The Power of Prayer
Regardless of religion and deity, my husband and I were discussing the power of prayer. This is a strange topic for me because I don't believe in any god. But, in extreme desperate times, I have found myself looking to the sky beseeching a higher power for some kind of intervention. I expressed to my husband that I thought myself a complete hypocrite by doing so and that by using the word 'god' I was going against all I believe to be true.
It came down to the thought that the power of prayer does not comes from some outside divine source, but the will of the person praying. In effect, I was praying to myself. I wasn't using a belief in a higher power, but speaking aloud, almost like a chant or a mantra. It spiraled in on itself until the prayer was a focus. From there it was a deep breath and a slow blink, and I felt better. Without going into detail, the situation in which I did speak this prayer was not your run of the mill problematic situation, but something that effected me so profoundly, I didn't know if I had the will to go on. I was alone, forced to contine working because I had to pay the bills, and had something vital to my existance taken away. I was on a smoke break in Hackensack New Jersey, and I thought I was going to die.
Back to the point though.
I don't have a deity I call my own (or vice versa) and yet I needed something bigger than myself to pour my energy into. Now, this was quite some time ago and I have grown into my own conclusions. Those conclusions being that I feel a prayer is nothing more than a calling to one's own will. I feel that can be infinately strong. Look at group prayer. So many people pulling energy from themselves or their faith for a common cause. I think this is powerful, religion aside. I think that one does not necessarily have to invoke the name of a deity, but having that faith is a definate focus unto itself. God becomes a center, the point of the spiral. So either way, with or without a religious faith, I think there is something to be said of the power of prayer.
What do you guys think?
Con mucho amor,
Tai-tai
"Will minus intellect constitutes vulgarity." -Arthur Schopenhauer
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