Theos-Talk Archives (April 2002 Message tt00128)

Nina [writing to Saljim]:

> I belive in the practice of Meditation and try to stray away from prayer 
> or any kind of petition, because I have come to understand that no amount 
> of prayer or petition will ever make life chance it's natural course. And 
> if anything prayer has ever brought me is the sense of confusion and loss, 
> sadness if you will because somehow my "prayers" were not being heard.
The word that we use to describe our personal practice
-- meditation, prayer, concentration, visualization --
is not too important. The things to consider are what
we do in the practice and how it affects us.

Prayer often involves picturing ourselves petitioning
a greater being for a favor, special consideration, or
intervention in some problem. It fosters a dualistic
view of life and continues in our mind the idea that
we are not final master of our own fate. It also
reinforces the notion of a separate ego or self as
distinct from other things, a self needing help from
some bigger self.

Meditation may involve self-forgetfulness. We've given
ourselves over to the thing that we dwell on, forgetting
that we are such-and-such a person with a certain name,
likes and dislikes, and established relationships with
others. For the time, we have become something more, and
that changes us. We grow.

> I belive in the HERE and NOW, to "GO WITH THE FLOW" and being thankfull 
> for what I do have. I also DO belive in HOPE.
> Now, here lies the bases of my orginal question. After reading MR. 
> Purucker's coment on the "selfishness" surrounding the acts of prayer 
> and/or petition I began wondering under what category would HOPE 
> fall? Finding confusion withing myself and my feelings becasue I began to 
> thik... "well, isn't HOPE a form of desire? if so, isn't desire a form of 
> selfishness? if so, is HOPE wrong and egotistical?"
I'd say that prayer or petition is selfish in the sense
that we're reinforcing our personal desires and wants.
Even when we're wanting something for others, we're tied
to that wanting too. And we're fostering in our minds a
picture of life where we're dependent upon some greater
being for doing things for us, rather than building up
within ourselves the power and confidence to be our own
independent light in the world.

Hope, I think, is fine. It goes with meditation. It's
a sense of expectation, a positive attitude that things
will gradually improve for the better -- which they will.
Sometimes it may take lifetimes to see effects, but things
will improve for the better. Hope is like a faith and
calm confidence in life that things are right and are
moving in the right direction. It arises out of a calm
sense of peace deep within the heart, a place that remains
untroubled regardless of the apparent turmoil in the
outer world. Hope comes from the feeling of being rooted
in the divine, at peace with life.

> I have Buddha in my altar
> To remind me of me.
>
> I have a set of beeds
> To remind me of my concience.
>
> I burn incense
> To remind me of Nature
>
> And I burn candles
> To remind me of the Sun.
>
> In the end they all remind me of change.
Life is eternal change. Hope says that at every moment,
the good has renewed opportunity to come out into life.
We share in that process. We can brighten the lives of
others.

> Some may call what I do Prayer, and some may even call it a ritual. And 
> maybe it is. But I dare not call it anything else than what it is... a 
> reminder of the god within.
We all develop our own personal spiritual practice.
It's just as in writing that we develop our personal
writing style, or in art we develop our own style of
painting or composing music. The trick is to find
out how to do it with style, with heart, and wisely,
coming up with a practice that really takes us places.

-- Eldon