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*Brian Wilcox. 'auspicious signs of new life'. Flickr
A continuance of dialogues with a sage who did not see himself as a sage, but others did; from Brian K. Wilcox. "Meetings with an Anonymous Sage."
* * *
The inner call to Prayer arises from
our natural, spontaneous, and unspoken
orientation to the Supreme Being.
Prayer is the bringing into
the consciousness of the person
the realization of God-in-Love.
* * *
Sir, I'm getting, it seems, too concerned about how to pray and meditate. This is confusing. It seems there's always a teacher or book promising better results with an apparently better way.
The mind complicates, the heart simplifies. Relax. Keep it simple. Confusion about prayer is a distraction from the simplicity of prayer.
I'm a believer in God, and I want to please God. I want to pray as God would have me pray.
Well, possibly, Rabbi Isaac of Ger can encourage you.
Who?
Here is a story...
A cobbler came to Rabbi Isaac of Ger for guidance, "Tell me what to do about my morning prayer. My customers are poor men who have only one pair of shoes. I pick up their shoes late in the evening and work on them most of the night; at dawn there is still work to be done, if the men are to have their shoes ready before they go to work. What should I do about my morning prayer?"
"What have you been doing?"
"Sometimes, I rush through the prayer quickly and get back to my work, but I feel bad about that. At other times, I let the hour of prayer go by without praying. Then I feel a sense of loss. And, sometimes, I raise my hammer from the shoes, and I can hear my heart sigh, 'What an unlucky man I am, I'm not able to make my morning prayer.'"
Said the Rabbi, "If I were God, I would value that sigh more than the prayer."
What do you hear?
It's my intention that is most important?
Yes. And keep it simple. Prayer, by which I include all kinds of prayer, including silent prayer, or meditation, is not complicated, it is as simple as a sigh, or silence, or singing, or crying, or chanting, or reading prayers, ... Avoid going in the direction of complexity. That is a spiritualized trap... shopping about, so to speak, for a better way or a more spiritual or more evolved way. In the Way, the simple way is the Way. The whole Way is a process of simplification, for the heart simplifies what the mind, the medium of ego, complicates. So, remember this simple maxim: Keep it simple, simple as a sigh. And, as you say, intention of heart is more important than the how of prayer. If the intention is right, you will be shown the way of prayer for you, and it may be unlike that for someone else. As in the Qur’an, "Every being has his own appropriate mode of prayer and glorification."
*Brian Wilcox. 'blossoming ~ opening the heart to life'. Flickr
(C)Brian K. Wilcox, 2019
The theme of "Lotus of the Heart" is 'Living in Love beyond Beliefs.' This work is presented by Brian K. Wilcox, of Maine, USA. You can order Brian's book An Ache for Union: Poems on Oneness with God through Love, through major online booksellers.
*Quote from Qur'an, "Every being..." is from Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee PhD. Love Is a Fire: The Sufi's Mystical Journey Home.
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