PRAYER IS THE SUPREME action of the inner life. It is the communion of the soul with God, the accent of the mind to God.
Prayer starts as a transient elevation of the mind to the realm of eternity in which the person of God is known, but when prayer life is fully established, you are never far from the divine presence no matter what you are doing. Prayer is, in other words, something much more than a mere setting aside of part of the day for communion with God. It is a way of life in which the human will is consecrated to alignment with the divine will. When this happens, there is transformation of the personality due to its integration around the focal point of the soul which is called the spirit.
Prayer differs from contemplation in that the person is giving of himself to God in silence. Meditation is a necessary precursor to effective prayer inasmuch as it keeps the mind focussed on the boundless void in which the being of God is known. But prayer is a relationship in which we are giving of our very essence to God - in petition, in intercession, in praise, and above all in silent adoration. Rapt adoration in silent contemplation is the meaning of worship. Religious ritual and liturgy are to be seen as an admirable focus for meditation, so that the soul is now sufficiently stilled to commune with God, who can at last enter into our consciousness.
Unfortunately most liturgies with their copious prayers seem to be an end in themselves, and the worshipper is usually afforded no period of silence in which to perform the act of prayer. In the Hindu-Buddhist tradition, which is far more advanced in its understanding of the inner life of the spirit than is the Western theistic one, a whole scheme of bodily and mental discipline is inculculated as an effective way to reaching that reality in which the ground of existence is known. I refer, of course, to the profound system of yoga that is part of this great religious tradition. But yoga is the way to God - or the ground of being, for those who cannot accept a purely personal God - and not an end in itself. Many Westerners who study Eastern techniques do not see that the end of these systems is union of the soul with God. In this union techniques,liturgies, rituals, and even objects of veneration, whether tangible or mental, are left behind. They are gateways to the divine presence, but must not be confused with God. Unfortunately this confused identification is very common in the development of a religious tradition, which almost always degenerates from the inspired vision of the founder to the dogmatic, unimaginative practice of an unenlightened congregation of later times. "The letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life," says St.Paul. It is the Holy Spirit that teaches us how to pray - and indeed prays through us and for us. The techniques of religious traditions are designed to allow the Holy Spirit dominion over the personality, but they are not prayer in themselves.
Prayer starts with the intuitive recognition that there is a power outside human reason that can be approached in simple petition during times of difficulty. It ends in the marriage of the soul with God Who is beyond all categories, and in Whom there is alone complete rest - that rest in which the whole universe is raised up to divine stature. To many people prayer is synonymous with petition. Certainly our first intimation of the divine presence may be the outcome of an intuitional cry into the void of being when we are bereft of worldly help. Even hardened agnostics will invoke the aid of the intangible powers of the universe when they are at breaking point. When our whole personality is fully aware of the difficult situation in which we find ourselves, we are moving beyond the world of fleeting images and vain imaginings to a realm of rapt meditation on a theme - which is our own unhappiness. One cannot pray until the mind is fixed on the object of concern, which in the early stages of one's prayer life is oneself and one's need.
It is important to realise that this type of meditation is part of human life and is not the preserve of the specially trained person. But prayer transcends mere meditation on our own lack or difficulty. It is a presentation of the difficulty to that power which we know in terms of personality as God. This presentation of a defiency to God, who is an ineffable premise to the intellectually based agnostic, is performed in silence.We cease to be aware even of the ground of our petition and are part of a great silence in which God is known. In the silence a new way of life opens out to us, and we see darkly into a greater future. Thus is prayer answered. If it is undertaken in humble trust, and if it culminates in rapt silence, it sets in motion a sequence of events, mostly on an inner plane in our own personalities, that transforms our lives. But prayer of a stylised extrovert character, in which we, as a matter of habit, invoke God's aid for the projects that are dear to our heart, and even instruct Him how to proceed, achieves nothing, and merely estranges agnostics (and even believers) from the practice of the presence of God, which is the secret of the life of prayer.
There is no aspect of the life of the spirit that demands closer, more critical scrutiny than prayer. It is not the same as saying our prayers, a practice usually inculcated in the young and subsequently abandoned when it appears to be of no real value in our lives. The value of periods of recitation of conventional prayers is that these move the mind away from mundane works to the way of God. But in themselves they hardly take one even to the foothills of the mountain of illumination, and can indeed become a stumbling-block to effective communion with God by dulling the mind with familiar images. Furthermore, much enunciated prayer has strong undertones of superstition. A failure to pray is expected to lead to an unpleasant event.
Of all the adverse effects of religion, superstition is the most dangerous, for it leads to a state of mind in which one believes that God's help can be bargained for by performing stereotyped rituals. Nothing is calculated to diminish the stature of human personality more than a servile submission of our will to the presumed will of God, in the assurance that all will go well for us provided we do as God wishes. Surely it is the divine will that man should grow into that fullness of being which was seen perfectly in the witness of Christ, in His life, ministry, passion, and resurrection. Thus there can be only one real prayer of petition, that we may be led through the power of the Holy Spirit into ever deeper communion with God. In other words, there is only one fully realised prayer: union of God and man so that there is a union in man of the human and divine natures as was made manifest in the incarnate Christ. All petitions end in union with God. Then the petitions are swallowed up in the reality of eternal life.
The effect of prayer is that our perspective in life is no longer held at personal, subjective aims. It is raised to God, in Whom alone perfection is to be seen. This does not mean that we go beyond worldly things, freeing ourselves from the claims of the flesh and of earthly matter, but that we see the divine nature in every manifestation of life, and that our work, no matter how dull it appears to be by superficial appearances, becomes infused with God. This is the splendid vision of the mystic, that God in all His creation, and we, in union with Him, can participate in the transfiguration of matter. The key to constructive living is not to escape from the limitations of the world into a private realm of bliss but to raise up all the creation to that bliss which is eternal life. This is love in action, the union of the human with the divine will. It is the abundant life. "The universe itself is to be freed from the shackles of mortality and enter upon the liberty and splendour of the children of God," writes St.Paul. In this vision of the consummation of all things in Christ, personal petition pales into insignificance, except inasmuch as we pray to become better, more profitable servants. Thus the petition that is worth something is that we may be infused with faith, compassion, and that love which alone can bring the experience of forgiveness. If we desire the experience of union with God we should pray to be more loving in our human relationships. The second great commandment reinforces the first, while the first makes the second possible.
In silent prayer the intimate communion that exists between all creation and God becomes tangible to the soul. That we are all members one of another is certain in the experience of the true self. For my identity, though unique, achieves reality only in relationship to the whole body of mankind. Thus the soul is, unlike the outer personality that encloses it in form, never circumscribed or alone. It is in psychic communion with all the other souls and in spiritual communion with God.
This understanding is important in relation to intercessory prayer. When we remember another in prayer we are not asking a vengeful personal God to help forgive a sinner whom He is punishing. We are establishing communion with the other person on the level of the soul, and the agent that communicates is the Holy Spirit. Prayer is indeed the deepest ( and most exalted) type of relationship. Instead of achieving a mere sensory contact, as occurs in everyday life when we know meet another person, or even an extrasensory one, as occurs sporadically through telepathy with someone whom we know very well, there is a spiritual communication at the deepest level of the soul. Intercessory prayer is a much more exalted relationship than a mere telepathic rapport, for it goes beyond circumscribed personality to embrace all people. Thus I can pray for a complete stranger, but I cannot have telepathic communication except with someone I already know. Telepathy works on the level of the soul-infused personality, whereas intercessory prayer is of the spark of the soul, which mystics call the spirit. This distinction underlines the separation of psychic and spiritual levels of awareness. Both are of the soul, but whereas the first is purely personal, the second transcends personality to embrace all men ( and eventually all the universe) in selfless love. Whenever we remember another person in loving concern, we are praying for him.
The communion of man and God so rejoices the soul that it flows out in praise to God, Who has been the author of the transforming relationship. This praise is usually silent, and it emanates as a radiance from the spiritual aspirant. It may also be enunciated aloud, even with the unintelligible speaking in tongues. This is a language of praise in which the reasoning mind is overruled by a more basic intuitive awareness of Diety. It responds by praise that far exceeds the range of the intellect. Such "charismatic prayer" can be a liberating experience so long as it is seen to be merely a stage in the spiritual life. But it becomes incarcerating when it is accepted as the height of prayer.
Deep silence is the medium of real communication. Words, even sincere praise, can exalt the personality of the aspirant while obliterating that silence in which alone the voice of God reveals itself. The Holy Spirit is our mentor in prayer. He leads us from the restriction of the reasoning mind to the free flow of emotional response and finally to the awesome silence where God may reveal Himself to us as overwhelming love and uncreated light. Prayer is of love and shares love's properties; it is selfless, aware only of the other, and leads all into freedom. Prayer is as necessary for the soul as air is for the body. The fruit of prayer is vision; the action of prayer is love.
As we have already noted with regard to spiritual growth in everyday life, a test of the greatest severity meets us whenever we have to make a decision of moment. Such a decision may not only change the course of our own lives but may also have irrevocable effects on those around us, especially the people who depend on us and whom we love dearly. In coming to the decision which we hope will be "right", it is a natural reaction to pray to God for guidance. Once again, when our rational faculties can no longer solve the problem-and this occurs soon in any dilemma of significance - we intuitively seek the obscurity within us wherein lies dormant, yet potentially revealed, the spark of God. It is worth considering the response of the soul to the request for divine guidance, for in this important exercise lie revealed many sources of false inspiration as well as authentic guidance from the Holy Spirit.
A fairly common result of inner petition for help is the manifestation of a voice that instructs. This voice may be an inner teacher who communicates intelligible information, or it may have the sensory quality of an external guide. The question is whether the guidance is of God or from some other source. This is where testing the spirits is a vital part of the spiritual life. All information coming to us in the silence of meditation arises from the unconscious part of the mind. It may indeed also originate there from one of the many conflicts and complexes of the past that lie buried in the deeper recesses of the mind. Or it may come from some external source close to one. This may be another person with whom one is in close psychic rapport, or it may be of discarnate origin, from the mind of a deceased person or even from some other entity in the realm of the unseen world.
Most spiritualistic communication arises from this typically psychic level of reality. The value of the teaching given is neither as low as antagonists of psychism assert nor as exalted as most confirmed spiritualists believe. But to rely on this source of guidance when a decision of moment has to be made is unwise at the very least. People who go to outer oracles for guidance, or even find an inner oracle of this type in themselves, become insidiously enslaved to powerful psychic influence to the cost of their own development into full, mature human beings. It might be noted here that some of these sources of information are regarded as divine by those who rely on them. These deluded people believe quite sincerely that they are in touch with God, who speaks directly to them and tells them what to do.
But there is also another source of guidance from the unconscious mind, and this is the Holy Spirit, Who comes to our consciousness from the spark of the soul (or the spirit where God is immanent, and where the fact of God is known). In the height of contemplative (or mystical) prayer we are fully tractable to the Holy Spirit, for our concern is no longer bounded by personal considerations. "I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." This state is known as "rapt prayer" though, of course, it is not held for any length of time except by those who are advanced on the spiritual path. The Holy Spirit can then lead us to the truth of the situation. He does not tell us what to do in a dictatorial way. Nor does He provide infallible instructions. He suffuses our soul with the warmth of love and the light of wisdom, so that we, as fully integrated people, can now make the appropriate decision ourselves, using intellect, emotion, and the intuition that comes from the soul as one coherent unit. Thus we understand the great statement of St. Paul, "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." He leads us into truth by leading us into the fullness of personality, whose guiding light is the spirit of the soul. When a decision is made on this level of awareness, we are so full of divine grace that we have the faith to leave the results in God's hands and merely do the best we can at that particular moment of time. This is the type of guidance that prayer evokes.
This consideration is also important in assessing the origin and quality of the "gifts of the Spirit" that St. Paul speaks about in I Corinthians 12, and that are so much sought after in the modern charismatic movement. There is no doubt that when the reasoning mind is deposed from its seat of authority - and how it clings there in Western society - the personality can become responsive to other influences. Some of these are frankly demonic in character, as is seen typically in mentally deranged people. But those who abdicate the reason by sacrifice in faith are now treading a new path - by a hidden light they are moving towards fullness of being. This is the way of spiritual progress. If you want to be tractable to the Holy Spirit, you must give of yourself unreservedly, but under no condition must you repudiate your personal attributes, which include the intellect. These attributes, and especially the intellect, must be fully active but under the guidance of the soul. Then the inspiration which flows into the personality can be used properly and purposefully. Not all the inspiration comes directly from the Holy Spirit; some of it comes from the psychic world, as I have already explained.This is by no means to be deprecated,for much of it is of high quality. Indeed, the gifts of the Spirit are basically psychical. But if the Holy Spirit is the final source of the soul's inspiration, we shall be led to greater degrees of understanding and wisdom. Above all, we shall radiate the three great virtues : faith, hope, and love. Just as St. Paul's great poem on love (1 Corinthians 13) forms the zenith of his discourse on the gifts of the Spirit, so a truly charismatic individual emanates a love that transcends personal, doctrinal, and racial differences, and brings all men together. This is a measure of the power of the Holy Spirit in the life of man.
I said earlier that petition made in faith is always heard and answered. Let the petition therefore be carefully considered before it is prayed over.A petition that we may be better servants of man and God, and therefore filled with those great qualities we lack,notably faith and love,is one that leads us to God.All petitions centred on personal salvation without reference to the greater body of mankind are divisive. The faith of him who prays brings the petition to God, Who acts to strengthen the soul and bind together the broken personality. This inner integration of the pieces of personality into an entire whole under the guidance of the spirit within constitutes the Kingdom of God within each man.
When the kingdom of God and its righteousness is sought in this way, all manner of petitions will be granted. But by the very nature of the healed personality, these petitions will no longer be self-centred and vain. They will be centred on our love of humanity and our worship of God.