“To pray is to converse with God and certainly one has to learn to converse with the Father, with Brahma.”
–Samael Aun Weor, Esoteric Treatise of Hermetic Astrology
“…Then, filled with fervor, I prayed, knowing that the perfume of prayer always arrives to God.”
-Samael Aun Weor, Cosmic Teachings of a Lama
When asked how to pray, the Trappist monk Thomas Merton answered simply, “Take the time”.
True spiritual work is impossible without prayer. Prayer is taking the time to remove our consciousness from the mundane and toward the divine, and in that way put ourselves in the proper order and context. As an essence, we are small, just a spark of light, animating a complex body, mind, and intelligence.
Without prayer we forget our place and think that the world revolves around us. Prayer as a practice makes time and space for the superior emotions of awe, humility, transcendental love, and deep communion.
Some traditional prayers contain the resonance of thousands of years of practice, such as the Lord’s Prayer, Hail Mary, Jesus Prayer, Om Mani Padme Hum, etc.
Other prayers are requests, or petitions, that we make from the bottom of our heart, or in moments of danger or despair.
Unconscious prayer is not connected to the Being, only the desires of the ego, and merely perpetuates our pain and suffering.
Prayer is activated by being conscious in the moment, remembering our inner God, the Being. Prayer is wisely combined with meditation and silence of the mind.
“Really, it is necessary to learn how to pray scientifically; the one, who learns to intelligently combine prayer with meditation, will obtain marvelous objective results. But it is urgent to comprehend that there are different prayers and that their results are different.
There are prayers which are accompanied by petitions, but not all prayers are accompanied by petitions. There are very ancient prayers which are authentic recapitulations of cosmic events and we can experience their entire content if we meditate on each word, on each phrase, with true conscious devotion.”
-Samael Aun Weor, Esoteric Treatise of Hermetic Astrology