I'm currently reading an excellent book called The Energy of Prayer by Vietnamese Zen Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh.
Here are a few snippets directly related to the energy of prayer that have stood out to me.
"When we send the energy of love and compassion to another person, it doesn't matter if they know we are sending it. The important thing is that the energy is there and the heart of love is there and is being sent out into the world. When love and compassion are present in us, and we send them outward, then that is truly prayer. In sending love outward, we may notice a change in our own heart. That prayer has begun to have a result inside us."
"Buddhism teaches that we need to have a practice to go along with our prayer. In prayer there has to be mindfulness, concentration, insight, loving kindness, and compassion. Anger, blame, jealousy, and spite are not enough. We need the energy of mindfulness, concentration, understanding, and love to put electric current in the wire. Otherwise, how can the words of our prayer reach the ears of the one to whom we are praying?" (see proceeding quote for greater context about the idea of this electric current)
"We know that when we want to use our telephone, it needs to have a wire and there has to be electricity in that wire. Prayer works in the same way. If our prayer doesn't have the energy of faith, compassion, and love, it is like trying to use a telephone when there is no electricity in the wire. The mere fact that we pray doesn't lead to a result."
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4 comments:
The first quote reminds me of another quote of Baha'u'llah's from the Gleanings, where he talks about how our prayers affect every single person on earth in some very deep, subtle way, even though we may not realize it.
"Intone, O My servant, the verses of God that have been received by thee, as intoned by them who have drawn nigh unto Him, that the sweetness of thy melody may kindle thine own soul, and attract the hearts of all men. Whoso reciteth, in the privacy of his chamber, the verses revealed by God, the scattering angels of the Almighty shall scatter abroad the fragrance of the words uttered by his mouth, and shall cause the heart of every righteous man to throb. Though he may, at first, remain unaware of its effect, yet the virtue of the grace vouchsafed unto him must needs sooner or later exercise its influence upon his soul. Thus have the mysteries of the Revelation of God been decreed by virtue of the Will of Him Who is the Source of power and wisdom."
How perfectly appropriate that you should bring up this quote. :) I was just reading this last night and wondering what it meant in the context of Thich Nhat Hanh's writing. The quote you shared paints a beautiful image of how powerfully prayer disperses and affects many.
So last night as I was reading this quote by Bahá'u'lláh (which I read after reading part of Thich Nhat Hanh's book) I asked myself if by it He would also insist that it is necessary for us to be completely mindful when we pray for the "fragrances of these words" to "cause the heart of every righteous man to throb"? Or is sufficient to simply recite ("whoso reciteth") the Bahá'í prayers? I'd love to hear your thoughts (and any quotes you may be able to point to that help answer this question).
I don't think its every enough to just "say" prayers - the energy/focus is quite important. I think one can get a sense of this from the choice of words - such as the word "intone", which seems to imply a deep, concentrated recitation to prayers. Ideally it is a completely involved process, where one is totally aware of the meaning of one's prayer, and the effect it has on the self. Obviously most of us seldom reach that state :)
Once someone asked Abdu'l Baha why we should pray, why we should supplicate to God and ask Him for what we want - for doesn't God already know that anyway? He replied:
"Know thou, verily it is becoming in a weak one to supplicate to the Strong One, and it behooveth a seeker of bounty to beseech the Glorious Bountiful One. When one supplicates to his Lord, turns to Him and seeks bounty from His Ocean, this supplication brings light to his heart, illumination to his sight, life to his soul and exaltation to his being.
During thy supplications to God and thy reciting, "Thy Name is my healing," consider how thine heart is cheered, thy soul delighted by the spirit of the love of God, and thy mind attracted to the Kingdom of God! By these attractions one's ability and capacity increase. When the vessel is enlarged the water increases, and when the thirst grows the bounty of the cloud becomes agreeable to the taste of man. This is the mystery of supplication and the wisdom of stating one's wants."
As you can see, he does say that we should be aware of how our heart is cheered during our supplication. And so I think prayer in general has its true effect when we are completely immersed in it. The words of God themselves of course have a certain potency - but to really benefit from it, we need to be recite them with full faith and focus.
Glad to hear you say this. :) You make a good point in saying that the words of the holy writings themselves have a certain potency, but that clearly there's something more to the act of praying than simply saying the words. My experience with prayer is that it has a stronger effect on at least my heart as I pray (not to mention who/whatever else gets affected by these prayers) the more mindfully I manage to devote myself to the act of praying.
And as Leila recently wrote somewhere on this blog, prayer can be part of all of our daily actions... in this way, the Buddhist practice of developing mindfulness in all that we do makes a good deal of sense.
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