PRAYER IV

When you guide a child you help him develop his strength. You teach him not to ask you to solve a problem that he could face himself. The spoiled child does not want there to be any problems. If there is an adult who caters to him the child never develops his strength and goes through life holding tight to his mediocre images of existence.

So it is with prayer. If you ask for favors you make a prayer a cold mechanical process. Some sit in quiet meditation in order to have have joy or peacefullness. Others pray that they may have a wish fullfilled or be assured a place among the elite of heaven or earth. Such people are blinded by the light of Self.

The Indian girl who rises with the sun does not do so because she wants something. She silently faces the east because she is a part of the process of Life that brings the sun. In the quiet she listens to the song at dawn and lets it awaken a song within her.

Prayer is a touching. Move to the quiet within you. Let no thought or desire possess you. Stay within your inner stillness as if you were waiting at home for a great guest.

You must learn patience. Be sure you are in when the guest comes. You will feel a soft gentle touch. When you do, then reach out and touch that which is touching you. Gently take your guide's hand and be led deep into the waters of solitude. You will leave behind all games, all desires, all greed, all dullness. Finally, you will leave you behind.

When you exit from your prayer you can travel back over the same old road and pick up all the armor you cast aside. But many other doors are also open unto you. You can awake unto a new life. The moment of touching is a moment of death and rebirth. All that is in you can be recreated in that moment.

Prayer is a new dawn.