many digits.

Hipschman: The state of Indiana once tried to legislate the value of pi to be 3.2.

That would be a mistake, I assume.

With 39 digits of pi, if you knew the diameter of the universe, you could measure the circumference of the universe to the accuracy of the diameter of a proton.

I’m going to pretend I understood what you just said. But we don’t know the diameter of the universe, do we?

Assume it’s very, very large.

And could you remind me of that formula? I think I left my math textbook home.

Circumference is equal to pi times the diameter of the circle.

The most important question about Pi Day: Will you and Larry be celebrating with fruit pie or pizza pie?

We’re going to have fruit pie this time, but at the Exploratorium we will have pizza dough so visitors will be able to practice tossing pizza dough.

—Marc Silver

Posted Mar 10,2009 (http://ngm.typepad.com/blog_central/2009/03/food-for-thought-how-to-stuff-your-pi-hole.html)

my birthday is the day before the Pi day. Regardless, I’m celebrating it, March 13, because it is my day