Hi,
This is Guy,
And I thought it would be important just to cover a few small points with you,
Both as an encouragement and also as a way to help you see how important it can be to work with these five prayers.
Let me begin by saying that there is no such thing as a failed prayer.
When you sit down to eat dinner,
Can you fail at eating dinner?
It's impossible,
Because you connect the purpose for sitting down for that meal with the nourishment you receive from it.
And much in the same way,
It's impossible to fail at prayer,
Because just as we eat to nourish ourselves,
So do we pray to know ourselves.
And you can't fail at that if you're willing to work in some of the new ways we've been discussing together.
These five prayers can be taken one a week,
So that you set the intention in the morning,
For instance,
To know that you're going to have a moment before friends or family or at work,
And you're going to be challenged.
And to understand that the usual reaction is in a way the prayer that you will repeat that action again,
Whereas the new prayer in action,
The one that transforms us,
Is to become the witness,
The observer of the old nature.
And it's true with all five of these prayers in action.
So don't let yourself be discouraged.
Every time we get discouraged and start to feel sorry for ourselves,
We may not understand it,
But we are praying that that consciousness remains in place because we're giving ourselves to it in that same moment.
Real prayer is about giving ourselves to something altogether different.
Call it what you will.
And the last thing I would say,
That I can't tell you how profound and encouraging it always has been to me,
And hopefully you'll see it as well.
When you were a child,
If you ever had a chance to go to the ocean or a lakeside and somewhere near the shore dig a small hole,
And you dig it because when you reached a certain point,
A few inches or a foot down,
The water would start to flood into that hole that you dug.
I remember as a boy being so fascinated by that,
Because at a certain point,
I didn't have to dig anymore.
The water would flood into the hole and cave in the sides and the hole would get larger by itself.
This is very much the case when it comes to putting prayer in action.
Because the more we discover about ourselves,
The truth of ourselves,
Through this process of negating what we've always taken to be ourselves,
The more the truth floods in,
Literally opening us up,
And at a certain point it begins to do the work in such a way within us that all we want is for more of that water of truth,
If you will.
We all know the expression,
The truth that sets us free.
That's what we're talking about.
Prayer is a way in which we connect ourselves to the part of ourselves already connected to what is true and everlasting.
Welcome these ideas,
Work with them,
And you'll see,
Just as I've been describing,
Something new will open up in you and you'll begin to walk through this world realizing the purpose of your existence isn't to prove yourself over and over again,
But to discover that already living in you is everything that you've ever wanted,
Hoped,
Or actually imagined was possible.
Thanks for listening.
This is Guy Finley,
And I hope to be with you again soon.
