Prayer can open the door
“So Jesus again said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers; but the sheep did not heed [hear] them. I am the door; if any one enters by me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” John 10:7 - 10
In the last reflection we considered the effect we can have on the cosmos. A right deed is accepted as a deposit in the cosmic bank account for all to use. The cosmos rejects our errors and leaves them there for us to put right one day.
Jesus says to us that the I AM is the door of the sheep. He points out that we can be the sheep who don’t hear (or listen to) the thieves and robbers. Thieves and robbers are uninvited intruders, and intruders always operate out of self interest. They enter to get something for themselves.
A door is an entrance, a point of passage from one place to another. One of the most important door openers in our life is prayer; when the door that connects this world to spiritual worlds is open which we go in and out of freely.
Many people don’t use this door, or open it correctly, and some try to sneak through into the spiritual worlds without using the door. They intrude for self-gain. They think that they can acquire things that will advantage themselves. “Please God, take away this pain, take away this responsibility, this illness, help me to win the lottery, give me an easier life. Give me, give me, give me.”
The riches, the abundant life, that comes from true prayer is beyond our earthly imagination. Prayer is a power. We can generate it at will and in full freedom. With our prayers we can assist others to open the door into the light. With our prayers we can surround a person with love so that they become aware of other ways to see things.
Rev Mario Schoenmaker spoke many wonderful prayers and spoke of ways to use prayer. He said that the future needed a totally new expression of prayer. He gave many examples of the power that prayer can have; how prayer is a door opener. He urged us to pray for the victims of the first gulf war in this way.
“Sit quietly and direct your thoughts and heart to the heavens. Picture in your mind people being killed and also see these souls floating in the universe. See their shock, their agony, and surround them with your light. Pray for their freedom, or use the special prayer I have written. After this be still for a little while, and then close with a good thought for yourself and all those whom you shall meet that day.
Let us fervently pray that this world will see the exalted Christ in all his glory and majesty.” Rev Mario Schoenmaker 1991
That is a long, long way from the prayers that we have grown up with which always asked for something and demanded a response, “Please answer my prayer”.
Our prayer will be different if it becomes a conversation with our best friend. The etheric Christ waits for us to consciously turn to him and speak as we would speak to a friend sitting beside us. For example, “Christ, my friend, Peter is not very strong at the moment; he is carrying the weight of world on his shoulders. I have tried to advise him to put down the load so that you can carry it for him, but he cannot. Christ, please take my prayer that he may be strengthened to carry the weight until he finds the wisdom to put it down.”
If we see Christ as a real friend, if we work continually on our vision of Christ as our constant companion, then we will be able to speak to him as we do to our friends. We don’t ask our friends to give us this and that all the time do we? We have been brought up not to ask others to give us things. I remember when I was quite small my mother would say, “Don’t ask people for things, wait until they offer you something.” … hopefully lollies I thought at the time. I also remember thinking: how will they know what I want?
Christ knows what we want, or rather, what we need. Our prayer can strengthen others as it can strengthen us to take life in our stride. Then our prayer opens the door and we can go in and out and find pasture, and have life abundantly so that we become life-givers. Rev Mario says:
“It is our calling to pray to God on behalf of other souls who cannot do it for themselves. To intercede for them is a priestly function … whether you are ordained or not. In that sense all our prayers are as strong and as fertile as the prayers of those who may be priests. Our prayer can give a spiritual power to the world, to the cosmos and to the hierarchy. As such all of us are part of this great cosmic movement which we call the Christ.”
Christ is at God's altar,
Christ is at God's altar, waiting to welcome His Son. But come wholly without condemnation, for otherwise you will believe that the door is barred and you cannot enter. The door is not barred, and it is impossible that you cannot enter the place where God would have you be. But love yourself with the Love of Christ, for so does your Father love you. You can refuse to enter, but you cannot bar the door that Christ holds open. Come unto me who hold it open for you, for while I live it cannot be shut, and I live forever. God is my life and yours, and nothing is denied by God to His Son.
Kristina, I love that you bring prayer into the context that is this website; The Philosophy of Freedom increasingly becomes our prayer until it loses, for me, all semblance to didactic thought. I can go back and pick up its logic, but recognize that its logic was singular in purpose: pointing towards the song of prayer.
Steiner has shared comments he heard Christ utter via the Akashic Chronical. I couldn't find the one in particular I was looking for, but Christ said much on this theme of prayer and I wish to share some of my favorites. Below these quotes I will respond to your sharing of "doors"...
.....................
Prayer is the greatest gift with which god blessed His Son at his creation. It was then what it is to become; the single voice Creator and creation share: the song the Son sings to the Father, Who returns the thanks it offers Him unto the Son. Endless in harmony, and endless, too, the joyous concord of the Love They give forever to Each Other...The Love They share is what all prayer will be throughout eternity, when time is done. for such is was before time seemed to be.
..................
Prayer cannot succeed until you realize that it asks for nothing. How else could it serve its purpose? It is impossible to pray for idols and hope to reach God. True Prayer must avoid the pitfalls of asking to entreat. Ask, rather, to receive what is already given; to accept what is already there.
.................
The secret of true prayer is to forget the things you think you need. Prayer is a stepping aside; a letting go, a quiet time of listening and loving. It should not be confused with supplication of any kind, because it is a way of remembering your holiness. And it is to Love you go in prayer. Prayer is an offering; a giving up of yourself to be at one with Love. There is nothing to ask because there is nothing left to want. That nothingness becomes the alter of God. It disappears in Him.
....................
Praying to Christ in anyone is true prayer because it is a gift of thanks to His Father. To ask that Christ be but Himself is not an entreaty. It is a song of thanksgiving for what you are. Herein lies the power of prayer. It asks nothing and receives everything.
...................
Prayer as no beginning and no end. It is a part of life. And prayer is as continual as life. Everyone prays without ceasing. Ask and you have received, for you have established what it is you want.
..................
Praying for others, if rightly understood, becomes a means for lifting your projections of guilt from you brother, and enabling you to recognize it is not he who is hurting you. The poisonous thought that he is your enemy, your evil counterpart, your nemesis, must be relinquished before you can be saved from guilt. The goal of God is lost in the quest for lesser goals of any kind, and prayer becomes requests for enemies. No one who wants an enemy will fail to find one. Think of the cost and understand it well. All other goals are at the cost of God.
..................
I believe it was from Robert Sardello that I first heard a quote from A Course in Miracles. Sardello recently, I believe, mentions the Courses comment that, "I am not afraid for the reasons that I believe...I am afraid because I see something that is not there.
In response to the affirmation, Above all else I want to see differently, we find the following explanation and it's use of "door":
The world I see holds my fearful self-image in place, and guarantees its continuance. While I see the world as I see it now, truth cannot enter my awareness. I would let the door behind this world be opened for me, that I may look past it to the world that reflects the Love of God.
While I do not necessarily agree with the idea that there is anything to be squared on the illusory side of the door (where dissociation from the Son is seen as real and, therefore, guilt is as well), I share your view of role of the cosmos and wish to amplify your wonderful characterization as to the process of "correction" that takes place. Guilt is an incorrect idea that simply needs correction; it is not proof that God's Creations could possible attack and abandon the Father in actuality. I think you've mentioned this "correction" more than once and I believe that Anthropsophy has the potential to share this new vision of "sin".
God cannot be remembered until justice is loved instead of feared. He cannot be unjust to anyone or anything, because He knows that everything that is belongs to Him, and will forever be as He created it. Nothing He loves but must be sinless and beyond attack. Your special function opens wide the door beyond which is the memory of His Love kept perfectly intact and undefiled. And all you need to do is but to wish that Heaven be given you instead of hell, and every bolt and barrier that seems to hold the door securely barred and locked will merely fall away and disappear. For it is not your Father's Will that you should offer or receive less than He gave, when He created you in perfect love.
.....................
You who are beloved of Him are no illusion, being as true and holy as Himself. The stillness of your certainty of Him and of yourself is home to both of You, Who dwell as one and not apart. Open the door of His most holy home, and let forgiveness sweep away all trace of the belief in sin that keeps God homeless and His Son with Him. You are not a stranger in the house of God. Welcome your brother to the home where God has set him in serenity and peace, and dwells with him. Illusions have no place where love abides, protecting you from everything that is not true. You dwell in peace as limitless as its Creator, and everything is given those who would remember Him. Over His home the Holy Spirit watches, sure that its peace can never be disturbed.
..................
And there will be no fear in us, for in our vision will be no illusions; only a pathway to the open door of Heaven, the home we share in quietness and where we live in gentleness and peace, as one together.
.................
The savior's vision is as innocent of what your brother is as it is free of any judgment made upon yourself. It sees no past in anyone at all. And thus it serves a wholly open mind, unclouded by old concepts, and prepared to look on only what the present holds. It cannot judge because it does not know. And recognizing this, it merely asks, "What is the meaning of what I behold?" Then is the answer given. And the door held open for the face of Christ to shine upon the one who asks, in innocence, to see beyond the veil of old ideas and ancient concepts held so long and dear against the vision of the Christ in you.
The image of the door is powerful. I Am The Door offers a new view of the confusion we place upon God's Holy creation. Thanks much!
Jeffrey
the epistemology of sin/prayer
these open my eyes on prayer and, more importantly, have me thinking of how epistemology is necessarily tied in with prayer. i wonder if you would say more about this notion of "sin"? it was not until reading these quotations on prayer that i reflected upon my own way of thinking and noticed that i keep the question of sin's so-called reality quite separate from my inner develoment in regards to The Philosophy of Spiritual Activity. I would very much appreciate to talk on this subject if you will.
sara
to Sara
HI Sara, let's talk. However, out of respect for the fact that we are in Kristina's thread I'm going to respond to you in a journal I will create in a little bit. I was inspired by the fact that Kristina brought prayer into the context of "the door" and that let me to think more about how I view PoF in the light of prayer and the metaphor of "the door". My comments were inspired and linked to Kristina's but I did not respond directly to her topic so I think it best to cleanly open up a new area of conversation.
I don't know how familiar you are with the website, but after you read this you might want to look over to the right side of the page and you'll see a new journal entry listed near the top. I'll call it "Freedom and 'Sin'"
More soon,
Jeff