Posted by on July 24, 2018

About Prayer

Prayer is a form of communication.  Basically prayer is an appeal for help. Help me, help us, help me to help him, help us to help them.  Prayer is equally an acknowledgement for help received.  Prayer may be expressed by thoughts, words, and deeds.  Gratitude is a form of prayer.  Obedience is one of the highest forms of prayer.  Rebellion would be the opposite but still is a form of prayer. Aspiration and denigration are both aspects of prayer.  Apathy is prayer by resignation, submission, or self-pity.  All prayers are heard. All prayers are answered. Such communication involves a sender, a receiver, and a message.

Prayer that uses the language of “Thee and “Thou” and “Thine” is often regarded as archaic or ineffective, because it does not fit the speech of today. “Hot-line” and “Dial-a-Prayer” are very fitting expressions of prayer today but both may become obsolete by electronic advances that could eliminate copper wire and paper. But the chances are that the use of “Thee” and “Thou” will persist because both such corresponding words have always existed in every language.

Most prayers emerge out of need: physical, mental, or spiritual. Some prayers are unselfish; others are selfish. Many prayers remain unexpressed until a critical pressure forces communication. Death, accidents, sickness, surgery, qualifying for a job, successful performance, winning a game, winning a war, winning a lottery, the fulfillment of any hope according to the desire of the person who is praying. The power capable of fulfilling the prayer is frequently given a multiple choice.

Prayer is without a doubt the oldest form of communication.  Man has always needed help. The need prevails as much today as it did in the days of old.

In this century and in many countries, welfare has moved from the stigma of dole to almost automatic eligibility for help dictated by circumstance.  This could well lead to a future state wherein everyone will be provided with so-called necessities for living and dying, whether he/she is rich or poor.  Such provisions will also provide for the successful operation of all, now called corporate bodies. Heath, food, clothing, transportation, defense, energy, fire, police, postal and educational systems will be a way of life.  Nature has always so provided, but bread must be asked for each day.

Someone is listening, is answering and without a doubt hurting more than the petitioner.

For much of the world, the cry “help me” is a prayer for health, the healing of illness.  He who is sick calls to Him who can cure. The statement “From the most high cometh healing” may seem to be obscured by the sophistication of modern healing technology or finance. The practitioners as well as the receivers may be alike, unaware of the fact that for all their skills and for all their needs, the successful application is by no means free of responsibility.  But money is not knowledge; money is not gratitude.  Humanity is still very sick.  We are in no danger of becoming so healthy that healing will become obsolete.

In fact, we are only beginning to equate the relation of emotions and thinking with materialism with our daily well being.  We do not know the why of chemistry or electricity. Today’s refined techniques are abandoned tomorrow as cumbersome and inefficient. But the premise is self-evident that all Life’s healing power is based on what is best called Universal Love. The laying on of hands, or electronic healing, or drugs, or foods, –– or even advice, these effects will fail their purpose if the source of their being is ignored.  Such misuse is as much a part of receiving as giving.

Without doubt we shall one day associate our suffering with our thoughts and deeds which violate Brother/Sisterhood. We will one day be able to heal ourselves and our fellow men and women by restoring all thought forms to truth and Brother/Sisterhood.  Meanwhile we work toward that end, but we must deal with the situation as we find it. Very simply put, we have for too long violated, distorted, and abused life itself, which is Love itself.

But we must deal with these distortions today, the backlog of uncounted centuries of abuse. We are too deep into wrong-doing to pretend to be dealing with an idyllic state. In some distant heaven we may not suffer, but to bring that heaven to earth we must start to right the wrongs we have perpetrated. It takes as much energy for restoration as it does for destruction. The universe has the conscious ability to endure both.  Endurance itself is that dominant quality which we call eternal –– the universe itself is eternal because of its capability for endurance.

Toward this end, the principle of self-responsibility looms up as a healing power that is immediately available, a way of achievement that needs no miracle drug, no inaccessible mountain retreat, no money, and especially no blaming of others –– including God.

This is strong medicine that has to be taken sooner or later, enlarging on the injunction “Heal Thyself,” which really means “Deserve first, then desire.” It is quite the opposite of the popular panaceas for world problems, individual or collective.  But this wisdom is obvious and the actual control of all that the world has to offer is even now by its inversions proving its inevitability. Faith and Hope provide the ideal of Perfect Justice for all­­­­­­––which must necessarily include all humanity.  Justice has always been the governing principle of the universe.

The idea, unique and impractical as it may seem to be in dealing with distortions, does apply neatly and securely to everyday affairs.  For instance the solution to the world-wide educational problems does rest with each person. Without questioning classroom and teacher shortages, salaries or curricula, the basis of immediate operation is simple.  “If you want a better teacher, be a better student.”  Making the most of what is available is the surest way to prove to the law of supply and demand the need for more and better facilities.

In another instance, how many have said I can not do that; I am not fitted.  But the answer “Fit yourself” is not a preclusion.  How many have said I can not give a talk or write a paper. The same wise principle of operation says “To become a good speaker, become a good listener.”  This approach to achievement, however difficult, rests on the individual alone.  Incompetent speakers do not compel incompetent listeners.  Good listeners are essential to good speakers.  Going through the door of listening is the beginning of becoming a good speaker. The idea is practical; in fact there is no other way.  Anyone can listen if he wants to.

This is patently demonstrated in the age-old government and guidance of all humanity listening to the still small voice within. Such listening is a primary learning process and all others rest on it––ever present, ever audible, and unfailing.  The small still voice is too often unheeded, but that does not put it into less control. It will not be denied however much suffering may result until it is again listened to.

Any cry for help is governed by the law of supply, demand, and use as the source of healing of all life is unfailing and exact.  The administrators of the power of Love are compassion itself.  Even mercy is governed by Wisdom and Will with Love, the perfect work of the Creator and His Created.  The appeal for help fits securely into the operation of this trinity of power. The point is that the need for help is not the result of some overbearing lord castigating a people.

The cry for help is the first recognition by anyone who has abused the gifts of Love, Will, and Wisdom. We could be annihilated. Our mental, emotional, and physical despair––or gratitude––put into our own hands is the beginning of healing, the beginning of learning, the beginning of becoming consciously connected with the source of life, the Avatar of God.

The Avatar has the need to reach into every walk of life, every path and by-way travelled by us all. The Avatar cries to us for help.  He too knows His own prayer can and will be heard––and answered.

G. in C.      Oct. 12, 1975

Posted in: Temple Talks