Talking to God a.k.a. prayer has never played a big role in my early life. Simply for the reason, that the way it gets presented by worlds religions and throughout our upbringing always felt off to me. Something simply didn’t feel right, but I didn’t know why.
Only much later, after studying this worlds wisdom teachings and getting in deeper touch with A Course in Miracles, my view on prayer changed altogether.
What prayer isn’t
Here are some things I learned about prayer and what it isn’t:
1. Prayer isn’t asking God for help in the world
This is the main point we learn in our upbringing, on how and why to pray: „Talk to God and he eventually will fulfill your wishes (if you are not naughty or have done something against his rules!)“ In case you didn’t get your wishes fulfilled, it has to mean, that you were a miserable sinner and have gloriously failed. So it’s your fault, right?
No, it isn’t. God is not your wish-fulfilling grandpa in the sky. The reason for this is not, because he wants to see you suffer or teach you a lesson, but because God doesn’t know about your world at all! This world is made as a projection in our mind and out of the belief, that we are separated from God. The whole universe is made up by the part of our Mind, that we call Ego. It’s an insane imagination of the impossible. The world is insane, because our belief in the insane part of our Mind is so strong.
When we ask God for help in the world, we are making it real. We are basically saying: „Look, I have made this world and it sucks. Now please come and help me!“ You know, what God answers? He asks you: „What world? What the hell are you talking about?“ God has no idea of what „a world“ is. He didn’t create something that is ruled by pain and suffering and eventually leads to something like death. If God had really created a mess like this, he would be insane or a failure himself. So to ask God for help in a world that doesn’t exist, beside as an imagination in our mind, is futile.
2. Prayer isn’t a talk between persons
Another point in praying is, that somehow we believe, that „we“ are talking to „God“ (or Jesus or whomever). We think of ourselves as a person and imagine talking to another person (even if the other person is not necessarily an old guy with a big white beard in the sky). Our split and confused mind called Ego, can only think in some kind of „form“. Since we see ourselves as form, we also see God (or one of his representatives) as form in one way or the other.
God is not a person though and doesn’t share any personal qualities. He doesn’t have borders or qualities that are separated from other qualities. There was also never a person called Jesus outside of an image in our mind. Jesus is simply a symbol for the oneness with God. He is a symbol of Truth. Even more though, „we“ are not a person either! We are a mind that imagines to be a personality inside a body. So never was prayer a talk between persons…
3. Prayer is not asking for forgiveness for our sins
Asking for forgiveness would make your sin real. You have to believe in sin and that you have failed to play by some imaginary rules, to even ask for forgiveness in the classical sense.
Forgiveness as thought in A Course in Miracles is the total opposite. It is realizing that we can not sin, because we are making this whole world (and all its rules) up. Nothing ever happened. We never have separated from God and therefore sin is impossible. That’s the meaning of innocence.
Seeing yourself, and with that the whole world, as innocent is forgiveness. So you don’t have to ask for something, that isn’t the case anyway.
What prayer is
1. Prayer is spending time with your right mind.
First and foremost prayer is spending time with your right mind. Your right mind, is the part of your mind, that has never left God. It’s the teacher of Love and Oneness. The more time you spend focused on your goal, the closer you get. If you focus on Love, Peace and Oneness, so you will become.
2. Prayer is a reminder of our true being
When we pray, we remind ourselves of our true being in God. It’s a reminder of our eternal innocence. When we pray, we know, that we have never failed, we are not guilty or sinful. We are exactly as God made us and are simply a little bit confused. We have decided for the wrong view and therefore believed to be a human in a body that is going to die and is therefore suffering.
The more we truly pray, the more we can see clearly, that this was simply a mistake in perception and we gently correct this view by deciding to listen to the right minded teacher instead of the insane teacher that only sees separation and „one against the other“, called ego.
3. Prayer is stillness
Only when we become still and gently look and wait and don’t judge, we can get in resonance with Truth. Prayer is not talking. It’s letting God or the teacher of God in our Mind do the talking, while we listen in stillness.
4. Prayer is Love, Peace and Oneness
The more we pray in stillness, the more peace, love and oneness we will experience. These are not given to us as gifts for our right behavior, but are the language of God.
5. Prayer is asking for help to change your mind
You have an ally in the right mind and you can ask it for help anytime. It’s the part of you, that is aware of its oneness with God. There can’t be a better teacher.
Don’t ask for help in the world, but to change your view on the world. It’s not wrong to ask, but ask for the right thing. Prayer is like asking a good friend for help - the best friend you have - in stillness and listen to its gentle answer, that will guide you on your path.
The more time you spend in true prayer, the deeper your holy relationship with the right minded teacher will become.
Love and Blessings,
Atmos
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Posted from my blog https://atmos.black/how-to-talk-to-god/ via #steempress
Thank you, I am now officially 'caught up' but it a good way. This is awesome - love-in-action.
Being caught up in the 🕊 is a beautiful addiction!
Lovin it. Yes, stillness is the true prayer. The true creative energies of the Universe are very subtle, very soft. It really is the butterfly wing that creates the hurricane. In stillness we interact with the first "thought form" of the Cosmic Mind.
Within stillness is found true peace. In peaceful awareness is the path to truthful knowing. In knowing Truth exists the nature of creating with the mind of the Universe.
In the stillness we can feel the perfection of all that is. So in that sense I can't necessary feel that the world we project is insane. It is, after all, perfect as well.
I believe ACIM also speaks to the idea that we are not actually appealing to an outside "being" in prayer to help us, but that we are in fact reconnecting and becoming one with the perfect being that is within all of us.
God. The True Self.
Yes, we have to learn that silence is the language of the Divine.
In ACIM there is not only no outer being, but what we call "inner being" is also imagined. "There is no life outside of Heaven".
There is only God/Divine and nothing separate from it.
"Language of the Divine". ~Beautiful
Great post. Straightforward. Authentic. Sincere. Universal.
I love your post. I think everything is Divine, also our egoic mind. It's also creation, we are all Gods and masters of our Universe. What you think, you create, you become. Therefore we should be careful in choosing our thoughts. So I"ll have to disagree on the part where you say that God didn't create this. God created this too for us too experience. It's our choice if we make a mess out of it.
Interesting perspective. I started in ACIM and unfortunately couldn't finish it. It was not the right time I think. I respect other people's view and am always open for new perspectives. So thank you for broadening my perspective. Much love!
I totally understand. I can't remember how often I put the blue book away. It felt way to heady to me and didn't touch my heart. In the end I found out, that it was me and not the book. 😀
What really helped was to listen and read all by Ken Wapnick. He was and still is my primary source of learning from the course.
Thanks for the tip! The last 2 years I've read so many spiritual books, that in my case it can be too much. What can I say, when I am excited about something, I can exagerate a bit 😂
Thank you so much!
Yes, everything in reality is divine.
What A Course in Miracles distinguishes from all other spiritual metaphysics I know is, that it says that God is Truth and all "he" can create is also Truth and therefore eternal.
Since everything in this world is ending and existing in time (= not eternal), it is called a dream. A dream is not Truth.
ACIM tells us, that the Ego wants to make the dream true in several ways. One being, that it invents a God, that has created duality and an universe of separation - therefore making the illusion true.
Even more though, there is no "us" God could create the universe for.
We are not physical beings (or even energetic beings) incarnated in a physical body. We are pure Mind without form.
There is only one Mind that is split into the belief of duality and the remembrance of unity. Both being part of the dream, but only one a symbolic representation of Truth/God.
This is just a short remark on the courses metaphysics.
It took me more than 25 years to really grasp this and make it a living experience. So I'm totally aware that this will cause huge resistance in you and anyone trying to understand this. I also don't want my readers to believe me (or the course), but just open up for the possibility, that the very basics of what we believe to be true (wheter scientific or spiritual) are wrong.
The rest is in Gods hands anyway. In the end, only Truth is true and it doesn't need me or anyone else to defend or promote it. I see myself much more like a wakeup call.
Thanks a lot for your great comment and lovely words!
Much Love,
Atmos
Not too often do I read things from others that are like minded as myself.
So thank you @atmosblack it's nice to read. :)
Thank you! We are indeed like minded as one mind. 🤯😀
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a very good picture.. but i think its not showing to pray with God.. because we talk to God in lonlines..
Thank you! Actually we pray to God all the time - whether we are with people or alone. ❤️
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nice post
god is the best !
Good post. We should learn to talk with god.
👌🏻👌🏻❣️