Questions About The Energy of Prayer: How to Deepen Your Spiritual Practice
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Victor Chan
To start with, I give a few of mine—
Introduction:
• Prayer is a continual presence on earth, a constant global hum.
• Prayer is as natural as breathing …moreTo start with, I give a few of mine—
Introduction:
• Prayer is a continual presence on earth, a constant global hum.
• Prayer is as natural as breathing and walking.
• In prayer, the attitude of our hearts counts.
• There is a type of person whose mind always mix up God with Vitamins.
• More than 200 controlled experiments in humans, plants, animals, and even microbes suggest that one individual's compassionate, loving prayers and intentions can affect another individual or object at great distances.
The Five Questions Regarding Prayers:
1. Does prayer work at all?
2. If so, why does prayer sometimes work but not at others?
3. If God already knows what we need, what's the point of praying?
4. At what point could we say the faith is strong enough?
5. Who is the entity to whom we pray?
Chapter 1:
• If our prayer doesn't have the energy of faith, compassion and love, it is like using a telephone when there is no electricity in the wire.
• What we call the "will of God" in Christianity is equivalent to what we call the "retribution of karma" in Buddhism. So if a spiritual being has made matters the things they are, why pray?
• God and we are not two separate existences; therefore, the will of God is also our own will. If we want to change, God will not stop us from changing.
• If we look deeply, we shall see that sometimes what we call "love" is not a love directed to the other person but towards oneself, because we fear being left alone and losing someone. Is it love or desire if we confuse love with fear and loneliness?
• "Empty" (sunyata in Sanskrit) doesn't mean nothing is there, but it does not have a separate reality.
• Between God and us, there is no discrimination, no separation.
• Mindfulness is authentic energy; whenever it is applied, there is a change. Therefore when we create mindfulness, we can pray.
• The act of reciting, chanting, or praying is not just an empty wish if, behind the words of the prayer, there is a practice. It is the practice of mindfulness and maintaining concentration on the sutra's terms.
• We pray with our mouths and thoughts, but that is not enough. We must pray with our body, speech, mind, and daily life. With mindfulness, our body, speech and mind can become one. In the oneness of body, speech and mind, we can produce the energy of faith and love necessary to change a problematic situation.
• Effective prayers have many elements, but there are two most important ones. The first is establishing a relationship between the one we pray to and ourselves. It is equivalent to connecting the electrical wire when we want to communicate by telephone.
• The communication of prayer lies entirely outside of time and space, and the result is instant.
Chapter 2:
• We are still alive because we have been in ill health, and our bodies have developed resistance and immunities to certain diseases. So don't wish for health without sickness, and we must live peacefully with our ill health.
• If our prosperity is only about having more than others, it will not lead to happiness.
• If we don't pray and deepen our spiritual practice, we intensely suffer when we don't have what we want.
• In prayer, we do not change ourselves alone, but also the collective consciousness. Our minds are creations of the collective consciousness. If we want to change, we must return to the collective consciousness.
• Praying as a community, a Sangha, is more potent than praying as an individual. If we have a free and solid Sangha, the energy we can send together will undoubtedly be more incredible.
Chapter 3:
• The collective consciousness makes up the individual consciousness, and the individual consciousness makes up the collective consciousness. The two things make each other possible.
• In Christianity and Judaism, we call this omnipresence "God." God and Buddha are not two different things. We should not allow expressions to deceive us.
• Nothing that exists has a separate reality independent of anything else. The person who prays, and the person who receives it, are both empty, and neither has an individual self.
• Many religions, such as Buddhism, Islam, and the Orthodox Church, include prostrations in prayer. It is a position that diminishes the ego, opens one up, and brings one close to the earth.(less)
Introduction:
• Prayer is a continual presence on earth, a constant global hum.
• Prayer is as natural as breathing …moreTo start with, I give a few of mine—
Introduction:
• Prayer is a continual presence on earth, a constant global hum.
• Prayer is as natural as breathing and walking.
• In prayer, the attitude of our hearts counts.
• There is a type of person whose mind always mix up God with Vitamins.
• More than 200 controlled experiments in humans, plants, animals, and even microbes suggest that one individual's compassionate, loving prayers and intentions can affect another individual or object at great distances.
The Five Questions Regarding Prayers:
1. Does prayer work at all?
2. If so, why does prayer sometimes work but not at others?
3. If God already knows what we need, what's the point of praying?
4. At what point could we say the faith is strong enough?
5. Who is the entity to whom we pray?
Chapter 1:
• If our prayer doesn't have the energy of faith, compassion and love, it is like using a telephone when there is no electricity in the wire.
• What we call the "will of God" in Christianity is equivalent to what we call the "retribution of karma" in Buddhism. So if a spiritual being has made matters the things they are, why pray?
• God and we are not two separate existences; therefore, the will of God is also our own will. If we want to change, God will not stop us from changing.
• If we look deeply, we shall see that sometimes what we call "love" is not a love directed to the other person but towards oneself, because we fear being left alone and losing someone. Is it love or desire if we confuse love with fear and loneliness?
• "Empty" (sunyata in Sanskrit) doesn't mean nothing is there, but it does not have a separate reality.
• Between God and us, there is no discrimination, no separation.
• Mindfulness is authentic energy; whenever it is applied, there is a change. Therefore when we create mindfulness, we can pray.
• The act of reciting, chanting, or praying is not just an empty wish if, behind the words of the prayer, there is a practice. It is the practice of mindfulness and maintaining concentration on the sutra's terms.
• We pray with our mouths and thoughts, but that is not enough. We must pray with our body, speech, mind, and daily life. With mindfulness, our body, speech and mind can become one. In the oneness of body, speech and mind, we can produce the energy of faith and love necessary to change a problematic situation.
• Effective prayers have many elements, but there are two most important ones. The first is establishing a relationship between the one we pray to and ourselves. It is equivalent to connecting the electrical wire when we want to communicate by telephone.
• The communication of prayer lies entirely outside of time and space, and the result is instant.
Chapter 2:
• We are still alive because we have been in ill health, and our bodies have developed resistance and immunities to certain diseases. So don't wish for health without sickness, and we must live peacefully with our ill health.
• If our prosperity is only about having more than others, it will not lead to happiness.
• If we don't pray and deepen our spiritual practice, we intensely suffer when we don't have what we want.
• In prayer, we do not change ourselves alone, but also the collective consciousness. Our minds are creations of the collective consciousness. If we want to change, we must return to the collective consciousness.
• Praying as a community, a Sangha, is more potent than praying as an individual. If we have a free and solid Sangha, the energy we can send together will undoubtedly be more incredible.
Chapter 3:
• The collective consciousness makes up the individual consciousness, and the individual consciousness makes up the collective consciousness. The two things make each other possible.
• In Christianity and Judaism, we call this omnipresence "God." God and Buddha are not two different things. We should not allow expressions to deceive us.
• Nothing that exists has a separate reality independent of anything else. The person who prays, and the person who receives it, are both empty, and neither has an individual self.
• Many religions, such as Buddhism, Islam, and the Orthodox Church, include prostrations in prayer. It is a position that diminishes the ego, opens one up, and brings one close to the earth.(less)
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