Prayer and Affirmations
Quotes
O Lord, let others ask for every kind of gift, with more and more prayers. I ask for but one gift with but one prayer: “Lord, grant me a pure heart.” How blessed are the pure of heart. By the power of their faith they see God within themselves; they see Him above and below, in all things, at all times. They become the instruments of His divine play, as God guides them everywhere and leads them to all things.
(Jean Pierre de Caussade)
“All things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that ye have received them, and ye shall receive them.” (Mark xi. 24) The difference of the tenses in this passage is remarkable. The speaker bids us first to believe that our desire has already been fulfilled, that it is a thing already accomplished, and then its accomplishment will follow as a thing in the future. This is nothing other than a concise direction for making use of the creative power of thought by impressing upon the universal subjective mind the particular thing which we desire as an already existing fact. In following this direction we are thinking on the plane of the absolute and eliminating from our minds all consideration of conditions, which imply limitation and the possibility of adverse contingencies; and we are thus planting a seed which, if left undisturbed, will infallibly germinate into external fruition. (Troward, Edinburgh Lectures, Ch., 5)
Prayer is not petition: prayer is giving thanks. You don't get down on your knees and petition anyone outside of yourself. There is no intermediary between yourself and Self. You need no priest, no so-called healer; you need nothing on the outside—it's all within [your own] Self. What would the feeling be like if it were true [if you already had that which you were praying for?] Catch that feeling and then work yourself into that state; feel it and keep feeling it until all of a sudden you are relieved. There is a release within you and then it's done. You can't do it a second time. It's done. [What you have been praying for is felt to be yours, and so there is no longer any need to keep praying for it].
I tell you, [your] prayer will be answered. All prayers are answered if you know how to pray. Remember, prayer is not begging. You don't petition; you give thanks. You aren’t going to give thanks to something that isn’t [yours, therefore, you must have the feeling that what you pray for is already yours before your prayer can be steeped with gratitude and joy].
You are told, “When you pray, believe that you have received, and you will.” Can you pray in that form?—for that's the only successful prayer in the world. Begging is not going to do it, for when you beg you are confessing you don't have it [the thing you are praying for]. You’ve got to appropriate it. It is a subjective appropriation of the objective hope. That's praying. (Neville, Immortal Man, p. 66, 68, 235)
Prayer is nothing but the essential connection of the created being with the Light, Love, and Intelligence of Creation. This connection is found at the point in the middle of the chest by the design of the human body. ... Prayer, fundamentally, is the feeling of the Beloved in the Heart, which includes an intention. This intention can be unconditional, where the Soul surrenders herself to the Beloved, in the experience of love and unity. Or, it can involve a more personal communication in which our desires, fears, and longings are expressed. ... Prayer is part of the blueprint of being human. It means that it is expected by the Divine. It is the Beloved's wish to be communicated with in this way.
(Aziz, Transmission of Awakening, p. 49)
Question and Answer
You once said that you're not a great advocate of affirmations—why not?
Most affirmations are based upon an underlying belief that affirms the opposite of what a person is endeavoring to affirm—and that draws the opposite effect. Say you are praying for wealth—well, that prayer is founded upon the deep-seated conviction that you are poor, and that praying for or affirming wealth is a way that you (a poor person) can become more wealthy. So, by the very use of the affirmation, and the belief that we need such an affirmation, we're sending a message to our subconscious mind that we are poor—otherwise, why would we be praying for wealth? Wealthy people never affirm that they are wealthy—they are simply wealthy. They may be grateful for having wealth, they may feel expanded, and free, and abundant because of their wealth, but they never affirm their wealth or repeat wealth-engendering affirmations. So, the true affirmation of wealth and abundance is to feel wealthy. The infallible prayer of wealth is not to ask God for wealth, nor to repeat some affirmation of wealth, but to feel all the qualities of wealth. Why do you want to become wealthy in the first place? Is it to obtain certain objects? To live in luxury? The deeper, underlying reason why most people seek wealth is to feel their own qualities, to feel their own abundance, their own love and joy, their own freedom, their own peace. So why not feel those qualities now? Neither wealth nor lack of wealth are preventing you from doing that.
The appropriation of one’s own abundance—and all the qualities conjunct with abundance, such as love, joy, freedom, beauty, etc.—is the true prayer, the true affirmation. It is not the asking for abundance that will get you abundance, it is the living of abundance, it is the living of a life in harmony with the infinite abundance of Spirit.
Quotes
O Lord, let others ask for every kind of gift, with more and more prayers. I ask for but one gift with but one prayer: “Lord, grant me a pure heart.” How blessed are the pure of heart. By the power of their faith they see God within themselves; they see Him above and below, in all things, at all times. They become the instruments of His divine play, as God guides them everywhere and leads them to all things.
(Jean Pierre de Caussade)
“All things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that ye have received them, and ye shall receive them.” (Mark xi. 24) The difference of the tenses in this passage is remarkable. The speaker bids us first to believe that our desire has already been fulfilled, that it is a thing already accomplished, and then its accomplishment will follow as a thing in the future. This is nothing other than a concise direction for making use of the creative power of thought by impressing upon the universal subjective mind the particular thing which we desire as an already existing fact. In following this direction we are thinking on the plane of the absolute and eliminating from our minds all consideration of conditions, which imply limitation and the possibility of adverse contingencies; and we are thus planting a seed which, if left undisturbed, will infallibly germinate into external fruition. (Troward, Edinburgh Lectures, Ch., 5)
Prayer is not petition: prayer is giving thanks. You don't get down on your knees and petition anyone outside of yourself. There is no intermediary between yourself and Self. You need no priest, no so-called healer; you need nothing on the outside—it's all within [your own] Self. What would the feeling be like if it were true [if you already had that which you were praying for?] Catch that feeling and then work yourself into that state; feel it and keep feeling it until all of a sudden you are relieved. There is a release within you and then it's done. You can't do it a second time. It's done. [What you have been praying for is felt to be yours, and so there is no longer any need to keep praying for it].
I tell you, [your] prayer will be answered. All prayers are answered if you know how to pray. Remember, prayer is not begging. You don't petition; you give thanks. You aren’t going to give thanks to something that isn’t [yours, therefore, you must have the feeling that what you pray for is already yours before your prayer can be steeped with gratitude and joy].
You are told, “When you pray, believe that you have received, and you will.” Can you pray in that form?—for that's the only successful prayer in the world. Begging is not going to do it, for when you beg you are confessing you don't have it [the thing you are praying for]. You’ve got to appropriate it. It is a subjective appropriation of the objective hope. That's praying. (Neville, Immortal Man, p. 66, 68, 235)
Prayer is nothing but the essential connection of the created being with the Light, Love, and Intelligence of Creation. This connection is found at the point in the middle of the chest by the design of the human body. ... Prayer, fundamentally, is the feeling of the Beloved in the Heart, which includes an intention. This intention can be unconditional, where the Soul surrenders herself to the Beloved, in the experience of love and unity. Or, it can involve a more personal communication in which our desires, fears, and longings are expressed. ... Prayer is part of the blueprint of being human. It means that it is expected by the Divine. It is the Beloved's wish to be communicated with in this way.
(Aziz, Transmission of Awakening, p. 49)
Question and Answer
You once said that you're not a great advocate of affirmations—why not?
Most affirmations are based upon an underlying belief that affirms the opposite of what a person is endeavoring to affirm—and that draws the opposite effect. Say you are praying for wealth—well, that prayer is founded upon the deep-seated conviction that you are poor, and that praying for or affirming wealth is a way that you (a poor person) can become more wealthy. So, by the very use of the affirmation, and the belief that we need such an affirmation, we're sending a message to our subconscious mind that we are poor—otherwise, why would we be praying for wealth? Wealthy people never affirm that they are wealthy—they are simply wealthy. They may be grateful for having wealth, they may feel expanded, and free, and abundant because of their wealth, but they never affirm their wealth or repeat wealth-engendering affirmations. So, the true affirmation of wealth and abundance is to feel wealthy. The infallible prayer of wealth is not to ask God for wealth, nor to repeat some affirmation of wealth, but to feel all the qualities of wealth. Why do you want to become wealthy in the first place? Is it to obtain certain objects? To live in luxury? The deeper, underlying reason why most people seek wealth is to feel their own qualities, to feel their own abundance, their own love and joy, their own freedom, their own peace. So why not feel those qualities now? Neither wealth nor lack of wealth are preventing you from doing that.
The appropriation of one’s own abundance—and all the qualities conjunct with abundance, such as love, joy, freedom, beauty, etc.—is the true prayer, the true affirmation. It is not the asking for abundance that will get you abundance, it is the living of abundance, it is the living of a life in harmony with the infinite abundance of Spirit.