Week 2, Day 1
Our Best Thinking Got Us Here. Our Best Feelings will Get Us There.
Our hearts already know how to pray
Change your thinking, change your life.
So wrote Ernest Holmes the founder of the metaphysical denomination originally called Science of Mind, now known as Centers for Spiritual Living.
I attended the East Bay Church of Religious Science for over ten years. Every Sunday we recited What We Believe by Dr. Holmes.
One of those heady, and quite verbose, statements says:
We believe that the Universal Spirit, which is God, operates through a Universal Mind, which is the Law of God, and that we are surrounded by this Creative Mind, which receives the direct impress of our thoughts and acts upon it.
No pressure, right?
Taken literally this can be good news or bad news.
Good news in that we have the ability to co-create with God. If we don’t like our circumstances, we can use Spiritual tools and our consciousness to create something better.
Bad news because it sounds like if we don’t carefully monitor every thought, we are likely to create something we don’t want the second we let our guard down, thinking something like, I wish so-and-so would go to hell and leave me alone.
If we could kill with our thoughts the streets would be littered with dead bodies and we’d probably already be dead.
And probably every new President would die in their first 100 days in office.
Fortunately, thoughts are not instantly creative or that powerful!
I believe it is our consciousness which is co-creative with the Divine Creative Intelligence that brought us all here and has kept us alive and reasonably safe thus far.
And I believe our consciousness is a lot more expansive than the sum total of our thoughts. Or we’d be in a heap of trouble.
That’s because in our oneness, what I wish for someone else comes back on me. So were my thoughts that powerful, wishing ill for someone would be to invite that illness to haunt me.
I also believe, based on the work of David Hawkins and his Map of Consciousness, that positive thoughts are exponentially more powerful than negative thoughts. So blessing someone with goodness does invite those good blessings to bless me. Again referring to our oneness.
And one more caveat to throw into the mix.
Our feelings are creative.
I’ve been studying visionary scientist~ scholar Gregg Braden and reflecting on his amazing book, Secrets of the Lost Mode of Prayer. My buddy — that’s what I call him now — Gregg’s traveled the world, studying various faith and indigenous traditions to understand the inner workings of prayer. As well as ancient texts like the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Gnostic Gospels like Thomas.’
The refrain that came to him over and over is that words do not matter nearly as much as feelings.
Let me say that again: Words themselves don’t matter. It’s our feelings that animate our prayers. In other words, we pray less with our brains and more with our hearts.
Feelings give our prayers their energy, their force, and their wings if you will.
So it is a good idea to be mindful of how we feel.
Not to condemn ourselves for having negative feelings or pretend we’re feeling great when we feel like sh*t. That’s what’s called a spiritual bypass and it doesn’t work.
Feelings are real. We transform them by acknowledging and accepting them. Feeling them full on, and if need be, releasing them.
Every feeling is a form of energy.
Energy is a power we can harness and direct.
Anger is a white-hot passion that can be a double-edged sword. But if we harness its energy towards what we do want, rather than what we don’t, it can fuel our blessings.
When I’m angry at how the oil conglomerates rape the earth, I can work up a huge head of steam. That’s energy.
Why not use that energy to do something within my power? Write a letter, plant a tree, make a trip to the city recycling center with the stuff they don’t pick up curbside, and take my neighbor’s stuff as well. Do my bit. Encourage others to do theirs.
Praying an Angry Prayer
And all the while I am doing that, let my anger find the words to pray declaratively and definitively for the healing of the planet:
Let those who would rape the earth for profit have a change of heart. Let it be today. Let them see the effects of their actions and be guided by GAIA to do right by her. Let them realize there are green ways to do everything worth doing.
Let them realize we are not after their profits, but simply want what’s best for all. Let them realize there are electric cars and solar cars that can get us where we need to go, and sustainably so. Let them realize this today before it’s too late to heal.
O, Spirit, let the venom in my heart light them on fire with the passion to do right by our Mama. And let us honor and acknowledge them once they do.
We pledge to shop sustainable and will begin saving for that solar car as soon as they announce its production. Let us all get on the same page. The earth page. Amen, Blessed be, and so it is!
See how powerful praying with anger’s passion can feel and be?
Grief and sorrow are not to be made light of.
Grieving takes time. We honor it by giving ourselves permission to feel that pain. Only by feeling it can we heal it. It’s a wild and rushing river we can only get to the other side of by crossing. We can wade out in it, get cold feet and turn back.
But it’s when we surrender to the currents in the center where our feet no longer touch the sweet soft mud underneath that must be experienced as part of our journey. We need to let that river take us where it needs us to go.
That may not look pretty. We may have days of snotty sobbing, and not much else to show for besides a pile of wet tissues. So be it. We’re healing. We’re blessing the ground with our tears. We’re going where we need to go, and on the other side of our pain, wisdom waits.
Our teary prayers are also heart prayers.
The tears that fall on the ground will sprout as new growth after they water the parched earth. These feelings were created by our Creator for good reason. We can only learn their wisdom by welcoming them and diving into their pools.
Our so-called bad feelings are just as sacred and holy as the good ones we wish stayed around longer. They wait for us on the other side of our pain. From the depths of our sorrow, we will know heights of joy in similar proportion.
If sorrow and joy are paired, so are anger and peace. Envy and gratitude, fear and delight.
I know this is a lot.
It just poured out of me and I’m a bit overwhelmed myself.
But I’m moved to write — do not overthink this. Just be with it. Let it settle where it wants to. Take what fits and leave the rest.
May we all walk this planet with a little less fear, a little more courage. Fewer endlessly looping addictive thoughts and a lot more heart.
And above all, not beat ourselves up for having thoughts and/or feelings. We were made this way for a reason. Remind yourself you are a blessing who came here to share the blessing you are.
We need each other to survive.
Thanks to Diana C. & Sujona Chatterjee for such a thought(!) provoking prompt!
Marilyn Flower writes political humor and satire to delight socially and spiritually conscious folks. She’s a regular columnist for the prison newsletter, Freedom Anywhere, where she writes about faith and prayer. Five of her short plays have been produced in San Francisco. Clowning and improvisation strengthen her resolve during these crazy times. Stay in touch!
