Back to what I posted yesterday about my friend Steve and our conversation about prayer.
As I mentioned, it didn’t surprise me that he would ask me about the two guys praying at the restaurant. He’d asked me about church stuff and Bible stuff and Jesus stuff and Christianity stuff and God stuff lots of times. As I said, he has a curious mind.
And opinions. Lots of opinions. (As do I.)
For instance, I've heard him say more than a few times that he doesn’t think it makes sense to pray to the Creator of the whole universe about his own petty little problems. After all, shouldn’t He or It or Whatever be out there taking care of bigger shit than his piddly little crap? He mentioned this again at the restaurant after he heard the guy praying for different people by name.
Even though he and I had talked about prayer in general, and he’d weighed in on how it looks to him, I'd never really said much about my own prayer life. So I started telling him about my view of prayer. (He did ask, after all.)
First, do I pray? Yes. My prayer life goes back before my earliest memories, and it's been with me ever since. I don't remember a time that prayer hasn't been part of my life.
I told him his idea that God would be too busy to worry about me and my daily calamities was understandable, but I had a different way of thinking about that.
We’re talking about something we can’t possibly comprehend because our minds are bound by time and space. How do we imagine the Eternal—the absence of time? How do we conceive the Infinite—the Emptiness that contains all?
This unnameable mystery is limitless, so how could it possibly be too busy to help poor little old me? Or Steve? Or anybody for that matter?
Then we started talking about praying in public, but I'll save that for another post.
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7 comments:
I believe that we pray when we want to have a conversation. If we are all one, including one with God, then we separate in order to have a conversation. If we are all God, then all our conversations are prayers to God. Who else is there?? Hmm, just having fun with the concept....
Galen:
I love that. Prayer is God talking to God through us. Interesting.
Thanks as always for reading and writing.
H. K.
I like the idea of God being an infinite, universal, loving intelligence that is so mature in its being that it can't help but love all of the creation. Somehow when we communicate with this ground of being, it does understand and does respond to us, because, in a sense we are all fractals of this same beingness we call God or Tao. I know it is said that Tao is beyond being and non-being but the point is there is some being or ground of being that created us and we are all part of "That". In the Upanishads it says "You are That", the pure essence of life. We are human beings and the name implies we are part matter and part spirit. I heard somewhere that the Hu part of hu-man is ancient Egyptian for the English word God. When we pray it is a fractal of God communicating with the whole of God. This thought is adding to the point you and Galen made. That is very interesting.
Brian:
Great insights.
Frankly, I don't have any idea what to call it or how to think about it or how to imagine it in my mind. What I do know is that I'm fascinated by it and just want to go "farther up and farther in" to my awareness of its presence in my life.
Quite a journey, as you know.
Thanks again for posting.
H. K.
H.K.,
I just discovered this man John Butler . Unbelievable the general public haven't known about this man. I will give you a you tube link on his talk on prayer . Check out his two part talk on stillness. He impressed me so much I ordered one of his books.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-bnP4g9nuU
Brian:
Thanks for the link. I'll check it out. I hope you enjoy his book.
H. K.
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