Tuesday, August 22, 2017

On Prayer

First of all, you should realize all that prayer is telepathic. In other words, prayer is a concentration of thought which puts your mind in contact with the object of your prayer. It is not the same as meditation. The main difference between prayer and meditation is that prayer is specifically seeking an effect, while the goal of meditation may be pure understanding or the joy of contact. Also, meditation may be undirected, while prayer never is.

In prayer we are trying to do something or to get something done, either for ourselves or for someone else. We pray to get an effect, mentally, spiritually, emotionally, or physically. Since an effect is involved, energy has to be involved, and all prayer involves the transmission of energy, either toward or away from the one who prays.

Most commonly, prayer is directed toward a spiritual being, however the individual conceives that being. This is natural and proper, but unfortunately many people get discouraged because their prayers are apparently not answered. Certainly this may be partly because they have complexes or beliefs which prevent them from making contact, but the major reason is that they are not praying for the right thing.

I am not suggesting that they were praying for things they didn't need or for something that was contrary to the will of a spiritual being. The problem was that they were praying for that being to do something which it is not in its nature to do.

In the prayer form known as the Lord's Prayer that is found in the Christian Bible, Jesus states that we should ask for energy ("our daily bread"), cleansing (forgiveness), and guidance. A little further on in the chapter of Luke (11), Jesus makes the famous statement about, "Ask, and it shall be given unto you...." This has been taken to mean that you can ask God for anything you like and you will get it, although in practice it obviously doesn't work out that way. The reason is revealed only a few lines further. What is to be given is the Holy Spirit. In other words, energy, ideas, and inspiration. We find this same idea in the Old Testament, in Sufi, Hindu, and Chinese writings, as well as in Hawaiian - namely that what we receive from above is the wisdom and the power to act. But it is we who must do the acting.

This brings us to the point of fact that there are essentially two types of prayer: vertical and horizontal. By vertical prayer, I mean that which is directed toward God or the Higher Self or toward someone in spirit. From this type of prayer we can only get inspiration, knowledge, understanding, and energy. Note carefully that the guidance we may get is in the form of ideas and inspiration. We do not actually get the kind of guidance that tells us exactly what to do and how to do it. That kind of guidance implies the making of choices, and that is our sole prerogative.

Horizontal prayer is that directed toward our everyday life, either to heal or help ourselves or others, or to change the future. This type of prayer is accomplished by us, and its effectiveness is determined by our beliefs and by the amount of energy we put into it. We each create our own experience of reality, the circumstances we find ourselves in, and through prayer properly understood we can change those circumstances. But it is the individual who changes the circumstances, not God and not any other spiritual being. From them we only get the tools; they will not do the work for us.

10 comments:

  1. Thank you SO much for this vital information, Serge!

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  2. Thank you. I needed help explaining this to my kids. Much appreciated ⭐️

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  3. well how is it that Moses opened up the sea, the "miracles" that Jesus did... why can't I do that if I pray really really hard, Serge? that seems like doing real "work" there as you say, doesn't it?

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    1. It doesn't matter how "hard" you pray. As the Bible says, "What things soever you ask in prayer, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them" (Mark 11:24) So it's a matter of how strong your belief is and how little doubt you have.

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    2. Hi Serge, in Mark 9:24 a man with an epileptic son asks for healing and Jesus tells him that anything is possible to the one who believes. The man's response is "I believe; help thou my unbelief". Also, in the Bible it is often stated that faith is a gift from God, so there seems to be a bit of a catch 22 here, in that if you don't have enough faith, it can't be forced as it is a gift, nor can you really pray for it as if you don't have enough faith you can't receive it. Can you comment on the meaning of this from the Huna perspective please? To what extent is faith enabled by the sense of connection (Love or Aloha) in a person and is the man in the story actually (and maybe unbeknownst to him) asking for the complexes preventing his connection to a higher power to be removed?

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    3. Unfortunately, the Bible has a lot of inconsistencies. Faith equals belief. You can ask for inspiration to help you believe, but belief itself has to come from within.

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    4. Yeah... Im still struggling with this "secret" idea of believing in something that's not there... I mean... isn't that sort of the definition of schizophrenia???? I am trying to get through your book right now by the way... Serge... the "hidden self" I recently read the Yogi book by "Yogananda" and he seems to suggest that what gives a person the ability to create these "miracles" is the fact that their soul has been reincarnated many, many times before.... plus a lot of meditation I guess... any comments on that, Serge? Have you read that book?

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    5. For what it's worth, someone gave me a Bible once and inside she wrote Proverbs 3:5 "Trust in the LORD with all your heart and do not rely on your own insight". Very strange words, as all we ever have is our own insight, and in my experience it is to be trusted completely. How is it even possible to bypass or suppress your own interpretation (insight)? I don't care who says it, or how many people believe in it, I always go by my own lights, to do otherwise leads to a "schizoid/split" position where you cannot discern truth from falsehood and are continually doubting yourself. Not a great place to be. I have a very wise and funny book called "The True Believers" by Peter Bowler in which he reveals some of the weird and wonderful things people believe in the name of religion, for example "Go out on a starry night and find the exact house over which a particular star is shining." (The Christmas story) Oh and he also mentions that someone was burned at the stake once for taunting his friend with "You couldn't win this card game if God was your partner". Don't give me that "old time religion" thanks, but Huna is a beautiful, logical, believable, positive "philosophy" that dares to say PONO, "it's true if it works" and if it doesn't, do or believe something else.

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  4. There is a third type of prayer, and that is the prayer of thanksgiving. I'm not asking for anything, material or spiritual, only sending my energy outwards in a wave of gratitude for the abundance that is constantly surrounding us all, gratitude for the mystery of life that we are all a part of, gratitude for the wisdom and guidance that come naturally from the higher aspects of ourselves when we go "vertical", as one of my Kumus, Kealohi, would say. Mahalo plenty for your words of wisdom. I send you gratitude for the energy of aloha I feel in the ideas you choose to share.

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