Hi,
This is Guy,
And let's get started with the first of our five prayers for self-transformation.
And just as a brief reminder that these prayers that we're going to look at together are likely something that most of us have never actually thought about as being a prayer.
But as we go through the first one,
And the ones that we will,
I trust that you'll begin to see that there is a completely different way in which we can take our wish to be a whole,
Even holy man or woman,
With us into the world everywhere we go,
So that there's no moment that life isn't bringing something to us that we can use to serve our new and higher wish.
So let's get started.
The first of these five prayers in action is to go silent before your enemies.
Now,
Why is that action a prayer,
And what exactly does it mean to go silent before your enemies?
What has not defending ourselves got to do with prayer?
You see,
The way we are now,
At least most of us anyway,
When someone accuses us of doing something wrong,
The first thing we want to do is find a way to either reestablish our now upset sense of well-being or put them in their place so we don't feel that pain anymore.
This means that we defend what we take as ourselves from what we perceive in that moment as being our attacker.
Now,
This action focuses our attention outside of us.
Surely,
We can see that we feel attacked by something that comes at us,
And because of that misplaced focus,
Our attention is taken away from the innermost parts of ourselves,
Removed from our consciousness where,
As we'll see,
The real weakness,
Or if you will,
The misunderstanding,
Exists and begins.
By employing this new prayer and action,
Which is to go silent before your enemies,
It means that we're going to refuse to defend ourselves when we're wrongly accused.
It means that we consciously cut ourselves off from that rampant,
Running wild thoughts and feelings that are telling us that if we don't straighten out this person,
Then we'll be their doormat for the rest of existence.
Because if we can use this prayer and action,
Meaning in that split second to go silent before our enemies,
We will see that what is really our enemy is those thoughts and feelings,
That level of consciousness,
That can't take any form of criticism,
Let alone should it be constructive.
So never mind what you hear or see go through as your mind and heart begin to ramp themselves up.
Instead,
Work as best you can to be present as best you can to all of those voices literally hammering at you saying,
You know what,
You've got to defend yourself here.
If you don't do something right now,
Something bad's going to happen.
We all know those voices.
The all important step in this new kind of prayer and action that is in essence what will help us to transform ourselves and our relationship to the world around us is we need to understand the importance of reorienting our attention in that moment.
To become wide awake instead of letting that ache born of feeling falsely accused drive us through the old pattern that it always has.
By becoming a conscious witness to everything,
Thoughts and feelings,
Passing through our wish to be illuminated in that moment instead of dominated by those same thoughts and feelings,
We bring ourselves into a completely different relationship with another order of our own consciousness that cannot be made the captive of anything,
Let alone someone standing before us and accusing us or disrespecting us in some way.
This kind of prayer literally begins to place you where you are the ruler of your own consciousness because you're in relationship with that which brings that consciousness into your awareness in the same moment.
Look at this and we'll pick up the rest as we go along.
