With my new mind and my new body I resonate peacefully with Rabbi Balfour Brickner’s interpretation of prayer:

“For me prayer has become meditation upon the best we know, communion with the noblest that we understand, and reaching out of what we are to what we yearn to be.”

“I like that definition because it completely shifts the grounds of responsibility from God to us.”

I agree with the rabbi. I don’t want to offend anybody but I can’t stomach the type ‘Amen” mentality on Facebook.

The rabbi continues:”It reverses the common view that in prayer, we should somehow affect God, compelling the Eternal One to do something for us. Not so, my father suggested. God is an ideal, a paradigm of all we hold of ultimate value or good. Prayer i the activity we enter into to enable us to concentrate on those values. Such concentration help us to find our FINER SELVES, act more responsibly, better control our passions, come to some deeper understanding of a given situation, reach out for a solution of what troubles us.”

This to me is closer to what the Law of Attraction teaches. We are the answer according to M Tamura. God has given us the tools. We are to help ourselves. We have been empowered. We are not victims!!!!!

I am amazed at how this interpretation of prayer empowers me. It emboldens me. I can do things for myself.

“This is what we mean when we suggest that God is, we do. The purpose of prayer is not to change God, but to change the person praying.”

I like the above. This defies the “appease the gods” mentality!

“God does not manipulate or change the intimate details of a person’s life as an accommodation to that individual’s momentary personal needs.”

I believe God gives us the tools we need to find our FINER SELVES, to act more responsibly, better control our emotions, come to a deeper understanding of a given situation, reach out for a solution of what troubles us.

“God is, we do.”

Eleven nights in the hospital! My victory over my fears against surgery transformed me. I am a new ME!

According to Alan Seale: “We must learn to listen to the wisdom of our souls and trust its guidance.”

Seale continued: “Full-spectrum living involves being willing to start from scratch, listen to soul mission, and create your own set of rules. It involves creating a structure for life that provides stability while at the same time sets us free. Then ego can feel secure once again. The difference is that this time the structure and rules were created by soul rather than by outside forces that may or may not be in harmony with your true mission.”

Furthermore Seale wrote: “we come into this lifetime, every one of us, with the possibility and potential to know ourselves fully. And the fullness of self includes and, in fact, is our divinity.”

Still from Seale: “We begin to recognize our personal truth and break away from mass consciousness.”

Michael Tamura wrote: ” Truth is absolute in spirit but expresses itself relatively in the physical.”

“Infinite Possibilities” said: “Our first responsibility in life is not to make the world a better place or to tend to those less fortunate but to live up to our own high standards to act with faith that our dreams are ‘meant to be’ and to maintain a tolerance and compassion for our own divine journey by being so responsible to ourselves, the world will become a better place and those around you will richly benefit not just from the love you’ll share but from the example you become.” (shift from 1st person to second person not mine).

“All meanings are made up and the absolute truth is whatever you decide it is. The meaning of experience depends on your interpretation of it, or your decision to accept someone else;s interpretation and the decision to accept a basic assumption is also arbitrary.”

I am not sure of the source of the last quote.

According to Neale Walsch , … “when you are surrounded by higher consciousness… you receive greater benefits if you surrender.” In practice one tends to go by the collective consciousness and this does not always serve us well. Hence Walsch emphasizes choosing the company that we keep.

We should remember that our thoughts are powerful. Often we bring our thoughts into reality. We manifest our thoughts. It is therefore prudent that we stay away from those whom we know habitually think negatively. It is possible that we don’t think negative thoughts in spite of the negativity that surrounds us but with the law of perversity being in place we just may be badly affected by the effects of the negative thoughts of others around us.

Take for example, the contaminating effects of somebody’s bad mood. If we stay within the range of influence for a couple of hours, chances are we will eventually nt be able to think straight. Or we may get into an irritable mood ourself.

On the other hand if we meditate for a few minutes daily, our template will be one of peace. We may see the world as a friendly and safe place even with the pervading noise and bustle of daily living. It may rain but instead of being bothered we may even enjoy the raindrops.

According to Alan Seale: “It takes time, energy, focused concentration, commitment and patience to master a new way of living, even if it is the path of your soul. We are creatures of habit and any habit takes time to change.”

“Why We Make Mistakes” wrote: “Habit is a great friend to us all, saving us time an much mental  effort. But  it can kill our ability to perceive novel situations. After a while we see only what we expect to see. We skim over things and see not details but  patterns.”

Sylvia Boorstein wrote: “…the mind acquired for this lifetime is equipped with its own particular idiosyncratic filters through which it processes experience.”

This may  explain why any program prepared by somebody else will sooner or later cause followers to be disappointed. Religious programs urging reliance on a higher power may  not work for everybody. “A Middle Way” by Mark Hay explains why.

Alan Seale continued: “Choice is something we must do for ourselves. No one else can choose it for someone else.”

Bente Hansen agreed “No one else knows exactly what is most  appropriate for
you.”

But  back in the 90s when I was diagnosed with severe clinical depression I could not understand why my many doctors what I wanted. Back  then  I naively believed the doctors had all the answers!!!! Even the top admin of my college asked what I wanted. They even offered to create a new position for me.

I could not understand Alan Seale’s: “We must learn to listen to the wisdom of or souls an trust its guidance.”

I now know my mind was just too tired to even think much less to make choices.
Fewer people then knew how to deal with depression.

What would have made sense then was  Alan Seale’s : “the ego longs for structure that sets boundaries and makes the rules for us.”

“We can with practice (Training) begin to decondition the mind from its unconscious reactivity. Even without changing the habitual tendencies, we can be alert to them and work around them.” (Sylvia Boorstein)

I can’t remind myself enough. I easily startle with unwanted thoughts; many turn out to be foolish fears.

“This is a result of my early conditioning. Telling myself  that keeps me from taking inappropriate or unnecessary action.” (Sylvia Boorstein)

“Fearfulness doesn’t have to be a big problem if we recognize that our fears are a result of the way we are wired, most immediately from this life and who knows from what other lives.” (Sylvia Boorstein)

“If the mind is clear and steady, we can recognize  filters (Conditioning) as being just filters and choose the most wholesome response.” (Sylvia Boorstein)

Obviously, I need to listen to Sylvia Boorstein every so often. Several times a day, actually. I read an explanation from Alan Seale why I need these constant reminders but I can’t locate the text at the moment.

Some consoling quotes are: “Mind tangles an suffering are universal, and the desire for happiness and the end of suffering is also universal.”

“I’m experiencing myself and my mind in a new way so I’m frightened.”
“Managing gracefully is not second-rate. I’m pleased to think of myself as managing gracefully”
“When I am mindful, things just  are. The sense of an observer and experiencing being  observed changes to a sense of just  experience happening.”

For all my worries, my anxieties etc Sylvia Boorstein teaches: THERE IS ANOTHER WAY TO DO LIFE.”