The Lost Mode Of Prayer

To Chris and Jackie, nice job leading the group discussion today! Personally, I found it very helpful to have such a succinct outline and leaving the 3 topics for discussion open to the group was a nice way to guide the discussion without guiding it...

Since we got on the topic of prayer and I mentioned a book on the topic I thought I would print exactly what the author said about his study of prayer and its differences across many varied cultures. (side note: the book I quoted from, or thought I was quoting from, is called "Secrets of the Lost Mode of Prayer", by Gregg Braden, but actually, the exact story I referenced is from another of Gregg Braden's books called, "The Spontaneous Healing of Beliefs". He mentions the same concept in "Secrets of the Lost Mode..." book, except that its from a group of Tibetan monks and nuns and not his Native American friend that I mentioned this morning)

To give a brief background on the author, "...he is a former computer systems designer for a large aerospace company, a computer geologist for a petroleum company, and a technical systems operations manager for Cisco Systems". So, he writes with a particularly scientific flair while delving into typically non-scientific subjects like spirituality and beliefs. "He is now considered a leading authority on bridging the wisdom of our past with the science, medicine, and peace of our future". (" " From one of his book jackets)

He says, "In the spring of 1998, I had the honor of facilitating a 22-day pilgrimage into the monasteries of central Tibet, searching for evidence of an ancient and forgotten form of prayer-the language that speaks to the field that unites all things. (Blaine's note: he writes at length, from a scientific standpoint, about this "field" of energy that scientists have more recently discovered that appears to literally "connect" all things. The scientific studies and experiments are fascinating to read about) The monks and the nuns who live there shared the instructions for a way to pray that was largely lost to the West in the fourth-century biblical edits of the early Christian Church. Preserved for centuries in the texts and traditions of those living upon the roof of the world, this "lost" mode of prayer has no words or outward expression. It is based solely on feeling".

(Blaine's note: "feeling" is often explained or referred to as the language of the Universe as it would be the most common and universal connection between all beings. Where words and vernacular serve a communicative purpose in the region they might be understood, they fall terribly short of their intended purpose in a region where they're not understood. However, gratitude, fear, pain, happiness, etc., are universal expressions and a common language, in spite of linguistic differences, since their vibrational resonance is the same whether you're American, French, or from sub-Saharan Africa; happiness in the US has a similar emotional vibration in the body as it does in Africa )

"Specifically, it invites us to feel as if our prayer has already been answered, rather than feeling powerless and needing to ask for help from a higher source. In recent years, studies have shown that it is this very quality of feeling that does, in fact, "speak" to the field that connects us with the world. Through prayers of feeling, we're empowered to take part in the healing of our lives and relationships, as well as our bodies and our world".

The point, as I have come to understand it from many other writings on this topic and the point I expressed in discussion this morning, is that when we pray "for" something we are expressing and affirming our belief in the 'lack' of the very thing we are asking for. Since the 'feeling' of lack within our bodies ends up being the prayer, we may very well be going at this whole thing backwards, since by praying 'for' it, we create the feeling of not having it.

Dan's recent sermon on the power of prayers of gratitude is touching on this very topic since gratitude is a feeling, not necessarily a 'thing'. The power of the feeling is the 'thing'...

Ya feel me?