Prayer...

Caveat, for me, I know it is different for others... Prayer always feels like... "Yo G!d, the all knowing, all perfect, all good....you made a mistake here... I noticed it, just want to point it out, that in your keeping of my planet in orbit at the perfect distance from the sun to keep life afloat...can you fix this tire, relationship, tumor, war (whatever).

That being said I also see prayer as not changing a situation but changing my perspective, my understanding of a situation.

And I also know prayer is comforting for some... You know like after a school mass shooting, instead if revising our nations gun laws, we send thought and prayers for victims... Again and again, and again.

So yes, I do have a wide range of thought...and not all of it aligned with Unity thought (maybe even none of it)
 
wil said:
Caveat, for me, I know it is different for others... Prayer always feels like... "Yo G!d, the all knowing, all perfect, all good....you made a mistake here...
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LOL, right. I don't think anyone thinks and prays like that :D
 
Try looking at prayer first as a dialogue with the Divine without an objective goal.

The Unity prayer ministry is just one, and probably the least, aspect of prayer: Change my situation. Nothing wrong with that, a useful social practice to be applauded, I would have thought, unless, of course, it's a discreet recruitment/marketing tool.

The only lower, perhaps, is the type of prayer St Thomas aquinas referred to when you drop a hammer on your foot, or a wasp bites stings you on the arse: "Jesus Christ, that hurts!"

The Church would impose a penitential sanction on the sufferer, for taking the Lord's name in vain. St Thomas argued s/he was doing no such thing, but rather voicing an 'ejaculatory prayer' in response to a sudden and painful situation ...
 
Thomas said:
Try looking at prayer first as a dialogue with the Divine without an objective goal.
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Communing, mental discourse with the allness....to me...is meditation, not prayer.

Most prayers I see, hear, are the beseeching variety and definitely include a request.

When I do find the need to pray I contemplate the situation at hand and ask for the best for all concerned. As I firmly believe when it comes to life and death and health issues the best thing is not always to extend life...
 
wil said:
Communing, mental discourse with the allness....to me...is meditation, not prayer.
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I can see what you're saying, but that's not anyone else's definition of meditation though.

Meditation is not necessarily prayer. Even in a prayer context, it's the exercise of concentration. In Buddhist terms, for example, the object is to silence the mental discourse, not promote it. In Christian terms, meditation is a step along the way to more profound forms of prayer.

wil said:
Most prayers I see, hear, are the beseeching variety and definitely include a request.
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Depends who and where you canvas, I suppose.
 
My old definitions were prayer is talking to G!d and meditation is listening...

But more and more in meditation I am not just listening, but observing a discourse... I used to acknowledge the "monkey talk" and then force myself to let it go...still do as I sit in the silence...trying to get to the silence...but sometimes the "monkey talk" insists...so I listen, watch, feel, observe... And like letting dogs establish their pecking order by themselves...the resolution is quicker by me not forcing my will...
 
wil said:
My old definitions were prayer is talking to G!d and meditation is listening...
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I'll not argue with how you want to define it, I'm just pointing out that your definitions are not what the definition is. So a meditation teacher would hear your definition and nod and say, 'way to go yet, buddy ... '

wil said:
... but sometimes the "monkey talk" insists...
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Yep, the ol' ego is full of tricks...
 
While there are tons of books on meditation, and classes...

My favorite quote on meditation was an 84 year old preacher lady.... "How many words do you need for 'sit down and shut up'?"

Guided meditations for me are weird....soon as they start... I am gone....and then I return with "you are coming back into your body and this place an time".... Others speak of feeling the light rain, loving the walk over the bridge and down the path and to the meadow....and the whole time...I was just gone.
 
Thomas said:
Meditation is not necessarily prayer. Even in a prayer context, it's the exercise of concentration. In Buddhist terms, for example, the object is to silence the mental discourse, not promote it. In Christian terms, meditation is a step along the way to more profound forms of prayer.
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Well said.

I always feel sad to think that the LORD'S PRAYER is not emphasized for being as profound as you can get in a prayer because it is so loaded devotional talking points and in-turn a prayer well worth its weight in meditation.
 
Thomas said:
The only lower, perhaps, is the type of prayer St Thomas aquinas referred to when you drop a hammer on your foot, or a wasp bites stings you on the arse: "Jesus Christ, that hurts!"

The Church would impose a penitential sanction on the sufferer, for taking the Lord's name in vain. St Thomas argued s/he was doing no such thing, but rather voicing an 'ejaculatory prayer' in response to a sudden and painful situation ...
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Or forgetting to thoroughly wash your hands after dealing with hot peppers before "answering the call of nature" or accidentally using poison ivy when one runs out of toilet paper, correct?

Phyllis Sidhe_Uaine
 
Phyllis Sidhe_Uaine said:
Or forgetting to thoroughly wash your hands after dealing with hot peppers before "answering the call of nature" or accidentally using poison ivy when one runs out of toilet paper, correct?
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Yep ... or, as only a man might understand, you have a careless fly-zip closure event ...
 
Kinda like walking in the garden and Jesus comes up behind you, and you turn round and He's there and you jump out of your skin and shout: "Jesus Christ!" and He says, "How did you know it was me?"
 
Thomas said:
Kinda like walking in the garden and Jesus comes up behind you, and you turn round and He's there and you jump out of your skin and shout: "Jesus Christ!" and He says, "How did you know it was me?"
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I used to get whopped upside the head for saying 'gee wiz' as it was a blasphemous euphemism using the Lord's name...
 
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