HAPPY SUNDAY! PAUL’S DAILY INSPIRATION “PRAYER AND MEDITATION – AM I REALLY INTERESTED IN WHAT GOD HAS TO SAY TO ME?” What is Prayer and Meditation to you? Prayer is said to be, talking with God and Meditation is said to be, listening to God. When talking to God, is Prayer telling what you want, asking for what you want, begging for what you want, etc.? Meditation is getting to a place of quietness where you become the observer; that is only one form of it. Ultimately, it is quieting the mind for a period of time to be in communion with your Source, True Self, Soul, God, etc. I think of prayer as telling God what my will is, instead of asking to do his, even when our words are asking to do his will. Even though the words may say, ‘let your will be done’, the thoughts behind the request might be saying, ‘as long as I get what I want’. I think that praying sometimes keep us from really hearing what God is saying to us. Maybe if we learned to listen more, we might hear what God is saying to us. Think about conversations you may have with friends where you’re so busy talking and thinking that you are right, even when they speak, you may not really be listening. Do some of us pray this way? It is interesting to consider this. If your initial reaction is to resist what I’m saying, then maybe you should pay attention to those words, because the intensity of the reaction may be telling you something. Now, meditation is quieting the mind and observing our ‘inner self’ without the noise. This could be quite a learning opportunity for us to sit in the silence and listen. In this state of mind, the silence could open us up to something unexpected. That may be a scary thing for some because it would require us to have faith and trust God. Saying we have faith and trust, is very different from actually experiencing it. Both prayer and meditation are very personal. If it is important to you, look at the benefits and liabilities, and see if your making time to pray and/or meditate is in your best interest. Ask yourself, “Am I really interested in hearing what God has to say to me?” He may tell you what you need to hear, rather than what you want to hear. Is that not what a good friend would do? – Paul’s thoughts “Prayer is not asking. It is a longing of the soul. It is daily admission of ones weakness. It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without a heart.” ― Mahatma Gandhi “The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays.” ― Søren Kierkegaard “I cannot believe in a God who wants to be praised all the time.” ― Friedrich Nietzsche “Prayer is not asking. Prayer is putting oneself in the hands of God, at His disposition, and listening to His voice in the depth of our hearts.” ― Mother Teresa “If the only prayer you said was thank you, that would be enough.” ― Meister Eckhart “You exist in time, but you belong to eternity- You are a penetration of eternity into the world of time-You are deathless, living in a body of death- Your consciousness knows no death, no birth- It is only your body that is born and dies-But you are not aware of your consciousness-You are not conscious of your consciousness-And that is the whole art of meditation; Becoming conscious of consciousness itself.” ― Osho “Mindfulness practice means that we commit fully in each moment to be present; inviting ourselves to interface with this moment in full awareness, with the intention to embody as best we can an orientation of calmness, mindfulness, and equanimity right here and right now.” ― Jon Kabat-Zinn “Quiet the mind, and the soul will speak.” ― Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati “Meditation is not a way of making your mind quiet. It is a way of entering into the quiet that is already there - buried under the 50,000 thoughts the average person thinks every day”. ― Deepak Chopra Make it a Powerful Day!
Posted on: Sun, 22 Jun 2014 05:33:36 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015