Sometimes when prayers are not answered we hear, “It’s the
will of God.” In Buddhism, the “will of God” is identical to the “retribution of karma.” Cause and effect is real, but sometimes the effect doesn’t seem to reflect the cause. If prayer cannot change these apparently wrong circumstances, then why pray?
Let’s consider what we think of as reality. Our physical reality is
impermanent. All religions, and science as well, attest to the fragile and
fleeting, temporary nature of the physical universe. Matter, and everything
concerning matter, from carefully constructed mental plans to the lives of the
stars, is constantly changing from its current energy state to another; from what our eye construes as solid to dissipated energy. The physicists notion of atomic particles is just a representation of a particular behavior of energy. The
only thing that is the same, changing and unchanging simultaneously, is energy, always. So what if we deal with prayer
on an energetic level? How does that look?
The mind is not the same as the brain. The mind (subject) is
a regulator for the flow of energy and information (energy with meaning). (1)
The brain (object), including all nervous systems, autonomic and central, is
like a transistor. The brain is also essentially energy, but we can see it,
unlike the mind. The brain is system of cells and pathways that carry, amplify
and integrate the minds attention. Psychiatrist, neuro-researcher, and author of the Mindsight concept books, Dan
Siegle defines mind as, “an embodied and relational process that regulates the
flow of energy and information.” (1) The mind is in dynamic relationship with the brain. What the mind focuses attention on
literally changes the neural pathways of the brain. So, as we look at a person or object or have a thought,
our embodied energy and information regulator (mind) is in dynamic relationship
with the flow of universal energy (all energies we produce and encounter) in each
and every moment. The way we train our attention to our relationship with,
1. our own thoughts and emotions and,
2. their relationship with worldly energies
determines the way we wire and rewire our neural pathways.
The process of prayer, or mindful meditation, or
contemplation (the deep and repeated observance of an object) directs energies
in ways that create and embed neural circuitry directed toward the attributes
of the object. The object our mind creates. If we pray to God, our brain wires toward the attributes we
ascribe to Godliness. But we don’t have to pray TO anyone, because what we are
really asking for is to embody and express the attributes of such Divinity. And,
truly, we are already Divine. Divinity is, like an atomic particle, a representation that we give to a particular notion of information (energy with meaning). We are "made in the image of God." Full of Godly possibility! So, always keep an open mind. As we allow this mental regulator of the flow of energy and information to be aware without attachment and bias, unity becomes the organic nature of our perception.
The relationship between the one who creates and the created
are one and the same, the subject (mind) creates the object (God) and the
object (God) creates the subject (mind). Stated another way, the artist creates
the art, but the art creates the artist. The creator and the created are in dynamic relationship. Each is changed
toward a new expression of what they are by the other. In reality, there is no
separation. The only reality is in both
subject and object.
This is clearly stated in the following scripture:
This is clearly stated in the following scripture:
John 17:20 My prayer is not
for them alone. I pray for those who will believe in me through their message,
that all of them may be one, Father just as you are in me and I am in you. May
they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have
given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one, I in
them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know
that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”
Thich Nhat Hanh in his book, The Energy of Prayer, states, “We and God are not two separate existences; therefore the
will of God is also our own will. If we want to change, then God will not stop
us from changing…. The energy of mindfulness is a real energy, and whenever
energy is applied there is a change.
When we sit down to practice unifying our body and mind
[through prayer], and we bring our energy of love to our grandmother, to an
elder sister, or a younger brother, then we are producing a new energy. That
energy immediately opens our heart. When we have the nectar of compassion and
have established communication between the one who is praying and the one being
prayed to, then the distance between us does not have any meaning. This
connection can’t be estimated or described in words; time and space cannot
present any obstacles.
In prayer, the electric current [energy] is love,
mindfulness and right concentration. Mindfulness is the real presence of our
body and our mind, directed toward one point, the present moment. When you have
this, you have concentration that leads to prajna, Sanskrit for insight and
transcendent wisdom. Without that, our prayer is just superstition.” (2)
- Dan
Siegle, Practicing Mindsight, (Sounds True,
- Thich
Nhat Hanh, The Energy of Prayer, (Parallax Press,
Thank you for the most mature and cogent explanation I have ever read on this topic.
ReplyDeleteThank you Marva!! I appreciate your time to read and your comment!!
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