Theos-Talk Archives (April 2002 Message tt00138)

For your words below, I thank you Eldon... because you instill in me a sense 
of calmness and reassurance.



In a message dated 4/7/2002 5:52:32 PM Pacific Standard Time, 
eldon@theosophy.com writes:


> 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
> 



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