Earlier I mentioned that there are various kinds of prayer. I think this is a good time to begin the subject. Prayer can be a vast subject and create many other conversations that extend in several directions. I intend to cover several thoughts around prayer before I leave the subject, a few at a time. Since prayer can be as natural as breathing, it cuts quite a wide swath. First, I would say that all types of prayer can be useful, even the mind numbing repetitious ones that can almost be chanted. The benefit of these prayers is the very fact they ARE mind numbing. That is, your conscious thinking mind shuts down and a more serene state of peace can be reached. Plus, for many people the knowledge of the fact that they did "X" amount of prayers can help them to feel more grounded or hopeful in a situation. I say all this to also say that while those prayers are not creating a new situation in the heavens to be manifested in the earth, they are not "moving God", so to speak, they can still have some great benefits. Ask any student of meditation and they will tell you how desirable it is to have periods of time when their thoughts cease. It is one of the major goals in meditation. So, when I say that all kinds of prayers have some benefits, I also mean that those benefits may not be the ones one is thinking they are. So...now that that is settled. Let's begin with the prerequisite to prayer. This one is pretty basic. The person speaking must believe they are actually communicating. The Bible says "He who prays must first believe that He is". This means that there is an awareness that you are not just speaking out loud to hear their own voice but communicating. Even in Buddhism one prays and yet they do not hold to the concept of a God like one might from the west. They are aware however, they are making contact with essences greater than themselves. So....who is doing the hearing, what is hearing...where is this being that is hearing? Is it a being at all? We can certainly all grasp that one set of ears no matter how divine is not doing the hearing. Our senses are based on our "earth suits" so to speak and when we pray, we are communicating with something, someone, some essence...some source greater than our physical senses. The simple part is the awareness we are communicating. The not so simple part is determining for ourselves who or what we are communicating with....this is very difficult. As God can not be contained in a concept. One cannot define God or Atman or the Self as it is called in the East. Even the God of the Old Testament says that there is no name for God only that "I am that I am". All the names we use are only sign posts pointing to the experience of God...not God in total. God is more a verb than a noun. Even those who argue so vehemently against God or for God frequently have not experienced what it is they argue so about. They are arguing concepts held in the mind. God is not a concept, cannot be defined by our limited understanding of things. God is timeless. This does not means that God was and will be but that God exists outside of time. God is "NOW". Everything that "is" holds together in God. That means God is in everything that is. For Christians, this is easy, "all things were created by Him for Him and through Him and in Him all things consist". It also fits well with quantum physics which is another conversation. For this conversation it means God is in you, not separate from you, not even different from you. This is a great paradox. God is both in you, part of you and also greater than you. The difficulty in understanding this has given rise to making God like us, human with human failings, like a judge, like a father. This is perfectly understandable as we must begin somewhere, crawl before we can walk, so to speak. As we continue in our efforts to experience God or more accurately, increasing in our awareness of that level of consciousness, concepts are less and less important. This "you" I am referring to, is not the one your mind, your thoughts, tell you, you are. It has nothing to do with your name, age, location, situation, history, skills, work, story or family. That is all temporary, of this lifetime, this reality even if connected to past lives..... still not the eternal. Deep in your essence, you are eternal. We each have the divine spark, the Christ within, the Bodhisattva. You had no beginning and have no end. Your body does,it will end. Your physical processes do but not the Christ in you. Not the divine in you. That is so completely totally bonded in God that there is no difference between you and God, you are one. Whether you call this the Universe or All That Is or Jesus or Mohamed or just God, doesn't matter. The words are only tools, markers on your path. If they create a block for you because of associations then choose another. The way we define it for ourselves is not important. The doors that open within us, are. There are no differences in God, no separation...no "specialness"...just pure life, pure divinity completely apart from human personality. Expressed through that personality but not dependent on it. So you, in your personality may be praying to God and it changes how you feel. What has actually happened is that you stirred the divine aspects of yourself and it created greater harmony within you. The idea that there is a being out in the sky who hears us and then decides whether or not to grant us our wishes (prayers) is not really an accurate picture. A better picture might be... of electricity running through a house. A lamp is plugged in to an outlet. The electricity flows through the lamp and gives it light. Is the electricity in the lamp and outside the lamp separate? No. In fact, it flows rapidly and one could never actually separate the energy that is flowing through the lamp from the energy flowing through the dishwasher although their forms and "personality" (appearances) may be completely different. What gives them their existence is the energy within. The God, so to speak, within. In Christ, I breathe, move and have my being. The energy, the beingness that is God or The Universe, is utterly consistent.
The topic of prayer seems to raise more questions than it answers. Imagine if we were discussing what communication was between two people. We would need to know their relationship, the point of the communication, the benefits, the languages used, what the intents were, when it is effective, why it is effective....it would be a vast subject. ...And we are discussing communication with All That Is....wow So what have we covered?
God is being itself. God has no shadow, meaning, is utterly consistent. This source is Love, is Life, and can be experienced not defined. This power flows in you and you can effect how it is manifested in this time space reality. God is Now....the power is Now....yesterday and tomorrow are ideas in your mind. Now is all there really is, the rest are mind movies.......can this mean that only God is real? Only Love is real?..... wow...breathe...selah..... |
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Understanding Prayer
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