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'praying always' is a form of instant communication with God offering real answers
Elenchus. This whole subject of prayer is so misrepresented.
Kairissi. To most people, it just means “give me this, give me that.”
E. And if that’s all it is, then prayer becomes a tool of the ego, a doomed effort to fill up the inner sense of “I am not enough.”
K. But Elenchus, what can we say about this? What’s the right way for an enlightened person to approach this?
E. Well, we do have Paul’s admonition to “pray always.”
K. We’ve stated that this means “remain in constant communion with God.” And that’s fine, but what does this really mean? I say this because, well, we’re still very human, we’re flesh and blood, and if we bump our toe on the furniture in the dark, we feel pain. What this means is, we have real needs, we feel that we must ask for things. How do we reconcile this “prayer as asking” versus the more lofty “pray always”?
in all of our eternal lives, we'll never be more likely to pray than when we're missing the one we love most
E. I have to admit, this was a real question for me. For a long time I was confused; and angry, I guess. I didn’t want to just “ask and ask” as that seemed petty and dysfunctional to me, and so, for some years, I didn’t really pray much at all.
K. (sighing) What happened then?
E. I can’t really say. We’ve learned from spiritual teachers, like Krishnamurti, that “truth is a pathless land,” and you can’t just reduce “finding the truth”, or learning how to pray to a handy set of “seven laws of success.” It doesn’t work that way.
K. But then, how does it work? Let’s give our readers at least something to go on here.
E. Even though there’s no “approved method” or “sure-fire way,” I’ll share a bit of what happened to me. But, before I do, let me jump all the way to the final scene. I want to explain what Paul’s phrase “pray always” means; at least, what it means to me, and how it worked out in my life.
K. We would like to know, even if the process unfolds a little differently for each person.
E. The best way I can explain is to bring it all down to a personal situation in my life. Some years ago now, when we were apart, and I didn’t know when – or, really, if -- I’d see you again. I’m sure that was the darkest time of my entire existence. And, I realized that, if I survived the ordeal, my time of missing you so much was the worst kind of pain I could ever experience, in this world or the next, even a million years from now.
K. (silence)
late-night hard-bargaining with God
E. The author uses the phrase “the hermitical years of late-night hard-bargaining with God.” I know what that means. I did that almost every night. I would make my case to God, pleading that either my life should be taken – as it wasn’t worth living without you – or to give me some sort of indication that you still loved me, or that you at least thought of me, or something, anything, to give me hope for the future.
K. (sighing)
E. And I remember thinking, “This is pretty useless. How could this prayer even be answered?” At the time, you were far away, unable to freely communicate with me, and so I wondered, how could this prayer-request ever “see the light of day” and not be “stopped at the ceiling of my bedroom”? I despaired of receiving any sort of an answer from God concerning you.
K. (very softly) And what did you learn from all this misery and heartache?
it's not a puzzle to be worked out with great effort
E. The answer simply came to me in an unguarded moment. I wasn’t trying to “work out the puzzle” of us, there was no strenuous effort. What happened was, suddenly, I just “saw” how it worked. Usually, I would call this an “insight,” but this was more - I see it as mystical “revelation.”
K. (softly) And what did you “see”, Elenchus?
E. It’s not easy to explain. As we’ve discussed, a “revelation” is non-transferable, it’s for the recipient alone, and others will need to seek for their own “private tutoring” from God. However, I will try to explain. I received an answer from God, about you, and about us, but not via conventional means. I was granted my insight by way of “praying always”, that is, “communion with God” of which Paul speaks. But, this doesn’t really tell you much. So let me say this: When we “live in the spirit,” as Paul used the phrase, when we live from the “true self,” the inner link to God at the core of being, then, when we ask a question, we’ll be given a general sense of “right or wrong,” of “good or bad”, or “within the will of God or not.”
K. And what did you see that was “within the will of God”?
E. When we pose a question, we will sense – what I call – an “inner resonance”.
K. And what does this “inner resonance” feel like?
E. It feels like – absolute certainty. It feels like “there’s not a doubt in my mind.” It feels like “I may not be happy right now, because happiness is linked to happenings – and you’re not here, so I can’t be ‘happy’ – but, even so, I feel an inner joy, and, along with the joy, there’s not a particle of worry in my spirit about the future concerning us.”
K. (silence)
E. I will even go so far as to say that, if one does this the right way - it's not possible to be wrong. I have tested this for many years now, and I have learned that, if I leave the ego out of this, and "get a good reading" from my inner sacred self, with "no static on the line," I have never been led astray.
Editor's note: see the article on "certainty".
E. Now, I’d experienced this “inner resonance” for some years. This was not new to me. But, what was new -- and this is what I learned during the “revelation” – is that the “inner resonance” is God’s way of communicating with us concerning a generalized sense of “thumbs up” or “thumbs down,” if you see what I mean.
K. And so, if I understand correctly, for many years you had been receiving answers to your prayers from God, but you didn’t realize that they were answers.
E. I was still looking for some external sign. I had received the “inner resonance” about us – a “thumbs up” – but I couldn’t accept this as an actual answer from God, just to me.
K. (small smile) You couldn’t accept yes for an answer.
E. (softly laughing) I guess so.
K. Actually, Elenchus, this is an amazing point of understanding. It means that not only are we connected to God via “praying always” but it’s actually a form of communication that can be translated into directives for our lives.
E. Once we see how this works, it’s a real game changer. It’s a “private tutoring, “ a “private communication” from heaven - marked "for your eyes only."
K. Elenchus, this "instant communication" reminds me of the debate about "entangled particles," able to affect each other, no matter the separating distance.
E. The great quantum fathers went back-and-forth on this.
K. But, as we often do, let me play “devil’s advocate” and bring up objections some will have. We know that this mystical process has no hope of working unless one is very honest with oneself in terms of sacred introspection. You have made bold statements concerning "it's not possible to be wrong if this is done correctly." But, the critics will say, “He’s just talking to himself, it’s just wishful thinking.”
E. Yes, of course, that will be said.
why do you doubt your senses
K. This moment, coming to mind is that line from Dickens’ “Scrooge.” He’s talking to his old partner Jacob Marley, now a ghost, and exclaims, You’re just an illusion, “there’s more gravy than of the grave” in you; why you’re nothing more than “an undigested bit of beef” or “a fragment of an old potato.” Elenchus, our materialistic critics will judge you similarly, and how will you respond?
Star Trek's Data playing the role of Scrooge
E. I will answer as Marley did: “Why do you doubt your senses?” By this I refer to one’s higher senses, one’s critical faculties, whose foundation is not the dysfunctional ego but the deeper inner-person linked to God. This sacred part of us cannot lead us astray.
K. All this is most instructive. Some spiritual teachers say that God communicates with us via synchronicities, chance happenings, the improbability of which suggests an invisible Guiding Hand. And, while I think synchronicities do occur and are, in fact, a method by which Spirit might get our attention, the “inner resonance” is, by far, the normal, natural, and daily way by which God “speaks” to us.
E. I think this is correct. And let’s make very clear that the sense of “absolute certainty” is not something we drum-up for ourselves, by ourselves; in fact, it has nothing to do with one's own effort and "trying very hard". The “inner resonance” is an effortless and easy natural by-product of our communion with God.
K. A natural by-product of, Paul’s phrase, “praying always.”
E. Absolutely.
K. Elenchus Dear, you were going to say a word about how one might develop this “inner resonance”.
E. There’s not much to say on this. All I can offer is, as we learn to “open a channel” to God, as we allow “surrender and acceptance,” then, like a rosebud opening to the sunlight, we begin to open to the energy of the Spirit. As we experience this “openness,” many gifts, long buried within the soul, come to the fore and come our way; not the least of which is a sense of instant communication with the Great Spirit.
trust yourself
K. Dear, we should also mention that, once this process begins, we'll need to trust ourselves - the "true self," not the ego. This is what Scrooge failed to do.
E. And it's what I failed to do for a long time - when I "couldn't take yes for an answer."
K. (small smile)
K. As footnote to the above, I’d like to offer comment on what we’ve called the perfect prayer – “thy will be done.” A desire to live and express the divine will is not only commendable but a guarantor of success for our lives. However, in light of what we’ve discussed concerning the “inner resonance,” “thy will be done” can also represent one’s own will being done.
E. This is a valuable insight, Kriss. Say more on this.
K. As we “go within” to explore our inner link with God, we find that what we call our “true self” is not a stand-alone entity but, in reality, a joint life with God; or, maybe it’s better to say that our authentic selves are individualized expressions of God. The effect of this union is that, when we determine the will of God, then, in a very real sense, we are delineating our own sacred desires.
E. They’re linked, they’re one. This is the origin of the "inner resonance." And this is the best prayer because, in effect, we are offering to God, reflecting back to God, willingly so and with desire, what God has wanted for us all along.
K. And what we ourselves have wanted all along but, so often, didn't even know it.
K. Elenchus, I’d like to offer a summarizing thought.
E. Please.
K. This whole area of “prayer” is so misunderstood. It’s the proverbial “donkey created by a committee that should have been a horse.” Most people think of prayer as “gimmee, gimmee” – and there’s a place for asking, but asking is really only the very minor part of prayer.
E. It’s strange, isn’t it? We’re told that God and the Guides are already working on giving us everything that we really need and want – even before we know enough to ask for these things.
K. Yes, and this begs the question, so why do we think we have to ask for anything – or, why do we think that “prayer” means asking? Well, we know the answer. It’s the Little-Me Ego that’s so fearful that it will never find happiness; so it has to bang its pots and pans to get God's attention.
E. That is rather pathetic. It doesn’t say much for God.
K. It’s rather insulting, implying that God can’t be trusted to direct our lives.
E. So, Kriss, what would you really like to say about this whole subject?
K. 95% of the time we need to just stop “asking.” We don’t even know what to ask for, we don’t know what we really need to prepare us for eternal life. So, we just need to stop asking. Instead, we need to enter that state of constant “open channel” with God.
E. That’s counter-intuitive. If we picture ourselves in a crisis, we immediately want to start “banging the pots and pans” to get God’s attention.
K. But that’s not how it works. If there’s a real crisis, God and Guides are already all over this for us. They knew about the crisis, could see it coming, long before it hit us. So, to be frank, it’s rather stupid and out-of-alignment with reality to now “use the red phone” to call God in panic about it.
E. So, spell it out for everyone. What should we do when a crisis overwhelms?
K. I’m not saying that we can’t ask for something. We’re human, and we’re in relationship with God, so we should talk about what’s happening. But, after this is done, the main thing we need to do is simply that of opening our spirits to what God is communicating during a time of trial. What are we to learn? What are we to see?
E. As you speak just now, I’m reminded of the many psalms in the Old Testament that say, in effect, “Quiet your worried mind. Just stop. See the salvation of the Lord. Rest in the lovingkindness of the will of God.”
K. Very good. This "salvation" is often not of material substance. There is no "health and wealth gospel." We didn't come to this world to necessarily have our bodily needs answered. That's for the next world. Right now we're supposed to learn how to "open a channel".
E. - to "pray always".
K. Elenchus, let's offer an example that everyone will understand. We're all looking for love and for that true mate. But it really does no good to enter into that "late-night hard-bargaining with God." God already knows that we want and need a Darling Companion, and, in general terms, it's already being worked on for us. So, what's holding up the process? Nothing on God's side of the equation. The real answer as to why we might not have found our true mate yet is that we're not ready. We're not spiritual enough to receive that ultimate gift. To remedy this deficit, we need to put away "prayer as asking" and adopt "prayer as attunement."
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