Prayer
Prayer is typically associated with a spiritual or religious path, and prayer can be a very useful practice. However, not all prayer is useful. Prayer is useful when it is used to:
- Empty the mind of concerns and desires (e.g., Thy will, not my will)
- Assist one to look at his thoughts and emotions soberly
- Open the heart, spark gratitude, reignite faith or inflame willingness
- Quiet the mind
- Sense and get in touch with the current high vibration
Our Judgment of Others
We have already seen that ego judgment compares, and then favors or rejects. This type of judgment is the cause of the sense of separation.
Let’s look at an example:
Imagine I have two friends. On several occasions, I have made plans with these friends. One friend typically shows up promptly for our engagements. She is happy and excited to spend time together. The other friend is typically late. Occasionally, she doesn’t show up at all. There have been a few times when she was so late that we thought she wasn’t coming, so we left without her. When that happened, she got angry and held a grudge. She would be more prompt for a while, but she’d arrive making a comment like, “I’m here on time so that you two won’t go without me.”
A situation like the one described above provides the opportunity for judgment. The judgments that you or I make are based on the filter of our minds, so we might not make the exact same judgments. However, most people would make some judgments in a situation like this.
The judgments that we make create a sense of separation. One or two people in the story are favored, and one or two people in the story are rejected.
When we reject someone (or something about someone), we close our heart. We attempt to keep them outside of our being, because we believe we are protected if we can keep them outside of our self. The problem is that they are already inside of our being. If they weren’t already inside, we wouldn’t be aware of them.
When we close our heart, we imprison our judgment of them inside of our consciousness. In other words, we hold onto anything we reject. In this way, we cling to our mental images of others as separate, which strengthens our own sense of separation. Anything that strengthens our sense of separation also unconsciously strengthens our sense of guilt and unworthiness. That means judgment as a defense mechanism backfires every time it’s used. It’s the one who judges that gets hurt by judgment. That’s why Jesus said:
Do not judge, or you too will be judged. ~ Matthew 7:1
Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. ~ Luke 6:37
How can the story I’ve told above be seen without judgment?
Watch the wind blow through the leaves of trees. Notice how each leaf is unaffected by what the other is doing. … This is because they do not know any separateness. … They blow in the wind and are perfect in their natural state. Your natural state is perfection. Do not look beyond this, and you will know freedom from the ego. ~ Inner Wisdom through Lanae
In other words:
One friend typically arrives on time and happy. One friend is more often late. Sometimes she doesn’t come at all. Sometimes we are confused about whether she is late or not coming, and we go without her. Sometimes she gets mad about that. Leaves blowing in the wind.
