(I AM is not a thought)
The following is in response to a question raised in Western Religion Philosophy Class at College of the Siskiyous. Weed, CA.
Prayer
“Prayer has been an
essential part of Christianity
since its earliest
days. Prayer is an integral element of the Christian faith and
permeates all forms of Christian worship. Prayer in Christianity is the
tradition of communicating with God, either in
God's fullness or as one of the persons of the Trinity.” (Wikipedia, 2013.)
Ultimately,
there is nothing wrong with Prayer, though at it’s premise in the way most seem
to use it, perpetuates two lies; one that there is something that the one
praying is separate from and two, that things can be some other way than how
they are. They are both actually the
same thing.
Prayer
is actually saying that the one that is being prayed to … isn’t doing a good
enough job and could do better. It would
be just as wise to begin to accept things how they are and the possibility (the
very real possibility) that you don’t know how things are supposed to be. Then you begin to grow out Faith (which does
not require any prayer) that everything is perfect and unfolding perfectly and
always has, even though you may not understand why or how it is unfolding. If you still require “prayer” then possibly
one might pray to begin to know this … to begin to have Faith that this is so.
Things
cannot be any other way than how they are, if they could they would be. That seems pretty easy to see (as long as you
are willing to stop telling a story of how things should be and just begin to
experience them exactly as they are). If
something is going to be some other way, just watch … it will … things are
constantly shifting and changing and if one begins to stop listening to the
thoughts about how things should be and begins to pay attention to how they are
… the mind begins to become quieter and quieter.
“Vygotsky
theorized that very young children don’t think silently to themselves the way
adults do — at first they only “think” by speaking out loud to their parents,
siblings, or caregivers. Later, this develops into “self-talk” (if you’ve ever
been around young children you may have noticed them mumbling to themselves
when they’re alone in their rooms). Later still, self-talk internalizes, and
becomes inner speech (what adults experience as thinking — or at least one type
of thinking).” (Moyer. 2013)
This
is what is being pointed to. You weren’t
born thinking. You were born in
Stillness and came into a world of noise “thinking.” You “learned” to “think” prior to
thinking/thoughts there was only the natural state of simply “Being” Aware of
everything in Stillness. This is how it
is right now, begin to stop paying attention to the thoughts and begin paying
attention to the Stillness.
On Stillness
“The
Jesus Prayer or “The Prayer” has been widely taught and discussed throughout
the history of the Eastern
Churches. It is often repeated continually as a part of personal ascetic practice, its use
being an integral part of the eremitic
tradition of prayer
known as Hesychasm
meaning "to keep stillness"). (Wikipedia. 2013.)
Not
surprisingly, this Prayer is popular in the East, but not in the West. The East has been immersed for thousands of
years in the practice of placing the attention on Stillness, not the
thoughts. Thoughts are given a great
deal of importance in the West, because it is what most identify with as “who
they are” as part of or sometimes the entire identity/personality, however, if
this is really honestly looked at. How
can one “be” a thought?
When
one becomes ready to let go of the thought “I” … Stillness (in a sense, rushes
in and fills all of everything) then there is no room for the thought “I” there
is only Stillness … just like when you were a child and you didn’t “think” to
exist … you just existed in Stillness.
That is where one returns (though has not ever left), they release the
thought “I” back into the Stillness from which it appeared. No “I,” no problems (who would have them), no
prayer needed in Stillness, one would not be still to pray for something.
This
does not mean that the world stops, you just begin to experience it from a
place of Eternal Stillness. The mouth
will still move (for some) the body will as well, there will look like there
are problems but there will not be anyone there for the problem, there will
just be a watching of all of the movie playing out, which also includes people
praying for things in the movie.
Another
way of seeing this is like going to a movie, you sit there in Silence (which is
not Stillness but it is a close in the world pointer). Sometimes you have a “thought” that you would
like the movie to go some other way than how it is going. However, you cannot change the movie just because
you *think* it should be some other way.
Most people should be able to see this analogy. This is how it is with life and prayer …
life/the movie is playing out for your entertainment (feel free to ask “who’s”) and “prayer”
is like the “thought” in the movie theater … it doesn’t hurt anything to have
it but it doesn’t change a dang thing either.
:o)
Cited
Wikipedia,
(2013). Prayer. Retrieved from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prayer,_meditation_and_contemplation_in_Christianity
Wikipedia,
(2013). The Jesus Prayer. Retrieved
from:
Moyer,
J.D. (2011) Sytems for Living Well. “Why I Pray as an Atheist.” Retrieved from:
