[Fwd:Blessing for the Time: Cleaning Up Prayer]

Michael Herman mherman at globalchicago.net
Sun Oct 14 17:09:24 PDT 2001


thought this was quite unique in the swirl of recent email.  still thinking it through for
myself, but think it might have something about invitation-writing and the opening of space.
also perhaps related to my previous wonderings about those times when open space is perceived
as more threat than opportunity.  michael



Birrell Walsh wrote:

> KQED, San Francisco's Public Television station has a weekly
> news show called This Week in Northern California.  On
> October 12, 2001, one of the guests by telephone from
> Islamabad was Asra Nomani, an Indian-American journalist for
> Salon.com working in Pakistan.  She said:
>
> "America isn't just fighting the Taliban and Osama, it is
> also fighting the spiritual warriors, the grandmothers,
> aunties and mothers that are all gathered in living rooms,
> and in their own private prayers invoking these du'as,
> they're called, actual prayers the Quran tells them to
> recite against enemies.  And sadly in this case the enemy is
> America. It's not Americans; it's American foreign policy."
>
> And people are praying here in the United States, as well,
> against terrorists and enemies of America.
>
> I asked my friend and frequent teacher Deborah Klingbeil
> (who does prayer research within the Christian Science
> tradition), "Do you have anything you might want to say to
> be forwarded to others, about prayers to bless and transform
> the prayers of others and comb them into accord with
> kindness and goodness?  I really wish I had something to
> send to people on lists that I am on, that they could send
> on to others, about this kind of transforming...
>
> And Deborah Klingbeil responded:
>
> Hi,
>
> This is not difficult in theory, but in practice the
> simplest things are the hardest.
>
> The way to transform the prayers of others who pray against
> you is to first transform your own prayers into prayers that
> cannot hurt anyone.
>
> We often think our own prayers cannot hurt others but in
> fact if we pray to get a certain job we are praying against
> others who also want or need the job. If we pray to land a
> funding proposal the same holds true. If we pray for our
> crops we are praying that insects and weeds, parts of
> creation, should die - unless we are wise enough to pray by
> loving them all and knowing that we can only bless one
> another. Or wise enough to pray for what is best, no strings
> attached.
>
> That is the crux of the matter. This notion that one
> person's interests, (or the best interests of one part of
> creation human or non), can be opposed to the best interests
> of another person or part of creation, is a shaky basis for
> prayer.
>
> Even in the simple lab tests we do the interconnectedness of
> all things is becoming obvious. You can heal yourself by
> praying for a seed. Why? Because we are all connected.
>
> My teacher used to say that if you are going to be a target
> be a target out of range. Rise to a place where you love and
> the prayers aimed against you will fall beneath you. And
> pray for everyone, because prayer that means well, but has
> anything not of love in it (and this includes our own
> prayers without our knowing it) will boomerang and come back
> to the one who prays. We don't ask that it is so, it is
> simply the nature of such prayer. We should work to
> neutralize this, both for our own prayers, and for the
> prayers of others.
>
> This is "prayer scat", what I was telling you about when we
> were talking about prayer tracking some time ago. It is a
> waste product of prayer. Carry a pooper-scooper and clean up
> after your own prayers, and after anyone else's prayer who
> leaves a little something on your mental lawn, and do so
> without malice, for the dog doo is not the dog, and the evil
> effect of such prayer is not the prayer - the prayer, like
> the dog, may be something you could get along with if you
> got to know each other, and got past the growling stage.
>
> A good pooper-scooper prayer is "I cannot harm anyone, and I
> can not be made to harm anyone. No one can harm me, and no
> one can be made to harm me." Such a simple prayer, yet when
> realized with real love, very powerful.
>
> There is good news. Laboratory findings show that most
> prayers at this stage are compounds, they have a mix of
> different kinds of prayers in them. The most militant
> grandma praying her du'a against an American or anyone, yet
> gives some blessing to those very people, because she is
> really praying for right to be done, and right cannot be
> done to one country and not another, love is universal. She
> is praying because she loves her sons, and those sons are
> mentally connected to our sons, so we get some benefit too.
>
> The most arrogant American (and arrogance is violence, it
> terrorizes also) praying that Bin Laden rots in hell,
> nevertheless blesses that man - without wanting to and maybe
> without him wanting the blessing. Because in with the
> ugliness is a seed of good, of our highest sense of right at
> this stage of our spiritual journey. And that seed is more
> powerful than the un-love.
>
> To protect yourself against the evil which is also in the
> prayer, rise in prayer until you see that all things are
> interconnected, and to where you can love the good in all
> things. Then the evil falls wide.
>
> Also, say thanks for the good, however embryonic, in any
> prayer that is uttered anywhere.
>
> And pray that the evil, the un-love, be dissipated, instead
> of turning back to hurt those who are praying as sincerely
> as they know how, but may be sending boomerangs of hate out.
> And that includes us.
>
> We are kin to the Pakistani grandmas and their prayers, we
> too are sincere, we too are sometimes mistaken in our views,
> we too are dedicated and are "true believers", our prayers
> too are a mix of good and evil, we have a lot in common,
> only our world view is different, and political world views
> are not such a matter of importance when it comes to prayer,
> the prayer is bigger than the world view of the person
> praying.
>
> We can help on all sides by blessing them and blessing us,
> and rising above prayer-as-an-agenda to prayer that is a
> knowledge, acceptance, and gratitude for the
> interconnectedness of all things.
>
> I do think this is a reason why prayer research is needed.
> There are different mathematical markers to different kinds
> of prayers. Certain kinds of prayers are more fallible than
> others and some boomerang more eaisly. It has nothing at all
> to do with denomination or theology. But people should know
> this, just like they know what is a poison and what is not
> physically, and what is an antidote, they need to know this
> about mental power too.  Then they can do what the like with
> that knowledge, but at least we will not all be working in
> the dark with a vague notion that anything that is mental is
> prayer and that it all works alike.
>
> Wars do not come about because someone attacks you. They
> come about because of both sides, because evil turns on
> itself and boomerangs. You cannot heal only half the
> problem. People want to do that, and it is impossible you
> know.
>
> We can kill all the terrorists and more will just come -
> most of these current ones I believe were the children of
> the Pakistani refugee camps of a few decades ago; and the
> refugee camps, and many other places, are filled with new
> generations, there will be lots more to take their place if
> we go that route.
>
> Both sides must be healed together because the healing is
> one. That is why the healing is so hard. People want to be
> healed , they want peace or health or whatever, but they
> want this without changing. They want to keep their finger
> on the hot stove but just not feel the pain.
>
> And of course that wouldn't be good for us because our
> finger would burn off without our knowing it if we didn't
> feel the pain.
>
> The self-destructive power of un-love is a merciful thing;
> it keeps us all from burning our fingers off. I am getting a
> little murky here, but we must see this as a process, not a
> battle, a process in which both sides will be blessed and
> both sides will change. Not just them. And a process at
> which both sides have had some input. Not that it's all
> their fault, or its all our fault. This war is being caused
> by mental factors, conscious and unconscious, and not by
> bombs or planes or the poor men killing each other at the
> front.
>
> Part of the impetus of my work is I have always felt the
> process was inefficient and rather cruel, and that the
> process could be improved. We can, I hope, rise to the point
> in society where we learn not to touch the hot stove, rather
> than waiting for the pain to get so bad that we take our
> finger off.
>
> In our prayers we can call on every molecule of love, every
> force of love, whether we recognize it as such or not, from
> both sides, and side with that, with the love in all created
> things, and not with the Americans or the Arabs, or the
> grandmas or the soldiers. The grandmas love their sons and
> their country just like we do, and they hate those that they
> think hurt them, just like we do. Let's harvest their love,
> and ours, and put the un-love in a plastic bag and take it
> out to the curb. Let's pet the dog and clean up what he
> might have left on the lawn, without making a big deal of
> it.
>
> I do not mean to trivialize those that have lost lives on
> either side, or those that are in emotional pain on either
> side, I am just saying the pain is one and the love is one,
> and it is connected, you cannot heal one side only any more
> than you can pick up one side of a penny only.
>
> Pray, "Those who pray to hurt can only bless themselves and
> others," and include your own self in such a prayer, and
> mean it, and you will not only keep from being hurt, you
> will keep the pious if militant grandmas from hurting
> themselves too, and you will keep the "my country right or
> wrong" Americans, and also anyone indifferent to the fate of
> anyone else, from burning their fingers off. You will help
> to bring out the best in us all.
>
> So I guess my answer is very much what you know already -
> and it is one word, and that is love.
>
> NOTES:
>
> about the ads...if we decide to keep this list
> going, we'll pay the $60 fee and get the ads
> removed.  thanks for your patience with that.
> --michael
>
> The Zapchen WEBSITE has Julie's workshop calendar and links to lama sites (under resources):
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--

Michael Herman
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Chicago IL 60610
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