Whether we realize it or not, almost all of us pray on a daily basis.
We pray for that sweet parking spot, that winning lottery ticket, answers to a problem we are looking to solve. We pray without realizing, when we work towards our goals, or when we get up in the morning to go to our less than desirable jobs, or to find a job. To find love, happiness, prosperity and pray that the plane we are flying on will not suddenly crash into the ground once a little turbulence has us breaking into a cold sweat.
We pray to realize our highest potential, to heal our loved ones, to “score” on that big date, to ace a test, to survive an accident and to seek guidance. We pray for a myriad of reasons in an innumerable amount of ways, and yet many of us do not realize our quiet expressions of desire and determination are signals being broadcasted out into the world and up towards the heavens and cosmos themselves, where they are received and listened towards.
My personal experience with prayer has been to recite the Our Father, semi-robotically for the better part of my life since I had been taught it as a child. I didn’t know much about the value of prayer, or even fully understood what I was saying; only that I knew I had to pray. I often couldn’t sleep at night until I did. It was the conclusion to a day that had to be expressed before I could relax and escape to the realm of dreams, where sexy mermaids float lazily in a starry ocean, gazing at me with their soft searching eyes.
Ahem. Excuse my digression.
It hasn’t been all that long ago when I took a good hard look at what I was doing to realize that I wasn’t praying as well as I could be. And that I needed to figure out why I was doing it in the first place.
What is prayer? Prayer is communion with the soul inside of ourselves. The Higher-Self, the Godhead, the subconscious, the Divine Spark. It is the ephemeral part of our being that is wise and beautiful and loving and giving and absolutely perfect in its essence, clothed over with a physical body made of flesh and bones and a brain and an ego.
Prayer is the direct interaction with your own inner goodness. Your holy spirit. The YOU who you most desire to be, which lives in muffled silence as the ego and the rational mind hand-wave away the murmurs that it seeks to express with a mouth it does not have. Be still and KNOW that I am God; that is the wisdom which arrives when one is able to peer inside past the layers of pre-conceived notions that our ego has barricaded our Higher-Selves with. When we manage to uncover this entity within, we come to the realization that God has always been with us, and is looking to be acknowledged for a relationship.
What can we do to increase the effectiveness of our prayers? How can we better communicate with the God within, and without? If meditation is listening, than prayer is speaking. It is an active process as opposed to a passive one. Here are three suggestions to dramatically boost your prayers and turn you into praying superhero. Able to leap, uh.. tall Synagogues in a single bound.
- Pray in solitude and secrecy
But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. Matthew 6:6
One of the failings of the Catholic Church and other religions, is that prayer is seen as a necessity to be done among crowds while bending at a pew, praying for whatever it is that the congregation is praying for. The simple fact is, is that you do not have to pray with others, nor do you have to be within the boundaries of a holy temple or mosque or a circle with a pentagram drawn inside of it. Praying is a sacred act, and if you aren’t willing to have sex in public, than you shouldn’t be willing to pray in public either. I don’t know why I used that example, but it works.
All too often, we tend to be self-conscious of ourselves when we pray in public. We are surrounded by distractions, and noises, and differences of intensities and ideas and beliefs and intentions. When a group is able to pray harmoniously and with common intent; it can be a powerful feeling to experience. And yet, when has a large number of people ever agreed on anything? It is rare to find someone that likes the same flavor and brand of rum that you enjoy drinking. It gets exponentially more rare to find a dozen of them in the same place. Rarer still, when hundreds more are involved. And even then, they may not match your preference in exactly the same way you expect them to.
The closest approximation to the effectiveness of group prayer I find, appears to exist inside of sports stadiums if you can believe it. Assuming that the home crowd is mostly on board for their team to win. And even then, there’s always that guy wearing the wrong kind of jersey in the stands.
Group prayer also has the added handicap of limited vulnerability being expressed. What has helped me realize the value of praying in solitude, is my preference to interact with people one-on-one as opposed to a group. Why is that? Because it is easier for people to become vulnerable that way. They are more willing to divulge and explore topics that would otherwise be bottled up and hidden, whenever a large number of people are present.
Few groups are able to speak with genuine candidness to one another. Let alone expose their naked vulnerabilities. This includes feelings of reverence, which is an important ingredient to have. Every one of us is different, and we come to pray in different ways and with different intentions, intensities, beliefs, values and opinions. Groups can only be as effective as their lowest denominator. Any one person who thinks differently, is like the annoying phomph-phomph of a Tuba that is out of sync with an orchestra attempting to play something grand and majestic. It has the potential to upset the entire dynamic. Even if it is subtle to the senses of those present.
There is no guarantee of perfect harmony when praying in groups. However, it is guaranteed that solitary prayer, free of distractions — will give you all the glory and merit for your efforts. And not be reliant or buttressed by the efforts of others.
I have taken the above quote from Matthew 6:6 literally, and have entered the closet in my bedroom to pray on more than a number of occasions. Free from distractions, noise, in darkness and in peace — my prayers have a noticeably more mystical and profound meaning to them whenever I retreat to my sacred space.
Try this for yourself and see what a difference praying in secrecy and solitude can do for you.
2. Pray with the heart, not with words
In prayer, it is better to have a heart without words — than words without a heart. -John Bunyan
Our inner monologue is difficult to shut up at times. It’s even more challenging when we wish to communicate without having to use words or symbols to express and lay out our ideas. Prayer does not need words in order to be effective. Words capture emotions in the same way that taking a photograph would. While you may have a good sense of what you are seeing when you look at a picture; you do not have the full experience of actually being there. The resonance of feeling is best conveyed by emotions. Words are prone to rationalization, confusion and a lack of sincerity or understanding of what you are seeking to express.
Praying with the heart can be difficult at first, and it is not the only way to approach prayer. You can use words and thoughts to express intention and to provide direction; but blending words with emotion, merging the intuitive heart and the rational mind; is a powerful way of supercharging your experience into something more meaningful and poignant. You are speaking to the soul, after all, and the soul does not need words to understand what it is you are hoping to convey. A single tear rolling down the flushed cheeks of a saddened child, is often more telling than mere words can ever hope to express. But bringing emotions and words into prayer, is really something else.
I find that gratitude is an effective feeling to include. Being genuinely grateful for the experience of being alive, should be included if you believe that there is a force of intelligence out there that transcends the physical world. No matter how calamitous and rocky our lives may be. No matter how insurmountable our problems seem and how hidden the solutions appear; gratitude is an emotion that conveys the thanking of that which is responsible for our very existence and reason for being. For the true spiritual seeker, they would already know that a powerful intelligence which has birthed the stars and the planets, could not have had an ulterior motive in mind for its creations. It wants the best for us, and many of us lack the foresight in knowing what “best” actually means and involves.
Sometimes one must go through hell, in order to appreciate heaven. Sometimes we do not understand that we have to prepare ourselves for the blessings we wish to receive and to feel that we have earned them.
To express gratitude is to have faith that the there is a plan for us, and that we accept calamities and blessings alike, for each has its own rewards, should we correctly pass through the trials necessary for us to obtain them.
Pray with emotion. Notice the difference when you bring feelings into the mix.
3. Pray without selfishness
“Our prayers should be blessings in general, for God knows best what is good for us.” -Socrates
It is tempting to use prayer as a means of supplication. Where we ask for things and make promises in exchange for results. All too often, prayer is seen as a process of bargaining. Of wishing. The wise observation of Socrates has more complexity to it than the simple words that clothe them. He not only correctly points out the orientation our prayers should take, but he is wise enough to understand that prayer becomes more powerful, when it is done without selfish intent. For when you better your neighbors, you are contributing to the betterment of the world in general. And there are rewards waiting for those who desire to not only uplift themselves, but to uplift those around them.
Try praying for unselfish reasons and see what happens. Think of someone you personally know who is experiencing distress and pain and direct your prayers towards them. Try directing it towards an organization, an annoying boss or roommate or anyone that you can think of that appears to be in disharmony with the principles of truth, beauty, justice and love. Pray for the salvation of those who are ignorant, who are cruel, confused, weak, or impoverished of heart, mind and wallet. Those who are lonely and unloved. Praying for the benefit of others, is an effective way of praying for yourself. For we are all aspects and incarnations of the Supreme Intelligence, and we each suffer our wants and desires. If we would welcome the prayers of others into our lives should they be offered, we should be equally as willing to send our supplications to those that are in greater need than ourselves.
When we open our hearts out to others, when we desire the best towards the ones we love and the ones we don’t; we elevate ourselves in the process. We come closer to Godliness, and closer to the Truth of what our souls cry out to tell us of. That each and every living thing on this planet, is simply another part of a great body that we are all attached to.
When we first learn to tune our instruments by use of prayer and meditation; we can then play in harmony with the world around us. Our melody will inspire others, and the music being made will resonant across those who can hear the song of our hearts. And they will want to play along. Kinda like dueling banjos but without the squealing like a pig, part.
I hope you enjoyed this article and have found it useful in your search to realize Truth.
Godspeed.
