The word ‘prayer’ troubles me a
bit. I neither believe nor disbelieve in God. The belief-disbelief spectrum forms no part of my worldview or mindset, so even agnosticism is not an option for me. Besides, the traditional concept of God is contradictory, and I reject, as totally untenable, all notions of there being some all-powerful Creator to whom we can talk and who supposedly listens to, and will answer,
our prayers. So, not surprisingly, I reject all forms of theistic, petitionary prayer.
However,
there are many forms of prayer including affirmations of various kinds. We all pray, in our own way--even the atheist. In the words of an old hymn, ‘Prayer is the soul’s sincere desire, uttered or unexpressed.’
Thus, if you really want good health for yourself or some other person, or
world peace, that is your prayer.
Does
prayer work? Well, if sincere, a prayer can change the pray-er, and if he or she changes for the
better, change may occur elsewhere as well. It all begins with the individual.
Here’s
a prayer of sorts that was written by Dr Annie Besant [pictured above right] in 1923. I have made very slight changes to the original wording in the interests of gender inclusiveness:
O hidden
Life, vibrant in every atom;
O hidden Light, shining in every creature;
O hidden Light, shining in every creature;
O
hidden Love, embracing all in Oneness;
May all
who feel themselves as one with Thee,
Know they are therefore one with every other.
What powerful words!
We start with ‘life’--the fact of
existence itself. Life is everywhere. It is omnipresent. In a very profound
sense, life is omnipresence itself. Is it ‘hidden’? What is hidden about life?
Well, we do not really see life itself. What we see is the out-picturing—the
outpouring—of life. Life takes shape in innumerable forms. What we see are
living things living out their livingness
from one moment to the next. However, the essence
of life—the very ground of being itself—is invisible to the eye. The dynamic,
creative, inexhaustible and ineffable life-principle animates and sustains all living things—including
you and me—but it cannot be seen. Yet it is ‘vibrant in every atom’.
And this word ‘Light’. When life
becomes visible, in the form of innumerable living things living out their
livingness, it is right to describe it as ‘light’. What is hidden about light?
Well, as with the word life, the real light cannot be seen. It is in the nature
of pure consciousness itself. Consciousness is non-physical,
immaterial, and spiritual. A spiritual substance is something which, although
real, is not perceptible by the senses. We only know 'it' by its effects. We cannot see electricity, but we see the light emanating
from the light bulb. This inner light shines in every creature, including you
and me, and it radiates outwards in a visible manner.
‘Love’. What is love but the givingness of life to itself so as to
give rise to more life. The self-givingness of life. All around us we see the effects of the self-givingness of life in action, but the self-givingness itself is invisible to the eye--hence, once again, the use of the word 'hidden'. We see the phenomenon at work everywhere,
whether it is in our garden or in the maternity ward of a hospital. This love
does indeed embrace all in oneness. I am not advocating monism or pantheism.
When I say that life is one, I am trying to say a couple of things.
First, a single
logic applies to all things and how they are related to other things. Secondly, all things
exist on the same order or level of reality, and on the same ‘plane’ of
observability. Call it the ‘interconnectedness of all life’ or, if you like,
‘InterBeing.’ The latter wonderful term comes from the Vietnamese Buddhist monk and teacher Thich Nhat Hanh [pictured above left]. I love that word
‘Interbeing.’
The bottom line is this. There is only one life
manifesting itself in all things and as all
things. The one is constantly becoming or giving birth to the many, but the one
is inexhaustible. It is both manifest and unmanifest. Visible and invisible.
Yet it embraces all multiplicity in oneness. In the words of Alan Watts, 'Every individual is an expression of the whole realm of Nature, a unique action of the total Universe.' And not just every individual, but every thing in existence.
The ‘Thee’ referred to in the invocation is not in the nature of a personal God. Annie Besant
certainly did not believe in a God of that kind. She rejected all notions of an
anthropomorphic God. And so do I. ‘Thee’ is not something or someone to be
petitioned in the hope that He/She/It will answer our prayers. However, if you
chose to believe in such a God, that is your business. The ‘Thee’ referred to
in the invocation is the ‘Hidden Life’, the ‘Hidden Light’, and the ‘Hidden
Love’. Those three things are a triplicity of sorts—different words for the
same ‘thing’. The ‘thing’—actually, it is not a thing at all as we ordinarily
understand that word—is the livingness, consciousness and self-givingness of
life. When we come to feel—note that word ‘feel’—ourselves as one with that
dynamic, creative life principle, in time we come to ‘know’—this is no intellectual
knowing—that we are therefore ‘one with every other’.
This ‘feeling’ is no warm
and fuzzy thing. The word ‘feel’, as opposed to ‘think’, is used to denote a choiceless awareness of what is. There is no judgment, analysis
or interpretation. Just choicless awareness. It’s the same with that word
‘know’. As I just said, it is not a matter on book knowledge or reasoned
analysis. This knowledge is transrational. Not irrational, but transrational.
As we read in The Voice of the Silence,
‘The mind is the great slayer of the Real.’ There is a place for the use of
reason in our lives—a very great place—but the use of reason can never bring us
to an understanding (again, not an
intellectual thing) of what is truly ‘real’.
We live in a very troubled world. Has it ever been
any different? We see politicians—well, some of them, at least, who are very
much in the news at the present time—who seek to divide and pit one group of
persons against another. That is not the way to world peace and harmony. It never was the way. I see plenty of division
and conflict in our world but I also see plenty of evidence of an ever-growing
group of people who, recognizing their common humanity with all other people,
are working for the good of all and for the very survival of our damaged planet. They are the ones who rail against bigotry,
racism, sexism and all other forms of discrimination. They are the ones who
think deeply before following their nation’s call to take up arms against other
peoples of the world. They are the ones who believe that climate change is
real—which it damn well is—and who are advocating for climate change action at all
levels. They are the ones for work for justice and equality for all, including refugees and all displaced and homeless persons. They know the truth of Dr Besant's prayer, even if they have never heard of her or the prayer the subject of this post.
Yes, these are the people who, often without any connection to formal religion of any kind, are ‘praying’ this prayer. They are praying in the only way that really matters—with their lives.
Yes, these are the people who, often without any connection to formal religion of any kind, are ‘praying’ this prayer. They are praying in the only way that really matters—with their lives.
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