10 Jan 2012

Random thoughts that distracted me tonight: "Have I really let my H.P. into my life? Prayer is a weak area for me. However, I've always had a strong personal moral code..." "I find it difficult to ask for help from friends and family, but I'm perfectly willing to tap into government aid. I have mixed feelings about doctors..." ...and towards the end, I was thinking about the Seven of Cups (although I actually had the Five's image in mind) and the Nine of Swords from the Rider-Waite deck... Yep. Just a sample of the twists and turns my mind will wander... ----------------comment one ------------------------- Why do i think prayer is weak? People talk about foxhole prayers, but honestly I've never used them. On the other hand, there have been a couple of "G. Damn It"'s sprinkled in my past... I've only had a few short periods where I pray every night, and usually those periods pull from memorized prayers. I think there's a part of me that doesn't believe prayers to the air will be answered, at least in a manner that I can easily correlate. Then again, part of the power of prayer is that it helps redirect my mind, and refocus it on goals -ya know, like affirmations.. I think this thread ties back more to Sunday morning than to last night... --------------- sub-comments on comment 1 -------------- Jody Bean Correction to first line: Why do I think MY prayer is weak?… See More · Reply · 9y Summer Harris Prayer really does help but if u dont belive in what your praying to it wont! I have been looking at praying more like meditation. Taking my time with it an not rushing helps. · Reply · 9y Don Herminghaus your life will tell you the answer to that · Reply · 9y Jody Bean If one's life is chaos and one doesn't pray, then perhaps there's a connection between the two? I would say the better approach would be to compare one's life before prayer to one's life after prayer... · Reply · 4y Shawn Bean What if ones life is chaos and one *does* pray? Or, what if one doesn't pray but ones life is wonderful? Like Summer Harris mentioned above, most people who try to convince me of the power of prayer tell me I must believe in order for prayer to work. I've believed in many things over the course of my life. I've believed in Christianity, and in the dogma of the Roman Catholic Church (and fair warning to anyone who wants to claim that the Roman Catholic Church isn't Christian: you'd better be able to show me your degree from a Seminary before you make that claim, or you're just going to be dismissed straight out of hand.) I've believed in Buddhism, and that chanting "Nam Myoho Renge Kyo" to a parchment scroll could bring happiness. I've believed that holding onto a funny-shaped rock of the most common mineral in Earth's crust while thinking about a particular color could cure everything from the common cold to stage 4 cancer. I've believed in angels and in aliens. I've believed some things that even schizophrenics suffering from their worst hallucinations would tell you is pure bunk. And I've also believed -- and still do believe -- that the human mind is one of the most sophisticated thinking things that can possibly exist. That's what makes all of those disparate beliefs work, to whatever extent they work. We don't live in any sort of "real" world; our consciousness is confined to the subjective world of our own thoughts and perceptions. And it turns out that is a pretty malleable world where belief and denial can become forces to be reckoned with. So, where does that take us? What works for you -- if you'll excuse the tautology -- is what works for you. It may not work for anyone else, but that's not the point; the point is *your* happiness, *your* contentment, *your* ability to live a good life. If right words, right thoughts, and right deeds coupled with meditation and reflection bring you acceptance and peace with your life, then do you *need* prayer? I once heard it explained that prayer directs outward from ourselves what meditation directs inward from ourselves (bear in mind, it was a Zen teacher who said this, so I haven't the foggiest clue what she meant by "ourselves." Nor "outward" or "inward", for that matter. But there is good Zen there, nonetheless.) So, in that light, prayer and meditation are the same thing, just focused differently. Prayer supposes a personal deity, and meditation supposes an illusory self. But they both seek to provide comfort, strength, resilience, acceptance -- all aspects of turning discontent with our own lives into harmony. (Oh, yeah, and I've believed in Taoism, too; still do, to be honest.) When we look at it like that, the form our comfort takes really becomes secondary to the all-consuming question of: does it work *for you?* If so, then you're doing it right. If not, then, try something else! · Reply · 4y · Edited Summer Harris Everyday I have with him is a blessing. He has so many challenges and never complains he has taught me alot. Image may contain: 2 people, people smiling · Reply · 4y