The Power Of Prayer
In today’s session we contemplate the quote, ‘I used to believe that prayer changes things, but now I know that prayer changes us, and we change things.’ From Mother Teresa, an Armenian, Indian nun. This track is taken from my course, ‘Daily Contemplations For Living An Examined Life’, available now via my profile.
Transcript
Hello,
And welcome to the session.
I invite you to take a seat,
Or lay down and get yourself comfortable.
You can close down the eyes if you wish,
And take a deep,
Slow breath in through the nose and out through your mouth,
And just gently begin to open your mind to today's quote.
To contemplate the words with a free and open and supple mind.
To welcome in possibility and expansion and growth.
And to allow yourself for the next few minutes to just sit and be with whatever arises.
In a moment,
I'm going to share with you a quote to contemplate,
And then we'll sit in silence for a minute and just let it percolate.
Then we'll talk about that quote and see where the discussion leads us.
Today's quote comes from Mother Teresa,
An Albanian Indian nun.
And it goes,
I used to believe that prayer changes things,
But now I know that prayer changes us and we change things.
I used to believe that prayer changes things,
But now I know that prayer changes us and we change things.
So I think this quote really encourages us to be the change in the world we want to see.
It encourages us to take ownership of the world and of our life,
And pushes even the most devoutly religious people into action.
One of my pet peeves growing up was when a major disaster came.
There was all of these,
You know,
Vigils and pushes to send prayers,
Thoughts to people.
It's like I'm praying for,
Insert whatever happened,
The people of this place who were affected.
I'm sending you my thoughts and prayers.
And to my mind at the time,
I'm like,
That's great,
But those thoughts and prayers aren't really doing anything,
Practically.
Practically,
Right?
Now,
You will see,
You know,
This discussion will talk about some of the more agnostic,
Atheistic views I held back then.
But if you were to pray to whatever deity,
Spiritualism you believe to levitate right now,
To have money,
You know,
Materialize out of the sky into your hands,
To,
You know,
Insert any miracle,
I would bet everything that that won't happen.
Because that's not how prayer works.
That's not how a connection to the divine really works.
And this quote,
Believing that prayer used to change things,
But now I know prayer changes us and we change things,
Reframes that whole relationship.
You asking God or the universe to just grant you stuff is quite childish.
It's quite lacking a nuance that is needed.
But if I pray for the world,
If I pray that maybe the world becomes a bit greener,
Or a bit more caring to the homeless,
Or a bit more considerate of,
Or understanding of mental health,
Or whatever,
Insert anything that you care about.
I wish the world was better in this way.
Very quickly,
You realize that you are the world,
Or at least you are of the world,
And you can impact the world in some small way.
I can't change much.
But through my words here,
Through my life,
Through the books that I write,
The content that I put out,
The people that I talk to,
Through the work of my life,
I can change things.
Or at least I can start to change things.
I can help people change their inner world,
You know,
Plant a seed of possibility.
That's real.
And if I care about the environment so much that I'm praying,
I wish things were different.
I could take action.
I could clean up my street.
I could work on recycling.
I could lobby governments to change.
I could boycott certain things.
I can take those actions that will have a real impact in the world.
Because things are getting better.
Things do change.
It feels like things aren't getting better.
You know,
You look at the news,
The 24-hour cycle,
All these things,
And yes,
Bad stuff is happening,
But bad stuff is always happening and will happen forever.
But look at the quality of life changing over the years.
Things are getting better.
Objectively speaking,
They are.
And there's plenty of research and statistics to back that up.
The amount of food,
Mortality,
Curable deaths,
All of these things that's improving.
The world is improving.
But it may not feel like that.
But either way,
If you want to change something,
You have to be the one to make those changes in the world,
Because it's not going to happen by itself.
How can it?
Now perhaps some of the devoutly religious people may think that,
Or may believe,
They may say that they know God's hand can influence the world directly.
If so,
I invite you to prove it.
I invite you to prove that assumption.
And if so,
I invite you to encourage your God to fix everything.
Instead,
What I would rather is living in the reality of the world that if you're praying,
You pray for something and you let it change you.
You let it soften you.
You let it heal you.
You let it open you up to the possibility that you can change into something that can impact the world positively.
Because until the hand of God comes down to earth and impacts the world in a way that we need it to,
It is on us to do that work.
And the only way we can do that work is if we are changed enough to be able to do it.
To step outside ourselves and to do something beyond ourselves for the good of everyone.
The good of the future.
The endless generations that will come.
The earth.
I like this quote.
I used to believe that prayer changes things,
But now I know prayer changes us and we change things.
I love that particularly because it's from someone like Mother Teresa.
Now yes,
There's controversy and a lot of historical figures have controversies,
But we're not talking down that.
You can find benefits from quotes from people of most any walk of life.
You can accept a quote or an idea from someone and not accept the totality of their beliefs.
This course has quotes from people that are of faiths that actively disbelieve in one another.
In my perspective,
It's wise to gain wisdom from everyone and everything and use that to best benefit the world and ourselves and everything.
Because there's a subtlety to this quote that may be lost on first glance.
I used to believe that prayer changes things,
But now I know that prayer changes us and we change things.
This shows a couple of things.
She was able to change her belief.
I used to believe that prayer did this.
Now I know prayer does that.
She went from a belief to a knowing.
The quote is in fact proof that prayer changed her.
She prayed.
I used to believe that prayer could change things.
She prayed.
It changed her.
Thus proving the quote in itself.
It's like a circular proof,
But also you look at the vast actions that were taken helping people that needed help.
Once again,
There is controversy,
But there is going to be controversy with most people in the world.
No one lives a perfect life.
No one.
But if you believe that prayer can change you and you use that change for positivity,
That's the only way we can get through this.
It's the only way that we're going to move towards an even more sustainable,
Loving,
Connected,
Joyous life.
So I ask you to consider once more.
I used to believe that prayer changes things,
But now I know that prayer changes us and we change things.
So,
Well done.
This brings us to the end of the session.
At the bottom of your screen,
You'll see an option to view the classroom or to ask a question.
Before moving on,
I invite you to take a moment to click through and share your insights.
To read the answers from other students and to hear my replies.
Remember to start your responses with Mother Teresa or to restate the quote,
Or in this case,
Prayer changing us,
So we know which one you're referring to.
This is an opportunity for deep learning,
Further introspection and insight,
So please don't miss out.
Look forward to seeing you in the next session.
This track was taken from my course,
Daily Contemplations for Living an Examined Life.
It's out now on Insight Timer and available via my profile.
I invite you to join in.
