The first observation any keen investigator makes is that nobody actually knows what is going on.

Nobody knows much about the intelligence that supplies oxygen to the lungs and keeps the heart pumping.
The KNOWING OF THE TRUTH or SEEING THINGS FOR WHAT THEY REALLY ARE should be , therefore , the priority of every soul.


You can be blue collar or white collar , Muslim or Christian , criminal or saint, black or white ... in this meditation or prayer , your name ,history , age and gender does not matter. All your achievements and your failures do not count as well.
What matters is your DETERMINATION TO KNOW YOURSELF AS YOU REALLY ARE.


Jesus , the man of Nazareth fully embodied the Spirit of Christ as testified to , by all the religions of the world.


A lot of them though, have differed in relation to the meanings and applications of his words and this is the major cause of the stark hypocrisy prevalent in the church today.


Anything I also try to tell you regarding this application would equally be from my own experience and in this context, would still not be valid.


Luckily , there is a simple solution to this whole conundrum.
The life of every Saint [or Souls with great intellect] have all pointed to the fact that, beneath the flesh and blood parts of humans lies a vast reservoir of knowledge hidden deep in the center of every man.


So , the entire work which we would try to undertake , is to so open our consciousness or awareness in such a way that we can listen without interruption to the wisdom trickling from this source.


The entire work is about opening your own self , not praying for wealth or health BUT praying for the revelation of this ''Intelligence in You''

Continued

[2]
Prayer is an invocation or act that seeks to activate a rapport with an object of worship through deliberate communication.


This is according to Wikipedia , according to the human perspective.
But I am not here to talk about the human perspective. I am here to just give another perspective of the applications of Prayer as taught by the Great teacher himself.



To satisfactorily accomplish this goal , only the words directly spoken by Christ would be used. So , without much further ado ,



INSTRUCTION No. 1
Matt 6;5
5 “And when you pray, DO NOT BE LIKE THE HYPOCRITES, for they LOVE TO PRAY STANDING IN THE SYNAGOGUE and on the street corners to be SEEN BY OTHERS. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.

Simple and straight to the point. Replace synagogue with church.
Also, pay repetitive attention to the capitalized words.



INSTRUCTION No. 2
6 But 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.


GO INTO YOUR ROOM
Which room does this great intellect speak of? Remember that Jesus said , pray without ceasing , so which room is readily available for use 24/7?
Which room if not that of the heart. The heart is the 6th sense or that Inner feeling of existence or that inner space you experience when you close your eyes and stop thinking of both the past and the future. It is that space that experiences the formations of thoughts. It is the 'I' part of the human.



CLOSE THE DOOR
Closing the door signifies that you don't want to be disturbed. What can disturb this inner room if not distractions from the 5 door senses of the body.



The 5 Doors and their functions are;
EYES - Sight and visual perception
NOSE - Smell
SUBTLE BODY [Includes the mind] - Touch or sensory feelings and thoughts
EARS - Sound and auditory perception
Effective ways of closing these doors would be dealt with later in the article.



FATHER, WHO IS UNSEEN
This points to a rather interesting fact. The Father cannot be seen through the faculties of the senses. The 5 senses have to be STILLED FOR THE 6th to arise. If the Father cannot be seen with the 5 senses , then it follows that the entire 5 senses cannot possibly form a MENTAL PICTURE OF GOD.
Ruminate

Continued

manikal:
[2]
Prayer is an invocation or act that seeks to activate a rapport with an object of worship through deliberate communication.
This is according to Wikipedia , according to the human perspective. But I am not here to talk about the human perspective. I am here to just give another perspective of the applications of Prayer as taught by the Great teacher himself.

To satisfactorily accomplish this goal , only the words directly spoken by Christ would be used. So , without much further ado ,

INSTRUCTION No. 1
Matt 6;5
5 “And when you pray, DO NOT BE LIKE THE HYPOCRITES, for they LOVE TO PRAY STANDING IN THE SYNAGOGUE and on the street corners to be SEEN BY OTHERS. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.

Simple and straight to the point. Replace synagogue with church. Also pay repetitive attention to the capitalized words.



INSTRUCTION No. 2
6 But 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.

GO INTO YOUR ROOM
Which room does this great intellect speak of? Remember that Jesus said , pray without ceasing , so which room is readily available for use 24/7?
Which room if not that of the heart. The heart is the 6th sense or that Inner feeling of existence or that inner space you experience when you close your eyes and stop thinking of both the past and the future. It is that space that experiences the formations of thoughts. It is the 'I' part of the human.

CLOSE THE DOOR
Closing the door signifies that you don't want to be disturbed. What can disturb this inner room if not distractions from the 5 door senses of the body.

The 5 Doors and their functions are;
EYES - Sight and visual perception
NOSE - Smell
SUBTLE BODY [Includes the mind] - Touch or sensory feelings and thoughts
EARS - Sound and auditory perception
Effective ways of closing these doors would be dealt with later in the article.


FATHER, WHO IS UNSEEN
This points to a rather interesting fact. The Father cannot be seen through the faculties of the senses. The 5 senses have to be STILLED FOR THE 6th to arise. If the Father cannot be seen with the 5 senses , then it follows that the entire 5 senses cannot possibly form a MENTAL PICTURE OF GOD.
Ruminate

Continued

Nice one Manikal

[3]

INSTRUCTION No. 3
7 And when you pray, DO NOT KEEP ON BABBLING like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.


DO NOT "KEEP" ON BABBLING
Babbling means to continuously keep on talking nonsense. Babbling means praying for one thing in 47 different ways.
This was Jesus way of telling his disciples that the real treasures were not physical things[money,power,health] that the Pharisees prayed for BUT that the real treasures were Spiritual attributes[peace, love , joy] that are stored in the KINGDOM of GOD WITHIN you.


If the Kingdom of GOD is WITHIN YOU , that means WITHIN YOU lies a kingdom that is bigger than the entire physical Universe!

Elsewhere the bible also says "but we know not how to pray and need the Spirit to make intercessions". Very apt

Man prays for health , wealth and protection. All these , while very much needed , are not the essentials of life.


Without money , man still survives.
Lacking in health , the sick are still alive.
People still survive in regions that are known to be very lax in security issues.
Even the crippled blind man, who is also deaf and dumb still survives

BUT take away AWARENESS or LIFE itself and man cannot last up to the next second.

But what exactly is this AWARENESS or LIFE?
To KNOW this LIFE , man has to be STILL.



If you LOVE something or someone , you'd try to know that thing or person AND this case is no different.


If man really loves God , then his prayer would always be STILLNESS aka TRYING TO BE CLOSE enough to HEAR
You are either TALKING [Gibberish most times] or SEEKING[Listening for the still small voice]. Every second of the day , you are faced with these two options



Psalms
Be STILL and KNOW I am God

Continued

INSTRUCTION No. 4
8 Do not be like them, for your FATHER KNOWS WHAT YOU NEED BEFORE YOU ASK HIM.

The Capitalized portion clearly infers that this "Father" of Jesus is also OMNISCIENT.
OMNISCIENT in the sense that he 'knows what you need before you ask him'

Now , try to imagine talking to someone who knows things you probably don't even know you need
[Remember, its this Awareness that keeps the heart of the body pumping].

Can you imagine any request you have that he doesn't know of already?
You immediately see the impossibility
Your only work is to just consciously wait with the aim of abiding in this awareness
You can also pray for patience , love , and every other gift that has a direct relation to the attainment of the kingdom.

The only thing is to BE STILL , and KNOW that the I in the midst of you is the I in the midst of i.

Following the path does not oblige you to obey any man made rules.
You are not trying to improve the Human self. Rather you are surrendering it , peeling the layers of the onion flesh to reveal the splendor that lays within.

At night , make it a habit to contemplate questions like these;

On a scale of 1-10 , what were the qualities of my thoughts.
Am I satisfied with it?
Do I now have the peace that passeth understanding?
Do I still have have fear or doubt?
Is it possible for the I that I AM to have fear and all those conflicting thoughts?
If No , then mark your progress and inch forward by staying more present to your thoughts the next day

Do you understand that you can spend a whole day without thinking a single thought? Can you imagine your life without that voice that is always in your head throughout the day?

The next article will deal with the practical aspects of this prayer. How to make religion , science and logic all unite by bringing the intellect to a standstill.
Continued

The lords prayer or the prayer advocated by Jesus in verses 9-13 of Matthew 6 is complete the way it is.
Jesus says , Ok oh , for those who still feel the need to say something , say this prayer with meaning in your heart.

INSTRUCTION no. 5
31 So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?'
32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.
33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.

Straightforward. Is your prayer for food , money or health? What is the motivation behind that prayer?
If you were to get the answer to that prayer , would you be satisfied forever?

If not , then that prayer is not the Ultimate prayer or the "Seek first" prayer.
Prayer is not about asking for material things BUT rather about listening for the impartation of spiritual jewels to the soul.

The art of prayer or thoughtless awareness as observed from my perception is divided into 3 steps

- Awareness or Entering the Room of the heart
- Concentration or Closing the doors of the senses
- Surrender or loving God with all thy heart

AWARENESS
This is that feeling you experience immediately you close your eyes.

CONCENTRATION
To close the 5 doors of the senses , awareness needs to be kept in the body

SURRENDER
Comes naturally after concentration has been established

Practicing pure prayer
- Sit comfortably and close your eyes

- This immediately closes the doors of visual perception or Sight.

- Steady yourself with a couple of breaths and just watch yourself.

- For the religious minds , a simple prayer offering yourself to the divine also works.

- As you watch yourself , notice everything that passes through, be it sensations of the body , sound , or thoughts.

- Now , if what you notice is related to the 5 senses, just take note of the sense door that sensation came from and return to watching or listening.

- If it is a sound , note that it came through the ear
If it is a sensation of feeling , note that it came through the subtle body

- If the sensation is a thought , critically and passively look at the thought and ask yourself;
- What is this thought trying to teach me? What is the root of this thought?
- If the thought is of fear , then it is teaching you to have courage.
- If the thought is of anger , then it is teaching you forgiveness.
- If the thought is of hate , then it is teaching you love

- After understanding what the thought was trying to bring to your attention , go back to watching

- If this is kept at , then 5-10 minutes is enough.

- Practice makes perfect. The better you get at watching yourself[or becoming STILL] , the more open your consciousness gets to the Glory of God that exists within you.

- After sometime , surrender comes on its own like a thief in the night. You suddenly realise that the senses are no longer bothering you. An inner calm or confidence in the the nature of love arises. This is the rest or peace that Jesus spoke about.

Be STILL and Know I am God
He leads me beside the STILL Waters, he RESTORETH my soul
They that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most high . . .
God is a Spirit and those that worship him must worship him in spirit and truth

Selah