PRAYER & STILLNESS

(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: 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_Prayer

Moyer, J.D. (2011) Sytems for Living Well. “Why I Pray as an Atheist.”  Retrieved from:

http://jdmoyer.com/2011/07/25/why-as-an-atheist-i-pray/

Discovery...

“The greatest barrier to discovery is not ignorance … 
it is the illusion of knowledge.”

You have been spoon fed for so long through schooling and books and television and Internet so much information that you do not know how to discover anything for yourself.  Become your own project and discover who you are by your own investigation; not by what you have been told through learning.  There is nothing wrong with learning, in that it can help you get around in the world, but be wise with what you come to believe about what you learn.  You don’t want to buy into anything too rigidly.  


An open mind is one that doesn’t become fearful of knowledge but brings light to knowledge.  It’s not about going out and fighting a system but to begin to step out of it so one can see it.  How can you see what you are in, when you are in it.  So you step outside of the norms of life, you do not accept that everything is how you have believed it to be, you allow the possibility that you maybe wrong about what you think, feel and believe and then begin to watch the world from an “outside” view…not as a good or bad, you just begin to view it like you would a project or an investigation.  You begin to watch yourself and the world as an “unknown.”  And then begin to see if what is being shared about you and about the world you live in…is true.  Look at your life and see if it reflects what you are being told.  The news will tell you that only bad things happen…but how often do you actually “see” a bad thing happen for yourself?  



One must begin to step out of the boxes they put themselves in?  One goes in a box so that they “look” like they “fit in” the world.  Those boxes are all the things that you say that you are…what your religion is, what your nationality is, what your country is, what your beliefs about anything is…all of them are boxes to make you feel like you are safe in the crowd, but what is a box but a coffin and the more boxes you have the more layers you have been buried in.



What is it that draws one to being in a box…a coffin?  It is the fear of standing alone…at least in a graveyard there are others seemingly there; but if you get out of the casket you are alone.  To be willing to live outside of boxes one must first face fear.  The fear of being alone, of being misunderstood, of being outcasted, and ultimately of death.  If you face the latter first the rest naturally begin to fall away.  How does one do this?  Take off a box and see if you are willing to die.  If you are religious…drop your religion for a time maybe even just an hour (you can pick it back up later) however become willing for even God to disown you, be willing to die and not know what will happen…you don’t anyway you just believe that you know…but beliefs don’t make things real…they just make boxes.  If you are married, be willing to not know what marriage is, it doesn’t mean you go and leave your spouse or get divorced, it just means that you don’t know what it is.  You have been told what marriage is…but what is it really, what is it to you, has it become a box or is it something that stimulates your growth, these are investigations for you to look into and not even your spouse can do that for you.  Those are two big ones but if even a slight bit of fear comes up to even look at it; you might begin to see the box you have put yourself in and in this, fear becomes a friend, a tool you can use to gauge how deeply you have dug yourself in.  You can use anything, if you believe you are “Human” look into that box…what actually is a human or is it just a label placed on a body because one doesn’t actually know who or what one is.  Do you really know who you are?  That is a genuine question to ask?  You may think that it is more comfortable to assume that you know all these things, because you have learned them…and everyone seems to agree that they are true, but comfort leads to stagnation and a very unfulfilling life.  



It’s not that one shouldn’t be comfortable it is about becoming aware of the unknown, which leads to vibrancy, energy and stimulation, creativity, you begin to see that you don’t ever know what is going to happen, but it becomes obvious and beautiful that you don't.  You aren’t rushing to put everything back in place attempting know how everything should be.  You begin to experience life as it actually is; without any beliefs or boxes or coffins to rest in and to rely.  You become extremely close to the present moment; the one that you are in but continuously overlook.  You become more childlike, you didn’t have to know how to be a child to be one. Your parents didn’t know how to be a parent and to raise a child and yet they did and if you are honest and have children you don’t either, but you don’t need to know, you just become aware of yourself and watch what it is like for “you” not anyone else but “you” to be a child, a adult, and a parent.  You begin to Trust the river of life without boxes, without conformity, without having to pretend to be someone.



Every once in a while for some length of time step away from the TV, the Internet and then when you bring them back pay attention to what you watch on TV and look for on the Internet, pay attention to what you are feeding yourself with information.  As you do these things you become more clear in yourself, you begin to know who you are more intimately, no one is going to have this life experience for you, so don’t waste it on what someone else has lived.  Take the best from every experience, yet have your own.



Take chances and have fun!


EVERYTHING SERVES...

(Click photo for video)

A question and answer session came up on a morning walk after the statement "Everything Serves" appeared...

Q:  Serves a purpose?

A:  No just Serves.

Q: Serves what?

A: Serves the awareness of the Self.

Q:  Isn’t that a purpose.

A:  Not if you discover who you are.

Q:  Isn’t the discovery of who I am the purpose?

A:  Once who you are is Discovered then everything just Is.

Q:  If everything just is then why discover who you are?

A:  Exactly. Paradoxically, since you think you exist ... everything Serves to reveal that you do not.

Q:  So isn’t that the purpose?

A:  Who would the purpose be for?

     

"The only reason you *think* you exist ... is because you keep saying you do.  Stop validating a lie."  :o)