Prayer

Tomorrow I'm going to a study group run by a Quaker and the topic is prayer.. but praying is not really something I've thought about, or done myself, since I was a teenager.

I'm interested in hearing the thoughts of others before I go tomorrow..

What is prayer to you?

When I think of prayer I imagine higher thought. Intention. A sort of companion to meditation in that instead of listening and observing, quieting and creating stillness, it is requesting and verbalizing (out loud or not) your own wishes and desires for yourself and others. Expressing gratitude. Asking questions.
I guess prayer and mediation are a conversation - prayer is my turn to speak, meditation is my turn to listen.
And just like meditation, prayer is incredibly personal and has so many different styles and approaches.

I see prayer as opening my soul.
It is communication with my spirit, and in the silence after I speak sometimes I find within myself the answers I seek.
It always fills me with a sense of peace and maybe nuts but in those moments I truly feel at one with everything and everyone, I feel full of just IDK cant think of anyway to put it but love that is external and connects internally.
I fit in prayer, I have no sense I don't belong and no doubts.
Its like a hug from a friend that you can feel safe and secure in.

Having a Catholic upbringing, I used to pray to Jesus or God for whatever it was that I needed. It may have been to give me courage or strength of will, it was a comfort to know that someone was watching over me.

Since I have joined the Temple and have had an "awakening" of such, I realize that I am praying to the universal consciousness which includes all the Gods, the people of earth, and the universe. I am asking that the energies of the Force come to me for guidance and understanding. I do believe that all religions are true as Joseph Campbell has described. In that, I may pray in Catholic terms one day, and Buddhist terms the next. It is the feeling I get from the prayer that is important, not the deity.

I like the idea of it being a "hug from a friend that you can feel safe and secure in". That was well stated. Is it not our friends that we turn to for that hug and pat on the back to tell us we will be OK when all hell breaks loose?

There is a saying when things are going wrong in my family, we say that we are "circling the wagons". In other words, we stay by each others side and work to overcome our hardships. We talk together and pray together for that favorable outcome. Sometimes we cannot be with our friends and family so we talk to ourselves is a special way, which we call prayer.

My daily prayer...May The Force Guide You and Keep You Safe!

Reliah wrote: I guess prayer and mediation are a conversation - prayer is my turn to speak, meditation is my turn to listen.
And just like meditation, prayer is incredibly personal and has so many different styles and approaches.

I really, really like the way you put this. It sums up how I view prayer perfectly, and in a way more elegantly than I could've worded it. Thank you. Prayer as "conversation" has powerful implications: we all have a distinct way of conversing (at least, I've never met anyone who converses exactly like I do), so every person's praying style is just as unique.

I actually have trouble with (Christian) prayer as a form of petition, and most of my praying is just offering thanksgiving/gratitude: stopping to be aware and be grateful for what is.

Prayer is self talk with the hope someone is listening that can help. One of my prayers starts out:" God bless us all. Help me help myself." Whether someone is listening or able to help who knows. It's an affirmation to empower myself and take control of and be responsible for my destiny.

" It is the feeling I get from the prayer that is important" exactly.

"I see prayer as opening my soul." and looking in. I think it aids self discovery.

"prayer is my turn to speak, meditation is my turn to listen." Nice idea.

I like this thread. Good stuff to noodle on. Thank you.

pray is to connect with the force, as well as meditate, it's just a more informal, more emotional. So for me, this is just another mechanism to be connected to the Force.
When we pray, we can recall the name of any deity or not evoke any name. Simply for me these deities are aspects of the Force, or even if you prefer an interpretation of the Force, noting that Krishnamurt said we observe the world through ourselves. I think if you feel comfortable with some god, then fine, it helps make the relationship between you and the Force closer and intimate.

I learned to hate the idea and practice of prayer when I was a kid in the christian faith because all people did was ask for things and use it as an excuse to be lazy and give no effort of their own. They also said it almost constantly about me having cancer: "you poor thing, I'll pray for you". So what? What does that do except make YOU feel better? I felt like prayer was really just people begging god for things over and over, things that they would get or not get already anyway because the god they claimed to love and trust was going to do this or that thing all along. They said god knew your innermost thoughts, feelings, and needs and knew what was best for you. Why bother going out of your way to beg then? They certainly weren't going to change his mind by asking him. "Oh, Jimmy is praying for the Steelers to win... well, I'd better do that. Good call Jimmy, almost messed that up!"

I feel like if someone had introduced me to meditation and the power of positive thinking earlier, I might have seen it very differently. Or not. I don't know :dry:

Prayer is meditation with a different focus.

As with so many things, I believe it depends. The way I was brought up, prayer is the invocation of a deity with the intention of getting a favor from that deity either for yourself or for someone else. What I used to do, I certainly wouldn't call meditation - getting on my knees and saying 'God, please don't make me fail this test, amen'. That's a superstitious cry for help, rather than mediation.

That said, I understand that other people probably do this very differently. If you consider prayer to be self-affirming, if you do it in a somewhat formalized setting, if your prayers are more like focused conversations rather than 3 seconds of silent shouting for example. I'd probably still not call it 'meditation' but rather 'contemplation' (although Christian practice might favor the former nomenclature), but those are technicalities and won't matter in the end.

"There are more tears shed over answered prayers than over unanswered prayers." ~ Saint Teresa of Avila

Prayer is, in effect, admitting that what one desires must come about - not through one's own efforts - but must arise from a concert of variables in coalition ... the action of "higher power(s)", so to speak. Normally, however, we are so keen on our desires that we'll do what it takes to coerce those "variables" into sufficient critical mass to get what we thought we wanted -- only then to recognise that we were not apt enough to consider the implications of all the variables ...

steamboat28 wrote: Prayer is meditation with a different focus.

What is the focus?

Prayer very often for me was debating with G'd why this , why that, now it is more acknoledgement that i am not alone and a way to get reconnected if i feel disconnected , not loneliness , more of a dull feeling. I also use it in my meditations when i get to emotional about a subject and cant think logical anymore , for some reason i find talking to someone more comforting than talking to something , compare talking to the captain to talking to the sea. This is also a little issue still with connecting to the Force to be honest .."Dear Force , i would like to talk to you ".. , still sounds a bit strange to me , like talking to the desert or sea ? Thank you Edan , you touched a subject that i am still struggling with :lol:

Edan wrote:

steamboat28 wrote: Prayer is meditation with a different focus.

What is the focus?

Meditation asks a question, and listens for the answer inside.
Prayer asks a question, and listens for the answer outside.

For me I don't pray. I find it useless to ask for something from an immaterial and otherwise inanimate force. Instead I employ the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with my Will.

We are responsible for our own lives and every subsequent act within. If we do not take measures to obtain our desires through personal action we will never gain anything in life no matter how much begging we may do to some ethereal concept. This is not to say we should ever set out to harm others or strive to obtain anything at the expense of another. Often times we find that the thing we desired was not something we needed in the first place. The meditation that takes place as part of this process is where we must take the time to truly make sure that what we desire is the best for us. This is never something to be entered into lightly.

To me prayer does not always mean "God give me this or do that for me" although it seems a great many people use it that way. It has, in many cases, become a crutch that gets used beyond when the leg should have healed itself. But this is just one of the things that comes to mind when I think of prayer.

Another is more like a conversation with whatever higher power you believe in, or just to any one that will listen. You may not be looking for some sort of favor, you may simply be looking. I believe that meditation is a form of prayer in this sense. During meditation we open ourselves to communication, whether we believe that the communication comes from beyond or somewhere within which we couldn't hear previously is irrelevant, what matters is that we are listening. We simply seek guidance, a feeling of connection. Prayer is a way to connect with something larger than yourself, and in that connection find strength.

The third thing that comes to mind is holy warriors communing with their deities for favor in battle or on noble quests, but that's mostly the nerd in me. :laugh:

Edan wrote: Tomorrow I'm going to a study group run by a Quaker and the topic is prayer

How did it go?

tzb wrote:

Edan wrote: Tomorrow I'm going to a study group run by a Quaker and the topic is prayer

How did it go?

It's at half seven tonight, hopefully I'll get back from the vet in time to go.
It's been interesting reading everyone's responses here though.

In biblical terms prayer can be used for many things if we so choose to. Its one of those "open" ideas that has yet to see its full potential, like Meditation. Communication with the "spirit" and knowing of its mind and heart to changing our ways of thinking and seeing things thru the "spirits" eyes. The encouraged with out ceasing is promised with the knowledge of having in your mind and heart the mind and heart of the creator. The prospective. It can be used to build hope and long term characteristics in which the "spirit" deems worthy. Prayer can be used as a tool as well as a weapon to combat daily life. It can be shared and kept, experienced and studied. One can say Meditation is the communication of the "spirit" of ourselves or maybe channel the ideas of others, to see like them or to view things in the perspective of the subject of the Meditation. Both are valid in my eyes as is candle Magic and singing. Pray is never limited to what we find out, and neither is Meditation. For me and my path both and all have a very real result if we so choose to take the time to do them.
That's my big idea...gain as much as possible, build, never tare down. Both share a very many similar results if you think about it

Reliah wrote: I guess prayer and mediation are a conversation - prayer is my turn to speak, meditation is my turn to listen.

I really found this useful when I went to the group this evening... it really helped me to put some of the views in perspective..