...When you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. —Jesus, Matthew 6:6
Prayer nourishes our lives. It is the way we can speak to God, our Being, Allah, Jehovah Elohim, Ahura Mazda, Buddha, Brahma, the Creator. It is our way of connecting to a force superior to ourselves so that we can ask for guidance, advice, wisdom, protection, strength, health, security, and love. God Wants to Talk to You, it says on my computer desktop. It reminds me that I need to go within to get in touch with my Being, because He/She wants to teach me something. It reminds me that I am a spiritual being living in a physical world. It reminds me that I am one with everything around me for we all share the same Father above and Mother Earth below.
Many people wonder, Am I praying correctly? Am I doing this right? All that is needed in order to pray is sincerity within our supplication, love within our heart, and a longing to become closer with the Divine so that we can hear the whispers of teachings that He longs to give us. Praying mechanically is useless. Our consciousness must be alert, here and now, in order to be able to grasp the guidance from within. As Samael Aun Weor, a great master, said,
When the mind has achieved absolute calm and silence, it can concentrate on the inner Self. This concentration is done with the help of prayer. Pray to your inner Self. Try to converse with your inner Self. Remember that praying is conversing with God. You can pray without formulae; in other words, talk to God, tell Him what your heart feels, with infinite love.
Speaking sincerely from our heart is praying. Listening sincerely to our heart is praying. Communion with the intelligence that is sacred within us is the goal of prayer.
True prayer is spontaneous, emotional, energetic, never dull, mechanical, nor repeated automatically. True prayer is communication, interaction, energy in motion; it is the very heart of our Being meeting itself, and from that convergence, light emerges.
Gnosis is conscious, experiential knowledge and sincere prayer results in gnosis, which is light for the soul. Prayer is also a sacred act of listening, listening to the inner guidance of our divine Being.
God speaks in the silence of the heart. Listening is the beginning of prayer. —Mother Teresa
The words we use, the prayers we utter, are a way to speak our own heart’s longing of our inner Being.
Prayer is not asking. It is a longing of the soul. It is daily admission of one’s weakness. It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without a heart. —Mahatma Gandhi
Really, it is necessary to learn how to pray scientifically; the one who learns to intelligently combine prayer with meditation will obtain marvelous objective results. But it is urgent to comprehend that there are different prayers and that their results are different. There are prayers which are accompanied by petitions, but not all prayers are accompanied by petitions. There are very ancient prayers which are authentic recapitulations of cosmic events and we can experience their entire content if we meditate on each word, on each phrase, with true cognizant devotion. —Samael Aun Weor
Ultimately, prayer is a process that helps us to develop who we truly are. In order to achieve this, we must learn to be patient with ourselves and with the process of self-realization for this is the greatest work we will ever undergo.
The greatest prayer is patience. —Buddha
Seek assistance through patience and prayer, and most surely it is a hard thing except for the humble ones. —Quran, The Cow 2.45
We must truly trust in our inner Being. Our God within knows much better than we do what it is we truly need to achieve this perfect union. That is, when we pray, we should put our longings into the hands of our Innermost. If we do this, we have to let go of those longings. If we are still holding on to what we want, what we expect, what we desire, we have not truly placed them into the hands of the Divine. Put them into the hands of your Innermost, and let them go.
Our prayers should be for blessings in general, for God knows best what is good for us. —Socrates
We hope that the prayers included in this book will help open your heart and Inner Mind and give you the protection and guidance you need from the Divinity you long to know directly.
You can have confidence in these prayers. They have been passed on to us from the most elevated masters of our most venerable traditions. Each prayer has been proven effective. Use them wisely, consciously, and with genuine faith in your Innermost. Prayer is the thread that links us to our Divine. Find your words. Pray them. Listen. Be patient. And keep praying…
May you be filled with loving kindness. May you be well. May you be peaceful and at ease. May you be happy. —Ancient Tibetan Buddhist Blessing
