Be aware of a silent interaction, a subtle resonance and honest communication that takes place within the movement of self-remembering and prayer. Working with the ancient idea of self-remembering gives rise to the universal idea of prayer.
Both ideas act along a two-directional movement of which one part is aiming towards the internal world of manifestations, whilst the other part is simultaneously aiming towards the external world of manifestations in a state of divided attention.
But first of all we have to ask ourselves the question why do we pray?
Most kinds of prayer carry the energy of a relatively conscious or non-conscious intent. The intention to ask for help and to open ourselves up to receive grace, or simply to connect with something higher that might lie above our ordinary life and world of experiences.
This means that in our prayers we mainly request and assume that something will respond to our request, which is not very far off from what the ancient teachings say.
From the teachings perspective the whole universe can be considered as a ‘response to request’ dynamic.
We as human beings request and the universe responses in its total reality, the inner as well as the outer, according to mans request.
Fact is, and that is of great importance to us to know, that many people get responses to their requests they do not understand at all, which gives rise to the question how can that happen?
Now, if we consider once more that everything contained in the sum total of our universe is ‘response to request’ that includes:
- The cross & the fine,
- the psychological & the material,
- the invisible & the visible,
- as well as all that is perceived and apprehended externally by our five physical senses and internally by the heart and our mind,
then we can realise the outmost importance of what we actually request.
This consideration leads to the understanding why we are getting this kind of responses in the first place.
The mystics say that ‘your being is attracting your life’.
Subconsciously, and without even knowing it, we happen to make requests and are getting responses from the totality of the universe we don’t expect and might not like at all.
In this case we only are aware of the response but not what triggers or excites the response, that is we only experience and see the results in form of the response. We hardly ever see the causes and only see the effects.
So, there is an idea we can find in the universal teachings that asks us from which standpoint do we actually think.
Do we think from causes, or do we mainly think from effects? Cause or effect thinking differ profoundly, they are in actual fact worlds apart.
People usually think from the effects point of view. Thinking from the effects point of view is usually based on the state of mind we find ourselves in the moment we were hit by the effect. This means that our reaction is more likely to be impulsive and mechanical.
Thinking from causes could be seen as a more conscious way of thinking.
If we look at making a request, we have to look at from where we are making a request, as well as that we have to ask ourselves if we are making the request from our state of ‘knowledge’ or from our state of ‘being’.
Consider yourself asking for peace purely from an intellectual level, yet you are unable too see what kind of different factors govern your being at that particular moment in time.
For example: your love for negative emotions, your adoration for self-pity & hidden jealousies, your precious collection of countless dislikes and your enthusiasm for laziness etc. Their state of being might ask for something entirely different than their state of knowledge, and the total of the universe responds to the factors in our being, which we non-consciously endorse without seeing that we are validating them.
So what we have to understand and remember is that a strong sounding and full request must include thought and will, as well as precise formulation and an emotional longing. Thought unquestionably belongs to the side of ‘knowledge’, because we only can think from the knowledge we have acquired.
The side of our being is what ‘wills’ and as we all know, we usually only will or take action towards what we desire. In other words, where our love resides is our will and this love will only attract the response that belongs to it. That is, if we non-consciously love all our non-conscious manifestations, then undoubtedly our ‘will’ will be of this quality. Hence we might get certain responses we do not expect or long for, simply because we cannot see that we actually attracted them.
That is, we made a non-conscious request and without fail are bound to deal with the response. So we are caught in a vicious circle in which we constantly respond to responses we have non-consciously requested.
The moment you decide to pray, pray from a state of self-remembering in which you must be conscious of yourself and of what you are praying for. You have to truly feel the meaning that is contained in what you say, as well as really feel yourself saying it. It is the deeper sense of self in you that has to pray, and not the many different features and sub-personalities that were formed by habits and conditionings.
Remember that you cannot pray nor can you self-remember unless you feel that there is a higher state in you, as well as there is something higher than you are. Pray with all your different brains or intelligences, because if only your mind prays and the hart does not participate, the response cannot reach you, that is help & grace cannot enter.
The whole man must pray. The moment all the brains in us would work in harmony we would be in harmony with all different aspects and sides in us.
Once that takes place in one of those rare moments in our life, that very moment we are in a different state of consciousness in which we have simultaneous possession of all our different faculties. And this expansion of consciousness is what a person should possess in times of prayer as well as in ordinary life.
Alexander Filmer-Lorch - Inspired by the fourth Way teachings, Ouspensky, Gurdjieff & de-Salzman
