Prayer

Careful though, that article could come off ather controversial ;)

True- my point was simply that a lot of people who aren't aware of the deeper aspects of prayer could mistake what the author of the article is saying, as, well, insulting. I don't think you need to be Gnostic, in order to get meaning out of the point hes making. All western Spiritual traditions would benefit from a revamped form of prayer. Unfortunately, as the article stated, prayer, in america especially, has reached a point where there is almost no spiritual value in it. It's like a body without a soul. Theres nothing behind it other then the outward "image".

I suppose as an ex-Christian who was always repelled by the terrorist nature of the threat of fire and brimstone and the appeal to greed of the promise of Heaven, and the debilitating nature of the doctrine of fatalistic Grace, and who couldn't bring himself to believe the pessimism and injustice of the notion of original sin, I should point out that Jesus would have agreed that the world needed a revamped form of prayer.

When he was asked what prayer to pray, he said "Don't pray by rote. Pray something like this..." and ad libbed the Lord's Prayer, which they took down verbatim and repeated by rote for the next couple of millennial. I will also note that his prayer was intended to be transformative and affirmative with its "forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us".

For myself, having become something of a Deist, I occasionally wonder why I continue to pray to the Unmoved Mover. If He/She/It is unmoved, do I really expect to move It? "You cannot petition the Lord with Prayer!" as the poet said. And yet I do, for two reasons, one of the head and one of the gut. My prayers when they "petition the Lord", ask for the wisdom and strength to do the right thing, and are asked both on my behalf and that of my people and all of humanity. It comes from the recognition of the divine that is all around us, that our gnostic friend would say we are a part of and seeks to bring Its power and our actions into synch. It is intended to be affirmative and transformative, both Inward and Outward directed.

And the second reason is that twice, several decades ago, I am sure that my prayers were answered, that the Answerer said "I hear" and implied "I care", and just knowing that gave me strength and hope, and made me want to strive for the good, in hopes that Providence would amplify my strength, that God would help those who helped themselves, if they did so for the Right.

There are many things in the referenced article that I can agree with, but I think it dismisses too much that is good and too often dresses the Good in ways that are unnecessarily repulsive. The rabbi Jesus of Nazareth, and many who have followed him, have been radicals, I don't agree with everything he taught and even less with what those who claim to follow him often teach and do, but still there is power and wisdom in much of what he had to say, not the least of which is the power that is to be found when as Martin Buber suggests, we address God and the universe in an I and Thou fashion.

Just my devoutly agnostic Deistic 2 bits worth.

Brons

I'm doing quite well as an ego-based, empty shell, thank you.