Lord's Prayer

In the Lord's prayer it is as follows:
It seems obvious that God can accomplish His Will on Heaven or Earth with or without anyone asking Him to or twisting His Arm, but in this case Jesus asks for it...
Why should any man (or woman) ask for God's will to be done on earth as it is in Heaven?

Because, Jesus is teaching human beings the correct manner of prayer. Somehow God rules totally in Heaven, and Jesus is not twisting his arm because he says: THy Will be Done. But the function of prayer is to invite or allow that God's will be established ON Earth as it is In Heaven. This is why I think that true prayer is 'letting it be' or 'acquiescence', it is not as passive as it sounds, but when people attempt to use special prayers, rituals, chants and whatever to con God into CHANGing reality, they are not praying but practicing manipulation. Let's trick God through rituals, chants and worship into doing what I want him to do. This is not prayer but magic---God is not needed. But if you realize that God is truly God then you will think twice about trying to get what you want via prayer and rather say God, I leave it in Your Hands. Amen. Thy will (Not MY will) be Done! God's will will always be done, since it is the basis of reality itself. Nothing we can say or do is going to change that. But the reason why we pray is to "fall into attunement with God's will (Reality)." Let it be. It is like letting a little kid "work" with his dad...The kid can use his play mower and he can go beside his Dad, and he thinks he is mowing up a little storm with that plastic mower... Mankind are invited to play along with God as He plants His Seeds and works...we do so with prayer and good action..the job is still going to get done either way, the function of prayer is to allow us to join in and "play alongside" God as He does his lawn work! It is an act of participation in letting things be what they are (what they REALLY are) which only God can determine.

Truth is One

It is foolish for religious thinkers to go on shooting themeslves in the foot and proposing ideas that completely contradict scientific discovery. Rather it should be noted that as science opens its vistas to spiritual dimensions, the truth that it seeks and discovers is no different than the truth sought in spiritual circles. It is said "God is Truth." It is also said: "E=MC2 is true", by arithmetic principle of distribution, it follows that God=(E=MC2).

It is said that God is Reality (Aquinas': 'ens realissimum'); it is also said that science seeks to determine the true foundations of reality, then it behooves us to realize that science and religion are talking about the same thing---rather they are both seeking the same truth concerning reality.

To think of God as "to be true"---St. Thomas calls 'truth' (verum) one of the transcendentalia (or, transcendental aspects of God's "to be"). The others are beautiful, and one (Pulchrum et unum). God is 'ens realissimum" or "being most real; most real being". I translate it thusly: The way things (really) are. 'Really' is parenthised because it is redundant. "The way things are" is one side of the balance the reponse to the way things are is the openness, or acceptance to the transcendental aspects of being at work in human psychology. Personally, I tend to sense God most of all via the beautiful. There is a wonderful medieval latin expression: 'scintilla' or 'ray' God "scintillates" being via beauty. Physicists seek God in the transcendental aspect of the unity of being---God scintillating as one. The unity that underlies all multiplicity drives scientific effort to resolve the apparent contradiction we experience (somewhat permanently)in our life. How can it be that one underlies all? How can there have ever been a scission in the One such that something other than being one came into being? Etc., etc., etc..!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light

To 'Pray' is To Let it Be

If we cease to consider prayer as a kind of "twisting God's arm" whereby little nuggets of good experiences are rationed out transcendentally; it is possible to view prayer in a new manner. There are numerous logical problems with the view of prayer mentioned above: one team prays for victory as does the other. How could God be expected to arrive at a decision which team actually deserved the granting of their victory? Identify the team that prays best, or uses the best language, and so on? There is another way to look at this.

True prayer is receipt of prayer---this is only possible when we actually consider the substance of faith, as St. Paul suggests we do. If my prayer is as FOLLOWS: Lord, I realize that you are the source of reality, indeed Reality itself. Hence, I will not attempt to "twist your arm" to change reality since I already know that you know everything and hold reality in your hand! Therefore, dear Lord I am leaving my hand and my game totally up to you. Amen. This is the perfect prayer. Ironically, at this very instant the Lord responds, I'm actually going to put it back in your hands---act Man, as Krishna tells Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra, Act because you are my Archer. (In other words: God is like, "For me acting in the material world is rather uninteresting since I must play the Game of games, on the Ballfield of ballfields---however for you, O man, acting is the sole currency of your being---the moment you were born to---go for IT!") This is the same sort of difference if a kid asks why he should jump into the cold pool---the answer being: 'because you want to swim'. Every man and woman must be held to playing a game on whatever level because they want to continue to enjoy living their existence. Correlatively, the instant you realize the immense grasp of Reality in all of its profundity---at that very moment you realize your death. And, ironically, the moment you realize your death, you realize your life but also see it in an eternal sense.

Let me try one more example in order to illustrate this idea that true prayer is receipt of prayer: If I wanted something to be other than it was, for example: I was concerned that I knew that there was an accident and I was fairly sure that my daughter was going to be on that same road at the same time. Well, it requires faith to be able to go on working or functioning sanely, while accepting the possibility that something may have happened to her. So my prayer would be as follows: Dear Lord, please make sure that IT WAS NOT my daughter in the car crash. (pause)...but if in your infinite Wisdom it must be the case that it was her then let me accept that equally well...
Thus prayer is perfect because it IS ITS OWN RECEIPT!

If you see prayer as acquiescence, letting be, surrender to the bigger game of how things Really are----then, at the instant you pray 'let it be' you actually 'let it be' hence this prayer has been answered! This is another way of saying that the function of prayer is to help us to acquiesce and surrender to Reality---a mystery that must be surrendered to. Why? Because by the time a person really gets serious about thinking, trying to figure their way out of the rabbithole, one eventually comes to the 'abyss' the realization that reality is infinitely profound, and that you are never going to be able to get a grasp or control over it. One may indeed be able to master certain domains, but to master the entire Ballgame, forget it, but then there is also a scarey realization---I am not in complete control of my reality. Hence, the ego is exposed as being a kind of pseudo-totalitarian dictator. Usually portrayed philanthropically: I can somehow help to save mankind and the world. It is a kind of asumption that such a thing is possible, that, in principle, this might be the case! Yes, within your ballgame you may be able to pull a miracle and "save somebody's ass". But in all the ballgames and the ballgames of ballgames and even the Ballgame of ballgames, even in this you come face to face with the fact that you are really rather small "...and life flows on within you and without you (Geo. Harrison)."