The True Purpose of Prayer

Every now and then we come across a thing that seems to be a part of all human consciousness. Prayer is one of those amazing things because it transcends culture and religion. No matter where you find yourself around the world, prayer is a common language spoken by most. Unfortunately, the true purpose of praying is not being taught to most people. Currently, many religious/spiritual followers use prayer as a form of spiritual control. We pray in order to have life look and feel the way we think it should. We also use prayer in order to avoid taking responsibility for the way our life has unfolded. We say things like “It must be God’s way” when we live an unhappy and unsatisfying life, instead of taking action to change it. The irony is that we spend all this time praying and yet we have so little faith in God (universe).

Prayer is meant to be used to keep us connected to God (the universe) so that we can receive the support and information we need in order to be in full alignment with our purpose. When we are feeling lost and unclear, we can pray for awareness and hope that it comes. However, awareness arrives when we are participating in life authentically which means we should not just sit around and wait for answers. We must make decisions to the best of our abilities and allow life to give us the answers along the way. Our role is to be as ego-less as possible and check in with ourselves to ask “am I doing the things I am meant to be doing?” Once we have done our part, we pray that life will take care of us in the way it is meant too.

You Will Arrive On Time

Many of us are so concerned with our futures and our purpose here on Earth. Anxious thoughts run through our heads that have us doubt our destination. “Am I doing enough?” “Maybe I need to do more,” “What if I never get there?” Many spiritual/religious teachings tell us that we will arrive to our destination perfectly on time, which is true. However, there is another piece involved with being in full alignment with our path. We need to take responsibility for our role and our part in the unfolding process. Spirituality is not a passive game, although many people decide to play it that way. We are constantly influencing our lives, whether for better or worse. There is a relationship we have with the unfolding process, we first must contribute our part, and then we must let it all go and have faith that life will direct us in the right direction. Many people wait for life to direct them but never ask themselves “have I fully contributed my part in this process?” If we can ask this question and answer it honestly with a “yes,” then we can sit back and enjoy how our life will unfold. And we can truly know in our hearts that we will make it to our destination perfectly on time.

Enlightenment Is A Story

The idea of enlightenment can be found in almost every religion or spiritual culture. It tends to be the ultimate goal that all spiritual seekers aim for when they meditate or try to see through the illusions we are all living within. We hear or read many stories about spiritual masters or saints who have reconnected to oneness and can live within a state of god-like bliss even while being human. However, most people don’t realize that their version of enlightenment is a made up story that their mind is predicting using information taken from books, past events and other stories. The authentic experience of enlightenment is a process of letting go of predictions and allowing a higher state of consciousness to be released from the bonds of our intense control of our physical environment. No one can ever think their way into consciousness therefore any thoughts that arise about enlightenment are probably the exact opposite of what enlightenment is really about. Realizing that enlightenment is a story brings you one step closer to reconnecting to the higher levels of consciousness that you have always wished for.

Loving Yourself Is Courageous

We tend to hear people talk about self-love as if it is so simple. As if we can just look in the mirror every day and say to ourselves “I love myself, I love myself, I love myself,” and that should be enough. However, truly loving yourself takes tremendous courage because it means accepting and being at peace with who you are and how your life has unfolded. This type of inner love is experienced as a feeling rather than a thought. There is no need to convince ourselves about our love, it shows up naturally in our bodies when we accept who we are and let our intense desires to change/control our reality go. To have the courage to sit with yourself and truly embrace who you are in this moment is to come in contact with the endless supply of love and connection you have always been looking for.

Finding Your Purpose Is All About Following Your Bliss

Many people believe or have been taught that finding your purpose in this world is difficult and complex. We spend many months and years trying to think our way into purpose. We think about what talents we have, what makes us happy, what we liked as kids and everything else under the sun. We convince ourselves to have experiences that will expand our awareness and our minds in hopes that one day our purpose will fall right into our laps. After all this work, we come to the conclusion that finding our purpose is terribly difficult and illusive. However, this is truly not the case.

Discovering your purpose is so simple that we are constantly overlooking it. It is that little feeling in your heart that says to you “I love doing this,” whatever that may be. If we give credit to that feeling, and let all of the mental doubts and fears fall away, we start to connect to something that calls us home. It is something that brings us into the present moment naturally and makes us feel complete and whole within ourselves. To follow your bliss is to live a fulfilling and wonderful life.

Healing Always Happens Within An Instant

Everyone here on earth is in a constant state of healing. From growing new cells in our bodies to fixing broken bones, it seems that healing is one thing that we are all naturally very good at doing. And although we may spend a lot of time and effort helping our bodies heal, the actual act of healing happens within a blink of an eye. It may seem like the process occurred over many months or even years, and that’s true, but at the moment the healing happens, it takes place in an instant. Why is this awareness so important? Because it shines light on a truly magically process. A lot of the approaches to healthcare in the western world interact with the act of healing as if it is some laborious process that we are trying to desperately gain control over. There is no connection to a higher force within the western approach. However, knowing that healing happens within the blink of an eye suggests that we can recover quite fast and easily and that some intelligent force plays a role in our overall health. The problem is that we need to view the evolution of our health as a learning experience, not as a fearful process where we are trying to escape from death. Once we have learned and grown from whatever ailment we are facing, the purpose of that disease or pain has run its course and the healing happens that moment. To view healing as a sacred evolution is to embrace the gifts that come along the path to a more balanced and a more evolved you.

God Is Less Human and More Perfect Than We Think

To often God (the Universe) is given human characteristic traits that makes him/her someone who judges us and potentially will punish us for doing certain things that we should or shouldn’t do. It would seem that we do not have enough examples around us of a different, less human and more perfect God (the Universe). However, when we focus our attention on the natural world, Mother Earth, we can start to discover loving examples of how God truly relates to us everyday. For example, if we obverse our relationship with the sun, it provides every single person and living thing on this earth with nourishing sunlight no matter what. Both the lovers and the murderers receive sunshine everyday without judgement. We never find someone who has been deemed unworthy of the sun’s nourishment, who then has to walk around with a cloud over their head in order to learn from their mistakes. The same can be said with the water we drink or the air we breathe, it is always given to us, no matter who we are and what we believe. This everlasting love and support seems like that attitude of a more perfect God, who doesn’t judge us but who holds loving space for us to find our way in this challenging world.

God Can’t Move A Parked Car

When it comes to finding your souls purpose in life, which inherently is influenced by our deep connection to God (the universe) or our higher selves, one saying comes to my mind…”God can’t move a parked car.” A lot of times we sit and wonder “where do I start to find my purpose? More often than not, our search ends there because we have assumed that there will be a sign to know that we are going the right way. However, unless we move somewhere, how can God (the universe) direct our path? This may feel uncomfortable at first, not know the future, but building momentum can feel that way. As we continue to have faith and move forward, something eventually comes into our life and we become clearer on what we should be doing. The take home message is “Do Something that you feel drawn towards and you will find your way in time.”

 

Embrace The Here and Now

Eventually we realize that moving forward is never the answer. Movement and growth are naturally a part of life, our energy should not be spent trying to control that process. Instead, we should embrace ourselves within every moment and find peace in the here and now. The here and now has nothing to do with stagnation, it is constantly evolving and changing. It is within this present moment where we have the most impact with our actions because we are actively living life.

 

Meditation #4- Anyway

People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered.

Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives.

Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies.

Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and sincere people may deceive you.

Be honest and sincere anyway.

What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight.

Create anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous.

Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, will often be forgotten.

Do good anyway.

Give the best you have and it will never be enough.

Give your best anyway.

In the  final analysis, it is between you and Creator.

It was never between you and them anyway.

-Mother Teresa