Tag Archives: Prayer

* This Ancient Philosophy Is What We Desperately Need In Our Modern Lives

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Another link from Brian Williard:

This Ancient Philosophy Is What We Desperately Need In Our Modern Lives

Growing up, all the word “Stoic” meant to me was keeping a stiff upper lip in the face of adversity.

Not until 1989, when I was taking the Synoptics course at St. Mary’s Seminary, did I learn — from Sean Freyne’s The World of the New Testament, which I highly recommend for many reasons — that there is a great deal more to it, including much to like.

Stoicism is a life of ordered joy.

As you read this article, please note the many similarities between the approach to life described there, and the things I have said here about presence.

Carolyn Gregoire also wrote the first article I mentioned about emotional intelligence,  “How emotionally intelligent are you?”

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And yet another link from Brian Williard:

Google’s ‘Jolly Good Fellow’ On The Power Of Emotional Intelligence

Looks like links to Carolyn Gregoire are becoming pretty common on this blog.

Don’t scoff at the headline.  From the gentleman in question here, Chade-Meng Tan, comes another ringing endorsement of meditation and presence as I have discussed them.  I note that the first exercise described in the article is tantamount to what I call prayer, and practically the same as I proposed in “You don’t need an invitation to love people.“

(Reblogged 2019-03-14.)

o About silence

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Here is the second portion of the book The Way of Peace, the first portion of which appeared yesterday.

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MEDITATION

Meditation is not the whole of the Way, any more than flour is the whole of cookies. If you want cookies, you must also have butter, sugar, and perhaps eggs, in addition to flour. Flour is essential, however. Likewise as to the Way, meditation is so essential, as to move me to say this: if you have any interest in learning the Way, and do not now have a discipline of meditation, you should start one now — right now — before even reading the rest of this book.
Continue reading o About silence →

* Co-creators with God

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From “Learning to pray:”  “[T]he most common mistake I observe in other folks’ prayers [is] an assumption that God is distant and apart from human beings.”

My belief is at the opposite extreme.

On the one hand, God’s omnipresence means that God is fully present to every cubic centimeter of empty space, to every atom and electron of your being.

If, as I believe, God is All — which must be so, if God is infinite, since if God is truly infinite there cannot be any thing that is not part of God — then every speck of matter that exists is actually part of God.
Continue reading * Co-creators with God →

* The power of presence

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(Originally posted 08/15/13 at Trojan Horse Productions.  Reblogged 11/29/18.)

[Note, 08/15/13: Releasing this now as I will have another post on similar topics in the very near future.]

Wednesday afternoon 07/03/13 I stepped into the shower and said, “OK, what will I think about?” The answer came, “Think about nothing. Give yourself completely to this activity, this experience.”

And at once, for the first time in weeks, I felt the boost that comes from conserving one’s energies, when they are no longer being drained by attention to things distant from here and now and what I myself can do.

This is the power of presence.

[Notes to follow up on in the future:
– Scott Morrison
– Brother Lawrence: silence; feelings
– Forgive us our trespasses
– Take no thought
– The needle’s eye
– Just for today
– Serenity prayer
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– Be here now
– Wherever you go, there you are
– Conspiracy Theorists: America’s Lost Sheep?
– Was There a Jesus? If So, What Was He Like?]

* Jacob’s ladder 04/05/14

Jacob's Ladder

Prayer for myself often takes the form of imagining myself climbing up a ladder out of a pit, the pit being my current circumstances of poverty and homelessness. Getting out at the top represents a return to the normal life of the American mainstream. I didn’t start with a ladder in there, but I decided to add one to symbolize the various structures and tools that others have made available to me — and eliminate the possibility of clawing at loose earth.

Here begins a list of “rungs” on the ladder that I’ve become aware I need to “overcome.” Each one takes effort, exertion, to get over. I will update this list from time to time as I learn of others.

(Reblogged 10/20/16, 06/07/18.)

1. Fear of the unknown. See From my diary: Learning to pray.
2. Jealousy of others who seem to be prospering more quickly than I am. Details here.
3. Times of despair. I guess, from time to time, they’ll happen. Details here.
4. Incidents of utter selfishness. Details here.
5. Moments of unusual hardship and sacrifice. Details here.
6. Cut loose the losers. Details here.
7. Smoking. See posts tagged “Smoking”.
8. Shame. See “(3) Baby steps.”
9. Attributions of arrogance, selfishness and greed. Details here.
10. Others’ well-intentioned but misguided prayers. Details here.

* When prayer backfires

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One is unlikely to understand this without first reading “From my diary: Learning to pray.”

Bookmarks:
1. Don’t come uninvited.
2. You don’t need an invitation to love people.
3. Name names.
4. Word for word.
5. What you “see” is what you’ll get.
[Conclusion]

I consulted several Wikipedia articles in preparation for this post.  All turned out to have been written by people who are hostile toward reports of anything that might involve a spiritual world.

As much as I try to give credit to all points of view, I cannot adopt the same position. My earliest memories are of the conviction that there is more to the world than we perceive with the five senses.  Since I began practicing silence, I have seen auras.  I have had precognitive visions and telepathic dreams.  I was compelled on one occasion to pray for my worst enemy, only to learn later she’d just been through an event I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy.  In the fall of 1990 I was compelled to pray day after day for a woman I’d not met and had never heard of; only to find, when I moved to another state in January ’91 to attend grad school, she was one of my classmates and had an intense interest in healing prayer, as I also did.  To deny these facts, I’d have to lie to myself more than I’m willing to.

There’s still the puzzle of unanswered prayer.
Continue reading * When prayer backfires →

* How emotionally intelligent are you? Here’s how to tell.

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How Emotionally Intelligent Are You? Here’s How To Tell

If you’re in a boat out on the water, and a storm comes up, and the boat’s rocking and at risk of tipping over; it’s critical to turn the boat to face into the wind.  This won’t stop the wind, but will keep it from rocking the boat.

Emotional intelligence is like that.  It won’t make life’s storms go away, but can help keep them from rocking your boat.

In my view, emotional intelligence is the same as emotional maturity or psychological or spiritual maturity.  This is what spiritual growth is all about.
Continue reading * How emotionally intelligent are you? Here’s how to tell. →

* The Gospel vs. George Will, and other stories

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Links within this post:
The Gospel vs. George Will
Divisions in South Sudan’s liberation movement fuel war
Phil Robertson
Housing update — important, personal

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The Gospel vs. George Will

David Farenthold – Attempts to reduce wasteful government spending show austerity is a hard nut to crack – Dec. 28
George F. Will – 2013’s lesson for conservatives – Dec. 28

Farenthold asks what’s best for the country.  Will asks what’s best for conservatives.  That difference illustrates what Trojan Horse Productions and The William Tell Show are all about.

I will develop that at length in a later post.

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Continue reading * The Gospel vs. George Will, and other stories →

o Jacob’s Ladder 12/21/13

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Prayer for myself often takes the form of imagining myself climbing up a ladder out of a pit, the pit being my current circumstances of poverty and homelessness. Getting out at the top represents a return to the normal life of the American mainstream. I didn’t start with a ladder in there, but I decided to add one to symbolize the various structures and tools that others have made available to me — and eliminate the possibility of clawing at loose earth.

Here begins a list of “rungs” on the ladder that I’ve become aware I need to “overcome.” Each one takes effort, exertion, to get over. I will update this list from time to time as I learn of others.

1. Fear of the unknown. See From my diary: Learning to pray.
2. Jealousy of others who seem to be prospering more quickly than I am. Details here.
3. Times of despair. I guess, from time to time, they’ll happen. Details here.
4. Incidents of utter selfishness. Details here.
5. Moments of unusual hardship and sacrifice. Details here.
6. Cut loose the losers. Details here.
7. Smoking.  See posts tagged “Smoking”.
8. Shame.  See “(3) Baby steps.”
9. Attributions of arrogance, selfishness and greed. Continue reading o Jacob’s Ladder 12/21/13 →