This afternoon we’re going to talk about prayer.
This is an area, which would be quite disconcerting for students of "A Course in Miracles" because
the Course’s understanding of prayer as it is, as with any other concept of spirituality,
is distinctly different from how we think of it in the world.
The traditional view of prayer, of course, is that we invoke the name or the presence
of God, Jesus, a saint, or anyone, a departed loved one, to help us, and in some way or
another asking them to be an intervening force that would act in our lives and make things better.
When people say that there are no atheists in foxholes what, of course, they’re talking
about is that when we find ourselves in a state of deep fear, even though we may not
believe in God, we find ourselves calling upon God for help.
And this, of course, does not prove the existence of God; it just proves the existence of our fear.
And when we’re frightened we will, like any child, we would latch onto something external
to alleviate our fear and make the boo-boo better, so that we don’t feel the pain. So
what then is the Course’s idea of prayer?
There’s a line early on in the text that says “the only meaningful prayer is for
forgiveness,” because you have everything, (T-3.V.6:3), meaning that our meaningful prayer
is to ask ourselves to remember that there is nothing to ask for because we have everything.
If we are as God created us, which is a major theme of the Course, particularly in the workbook,
if we are as God created us and He created us perfect because He’s perfect, what could we need?
So the problem is not what we think we need.
The problem is that we think we need it, just as the Course says the problem is not what we think.
The problem is that we think, because when we think that we think, we actually believe
there’s a brain that can think and we think there are things to think about that are meaningful,
when the only reality in the world, the only thought there is, is the thought of love or
the thought of perfect Oneness.
So we are the extension of that perfect Love and that perfect Oneness.
We are as God created us.
So there’s nothing to pray for except to ourselves that we remember that there is
nothing we have to pray for.
So the only meaningful prayer is for forgiveness because forgiveness undoes the ego thought system.
The Course says of forgiveness, says of the miracles, says of the Atonement, says of salvation
that it doesn’t do anything; it undoes.
In fact, right at the beginning of Chapter 28 it says, the miracle doesn’t do anything;
“it undoes,” (T-28.I.1:1); very, very, very clear.
And so, what the ego—what the Holy Spirit or Jesus do as our teachers is they help us
look at the ego thought system and say, “This doesn’t mean anything.
This has no power over me, and I’ve chosen to believe in it, I’ve chosen to identify
with it, I’ve chosen to believe its lies and stories because I’ve become afraid of
the simple truth that I’m a child of God, not a child of the ego.”
So, the only meaningful prayer is that I return to my decision-making mind and choose again.
So when we find ourselves asking help which, of course, it encourages us to do, asking
help of Jesus or the Holy Spirit, that’s the heart of prayer.
It’s not asking them to intervene in our lives.
It’s not asking them to make things work out better.
It’s asking them as symbols of our right mind, because that’s what they are.
They are simply symbols or thoughts or reminders that we have a right mind.
So when we really pray to Jesus for help, we’re really praying to our decision-making
self that we remember who we are as right minds.
Before we could awaken from the dream to the reality of our One-minded state as God’s
perfect Son, we first have to become right-minded, and the way we become right-minded is to look
at our wrong-minded decisions, feelings, and behaviors and say, “These are all coming
from my fear of the love in my mind.
There is nothing I have to do.”
There’s that important section in the text, “I Need Do Nothing,” (T-18.VII.h).
I need do nothing because there’s nothing outside that needs to be done about.
There’s nothing I have to do.
The only problem is my mistaken thought.
The only problem is my mistaken decision for the wrong teacher.
That’s the problem.
That’s what needs doing, which really means undoing.
The teacher’s manual says that the only learning is unlearning (M-4.X.3:7).
It’s unlearning what the ego has taught us, and the ego taught us that—taught us
separation and the whole thought system that evolved from that because that’s what we
wanted to learn.
So we, in a sense, we taught ourselves to teach us that the separation is the reality
and then we made up a world to support that.
So the only meaningful prayer is to accept the forgiveness that says, “Nothing happened.
I simply made a mistake.”
Mistakes are not sins; they don’t deserve experiences of guilt, and they certainly don’t
justify the fear of punishment.
Mistakes only call for the gentle correction of our loving Teacher.
So when we pray for help, it’s never praying for what is outside; it is praying that we
return to our decision-making mind so we recognize there is nothing outside, and what I put outside
and believed was there was simply because I was afraid of the power of my mind to choose
love instead of fear.
That is the meaningful prayer, and it’s in that prayer that we return to that state,
which is what the pamphlet calls “the song of prayer,” which is that song the Father
sings to the Son and the Son sings to the Father (S-1.in.1:2).
So that prayer is the end of the process of prayer or, what that pamphlet refers to as
“the ladder of prayer,” (S-1.II.h), which is the process of learning we are minds, not
bodies, and our minds are decision-making minds that can choose again; love instead
of fear, and that’s how we return home.