THE GIFT OF PRAYER

“Prayer is not asking. It is a longing of the soul. It is daily admission of one’s weakness… And so, it is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without a heart.”
~ Ghandi

This great spiritual teacher reminds us that prayer of the deepest kind is more a pledge of gratitude for what has already been received than a request or plea for something not yet experienced. Such an effort refreshes the soul.

Implicit in Gandhi’s instruction is the need to surrender our lives here on Earth. By admitting our weaknesses, we lay down all the masks we show the world and as we do so, what is holy floods in.

I once saw a blind man rocking endlessly in the sun, an unstoppable smile on his face. Not a word was uttered. To me, he was a priest, a shaman, and his whole being was praying and shouting in silence that the day, beyond his blindness, was happily enough.

This is what the heart knows beyond all words, if we can find a way to listen: that beyond our small sense of things a magnificent light surrounds us, more than anyone could ask for. This is what prayer as gratitude can open to us to.

~ Center yourself, and as you breathe, close your eyes and cease all asking.

~ Simply breathe with gratitude for the air.

~ Relax and feel your frailties and imperfections, and let the simple air fill them.

~ Breathe deeply and slowly, and from your tender imperfect insides, ask for nothing and give nothing; just feel without words for your soul’s place in the fabric of things.

The Book of Awakening

~ Mark Nepo