Prayer
Increasingly prayer is being recognized as an effective way to with a deeper sense of ourselves, of other people and of the world around us. Prayer can be used to enrich your life, whatever your views on religion and whatever your beliefs about God. Prayer is the key to resolving your stresses and imbalances and moving toward self understanding, self-acceptance and self-empowerment.
The Dawn Of Understanding
Prayer, like plugging in an electrical appliance or logging on to the Internet, is a way of connecting. We may not understand how electricity or the World Wide Web work, but we still benefit from using them. Likewise, when we pray we may not at first understand to whom we are praying, nor how we might be answered, but by daring to make the connection we can access a reservoir of energy and understanding that is buried within us.
We do not need to use traditional religious approaches - to kneel, to clasp our hands, or to visit temples, synagogues, mosques or churches. We do not even need to speak of God. If we can see that there is more to life than meets the eye, that we can achieve more than merely the satisfaction of our senses or our material ambitions, then we have already taken the important first step. Our prayer life will soon begin to grow and deepen inside us, as we discover the resources that lie within a bottomless well of love and affirmation.
The Value Of Prayer
Prayer," wrote the English novelist Iris Murdoch (1919 1999), "is the most essential of all human activities. We need prayer. By making it part of our daily routine, we can contact our true selves, learn to understand what we really, deeply want - and establish connections with others and with the world at large. Before we embark upon our spiritual Journey, it is encouraging to enumerate some of the benefits prayer can bring to our lives.
In a world that pressures us to do everything at speed. Prayer is a productive way to slow down. Pausing for a few minutes of prayer each day gives us the chance to review our deepest yearnings. Travelling into our inner selves, we gain confidence in our own resources, and discover a strength greater than our own. The self knowledge and confidence that prayer brings can be a powerful help when we have to deal with misfortune or self-doubt. We can gain perspective on, say, a family argument, and see that our deepest selves are resilient, unaffected by such difficulties. In a crisis such as a serious illness we may find that prayer puts us in touch with therapeutic energies we only partly understand.
Prayer can also bind us together with others. Simply saying a brief prayer together before a meal, for example, expressing gratitude for the food we are about to enjoy and for each other's company, can help reinforce a sense of fellowship or kinship. Prayer can make us more sympathetic to others' predicaments when we pray for other people we imaginatively put ourselves in their
Teaching children to pray
We worry endlessly about children's physical safety, health and schooling but tend to neglect their development in spiritual beings. Where religious education is provided in schools, it still often focuses on the stories of a particular faith and on learning traditional prayers by heart, rather than on helping children to discover the divine for themselves and learn to pray in a way that suits them.
Encouraging children in a sense of wonder at the universe is an important first step in teaching them to pray. Invite them to smell flowers or quietly to watch birds and insects with you. Take them for country walks.
Try to explain these words from a Sikh prayer: "God is in the water, God is in the dry land, God is in the heart."
Teaching the young to evaluate their own and others' experiences helps them to appreciate the world and to be thankful what is good. You could ask them questions such as: What was the best thing that happened to you today? Why? Was anyone sad Why do you think they were upset? Lead them in joining hands and saying "thank you" for the special thing that happened and sending an imaginary hug to the children they felt were sad.
Like adults, children can benefit from learning to sit in silence Lead children in a period of quiet: make weaving actions as you go through the following prayer:
"I weave a silence on my lips weave a silence into my mind; I weave a silence within my heart.
Sacred Earth
Teach your children what we have taught our
children, that the Earth is our Mother.
Whatever befalls the Earth, befalls the children
of the Earth.
God is the God of all people...
and what is humankind without the beasts?...
all things are connected. This we know,
the Earth does not belong to humans,
humans belong to the Earth.
This we know,
all things are connected like the blood which
unites one family. All things are connected.
Words of Chief Sealth of the Native North American Suquamish, c.1855
Universal peace
May there be peace in the higher regions, may there be peace in the firmament, may there be peace on Earth. May the waters flow peacefully, may the herbs and plants grow peacefully, may all the living powers bring unto us peace. The supreme Lord is peace. May we all be in peace, peace, and only peace, and may that peace come unto each of us. Shanti, shanti, shanti.
"Shanti" (Sanskrit word) can be loosely translated into English as "peace", but is true meaning is more accurately conveyed in "peace beyond understanding The Vedas (ancient Hindu scripture)
We take one step and God takes one thousand steps towards us.
"Often it is only our faith, courage and honesty that enables us to carry on. Faith means that your task cannot fail, if we always remain honest in everything we do. We have faith that our honesty and strength of conviction is the kind of courage that attracts God's help. In that way, you will never be alone and are sure to receive the support that you need. There is a saying that we take one step and God takes one thousand steps towards us."
All of us are responsible and all of us together hold the solution. In our quiet moments, let us go inside and know our true inner strength, connect with God the one to whom we all belong, and draw the power of God's love into our hearts. In this way we can honour the sacredness of all life.
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