Aad Sach, Jugaad Sach (True in the beginning, True throughout the ages)
Haib Bhay Sach, Nanak Hosee Bhay Sach (True here and now, O Nanak, God shall forever be True)
Lord, make me an instrument of Thy Peace; Where there is hatred, let me sow love; Where there is injury, pardon; Where there is doubt, faith; Where there is despair, hope; Where there is darkness, light; Where there is sadness, joy.
Oh Divine Master, Grant that I may not so much seek To be consoled, as to console; To be understood, as to understand; To be loved, as to love;
For it is in giving that we receive, It is in pardoning that we are pardoned, It is in dying that we are born into eternal life.
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So many times it appears that our prayer is not heard, that we are forgotten, alone. And yet as the mystic says, "If the heart has heard the prayer, God has heard the prayer." And more important than any specific answer is the act itself of prayer, the turning towards God. ... The mystic knows that what really matters is the inner connection of the heart in which our heart opens and cries. It is something so simple and yet so easily overlooked. Prayer is a way to be with God.
*Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee. Prayer of the Heart in Christian and Sufi Mysticism.
"Heart" in Sufism is Arabic qalb and refers to the innermost of the self, the conduit of universal, spiritual truth inaccessible to the mind. In spiritual Christianity, "heart" implies the same. I have referred to it in varied ways, including heart, heart-of-hearts, True Self, Self, that-of-God-in-everyone, Buddha Nature, spirit, and soul. A spiritual path is for descent into the heart; the mind has beliefs but cannot access direct knowing, or wisdom. Prayer from the mind and heart are worlds apart; however, mental prayer can usher one into Prayer of the Heart, and afterward, one can come to a union of the two.
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Below is a series of verses on prayer posted August 9, 2004, in an online offering, "A Prayer a Day for Contemplatives." The meditations are "God Whispering," "God Interrupting," and "Hush!"
I was trying to pray. God whispered: "Quit trying."
Once, when praying a long time about something, God rudely interrupted: "Brian, do you think I am hard of hearing!"
The other day, I was fervent in prayer. God exclaimed, "Hush! And quit squirming about in My arms."
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Prayer is participatory. Even in the Prayer of Silence, you are involved, and something is happening.
All prayer can lead one to the entrance of the House of Silence. Entering, prayer continues by the dropping of the mind. Thought arises... watch, let go... watch, let go... watch, let go... This stillness is prayer.
If one is struggling to pray, this may be a sign. The sign says, "Stop talking and be." Why assume talking a prayer is more prayer than not-talking a prayer? Both are ways of prayer, and prayerful silence is more subtle, less open to egoic manipulation. Silence is more transparent to the unspoken Word. Before Jesus (flesh), the Word (spirit). Before the Buddha, the Spirit of Enlightenment.
The mindful movement of one of your fingers or the caress of a leaf can be prayer. From the human side, the main content of prayer is you, not what you do or say.
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The greatest temptation in prayer is to try to pray when trying needs to drop. One resists the silence, believing they must speak to pray. And one may be afraid of silence. Resistance is a normal response, especially as the self has been hiding behind words for a long time. Yet, those words brought one to the point of prayer arising in the silence.
Without words, the self is exposed to the Light. And while the Light loves and heals, the exposure is not always pleasant. Still, one learns to sit quietly in the Light, trusting in Love and Wisdom. Finally, one wishes frequent refuge in the Light for rest and transformation into the Light, Light into Light.
The House of Silence becomes a haven for retreat and respite and a greenhouse for nurture and growth. As the Hindu sages have said, one is "alone with the Alone." Yet, "alone with the Alone" means, too, with everything, for all is in God and God in all. One has returned to the Source, in Whom we breathe together the same sky and air. We breathe, God breathes, in Here. God prays, we pray; God and we pray together.
Hence, prayer is not first a way to receive any something but to be with a Someone. What we call this Someone is not of prime importance, that we turn toward It is. As the Sufi Vaughan-Lee writes, "Prayer is a way to be with God." Receiving God, we receive all that is Good, True, and Beautiful. Hence, aspire for God - as would a person dying of thirst for water.
*Use of photography is allowed accompanied by credit given to Brian K. Wilcox and title and place of photographs.
*Brian's book, An Ache for Union: Poems on Oneness with God through Love, can be ordered through major online booksellers or the publisher AuthorHouse.
