Friday, May 19, 2006

The Evolution of Prayer

If only you could arrange your life so that everything you did was an act of gratitude to God, can you imagine the outcome?  Most likely, you'd never hurt anyone or be hurt.  LIFE AS PRAYER - PRAYER AS THANKS.  The recitation by rote of all those "Our Fathers" and "Hail Marys" are just as ligitimate certainly as any prayer one could compose in the mind, from the heart.  But I've discovered that, for the most, people prefer to talk to their Creator in their own words.  A "learned" prayer is what we teach children, who don't yet possess the full vocabulary to show their parents that they can pray.  I think this is a kind of shame, in that who better than children know how to speak to God?  Nevertheless, as adults, after awhile and many years of praying for various people and things, wants and desires, you come to a place where the only satisfying method to reach God is through meditation, by clearing one's mind and making quiet the brain so nothing but His Light can come through.  That's the Light I seek when I pray, and I do that by simple thought on all that I believe God to be.  Then, before long, my thoughts become even less than that, there are no words in my mind, I am in communion with the Light of the Lord in my soul 

Prayer has evolved when words are no longer necessary, or even thoughts  You are in a state of pure gratitude.  This gratefulness is so intense, that a prayer for a sick child comes out as pure thanks to God, and nothing else, no name, no petition, nothing else is needed.  It's not an easy thing to attain, and I'll never truly achieve it - Buddhist monks are alot closer to the true act of praying, I'd say. It's hard to calm the heated mind, the chattering brain, so busy with the world's minutia.  

Evolved prayer never asks for anything.  What do you need in life that you think God isn't aware of?  We use words in prayer because we firmly believe that if we hear these words in the mind, so will God.  Truly, anything that brings us that much closer to our God, by whatever name or however praised, is a good and necessary thing.  No one can live fully without their soul, and I believe that soul is our "God-part" that one Light inside which God placed there somehow (not for me to know the methods) which makes me a reflection of the Lord in all I do and say.  The soul is eternal, but finite.  I believe only a certain number of souls were created and the fleshy containers we live in will circulate and revolve, incarnate and reincarnate, so as to animate that body into acts of goodness which, by their nature, can only reflect goodness and mercy, the reflection of God in our lives.  But we're not perfect and that's a good thing.  Life is a continual act of striving to reach that single, all-knowing Light, and when we reach it, we're already gazing upon the Face of God. 

I sit on the bed and get physically comfortable.  A sort of "lazy lotus" position.  Clearing my mind gradually, making quiet that noisy brain which is desperate to form words.  I rebuke the words, I enter the realm of thought.  In my thought, I form pictures.  In these pictures I note the beauty of nature, of the myriad life forms sharing this space with me, of water, air, light.  Then I am close - it is Light that I am seeking, for I am in a state of prayer.  When all thoughts have finally dissolved into pure feeling, I can then sense that one boundless Light, and I center all meditation on that Light.  To me, in every way that means anything at all, that Light is God.  It is the larger version of my soul. This is the time for gratitude, and I reform all thought in the pure feeling of being grateful, over and over.  "Thank You!" can be a feeling, it need not be words.  Just gratitude.  The state of being grateful.  No petitions, no begging, no deal-making, not even a word not even a thought.  Just being there and feeling thankful to God is the most evolved prayer I can imagine.     

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

A lovely entry dear! I enjoyed it so. :)
Have a blessed weekend!
SUGAR

Anonymous said...

The more i read your Journal the more I see what a beautiful gifted person you are, god bless you and your gift.  I did take your advice and visit some of the journals of different people who wrote comments.  This world seems very nice that you have though I am outsider looking in, I can see that there are so many wonderful people in Journal Land and many who suffer chronic illness as do I, one day I hope to find the courage to enter this world too.

Anonymous said...

Congratulations for being the second journal for editor's pick!  I was pondering this entry and I find it beautiful.  It brings a few things to mind for me.  I LOVE the idea that God knows EVERYTHING about me... every inch, every atom, every need, every desire.  So they need not be spoken as you say.  If I put myself in a state of thankfulness and gratitude, and I like to do this through time spent in nature and time spent in transcendental meditation and time spent in His Word, I open myself up to be able to be used by God better.  I can hear his voice better because I slow myself down.  I am open to where I am needed most by God and His will for me.  Thank you for this.  Hugs, Val xox
http://journals.aol.com/valphish/TherisaSeason

Anonymous said...

Amen! Wow---I love love this. TY for sharing how you pray; it's precious! ;-) Sass

Anonymous said...

quite eintersting ..you come across so scholarly! hugs,natalie

Anonymous said...

In your graphic, you reference John 3:16, For God so loved the world that He sent His ONLY begotten Son that whosoever BELIEVETH IN HIM should not perish but have eternal Life.  (Emphasis my own.)  Yet so very many of the thoughts in this post run contrary to what THAT SON said about Himself, the Father, prayer, etc.  It is not trances nor meditation that takes us to that place of perfect prayer and oneness with God, but His indwelling Holy Spirit that is the gift to each individual believer upon acceptance of the Son.  We may voice the words, but He's the one interceeding for us...even when we have no words.  Our souls are individual and eternal.  All souls.  The saved ones and the lost ones.  Those who have the Son have eternal LIFE.  Those who do not, have eternal seperation from God, by their own choosing or lack of choosing.  -  BArbara