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)."