Learning to Pray...

At first glance, it may seem strange to you that a blog entitled "Learning to Pray" should begin with a photo of two, obviously, impoverished girls. And yet, as I was pondering possible images, this one stood out for me precisely because real prayer is always real. And "real" does not start with "need", rather "real" always, always, begins and ends with two things: I love you and I thank you. 

If all that we ever pray is I love you and I thank you  that would be enough!

On the other hand, to desire to pray is to step out upon the path of soul cultivation. Practices that especially relate to soul cultivation include meditation, walking in nature, creating art, gardening, and cooking... why? Because there is no separation between soul and one aspect of life or another. To live is to be alive as soul. To be soul is to be a co-creator with the Quantum Consciousness intimate with each and every particle or possibility in the Universe. Therefore, to pray is to be who you already are...

To learn to pray also means to develop the will to change. If you have the idea in mind that you could put your hand into a raging furnace and not get burned -- well, you get the point, right? And this is absolutely not to say that the Divine would or could cause you intentional harm, but that as you pray, you will inevitably want to draw nearer and nearer to the Source of your desire to pray... Mystics of old have always taught that prayer opens one to "the way of the heart": key words are identification, adoration, and surrender... 

Perhaps you see the similarities between learning to pray and learning to become a pleasurable lover: everyone who has "fallen" in love identifies with her lover, finds intense pleasure in adoring her lover, and willingly climbs the peak of pleasure to rest in the glow of a mutual surrender: that which makes for great sex has its intimate parallel in prayer... There is a wonderful love-poem in the Bible called The Song of Songs... in some sense prayer is a mutual seduction: the Divine Beloved and the Human Being-Soul... now here, now there, now this, now that...

One of the most wonderful books on prayer is Nan C. Merrill's Psalms for Praying. Here's a single line from the book: O Beloved, why do I believe that I can separate myself from You... As the author teases out the inner-heart of the psalms, one inevitably begins, perhaps for the first time to genuinely pray... Another magnificent introduction to prayer is Paramahansa Yogananda's Whispers From Eternity. The upshot of all of Yogananda's writings is simple: God is Alive as Being-Consciousness-Bliss. This thus-ness is the ontological Reality of the Universe: of Every Being and Every Thing...

From molecules to galaxies, everything is in motion: everything spins and spirals in pure poetry and song: learning to pray is simply to add your voice and your heart and your life to this delightful Being-Consciousness-Bliss... Rumi wrote:

     I belong to the beloved, have seen the two
     worlds as one and that one call to and know,

     first, last, outer, inner, only that
     breath breathing human being.

Every moment of every life is experienced in the intersection of the human with the Divine (Quantum) Consciousness. Likely as not, there are some three hundred billion galaxies. So, when it comes to learning to pray, we need to follow the example of our arms: they open outward... There is another "likely as not" important to consider: like the two girls in the above photo, life does not come with particular guarantees. Many of us (most) will break in numerous ways. And our breaking is but the promise of our eventual dissolution. One might very well call this a dark comedy: and it might be comedic if it didn't hurt so much... 

Now to the essential point: the arms that open inward are never ours... which is the deep awakening of prayer... everyone has the option to believe this or that; to divide this way or to join in the conquering of that way; but no matter which way that we turn, there stands, always, the One Question: "Who am I?" You might think that I'm crazy, but I think that we are all on our journey through time and space to affirm, in concert with the Beloved, "I am Compassion."

To, finally, pray is to cross the threshold of no question, no answer and to simply rest in Being-Consciousness-Bliss...