“If the gods listened to the prayers of men, all humankind would quickly perish since they constantly pray for many evils to befall one another.” – Epicurus
True prayer,
Radiant.
Neither demanding,
Nor expecting﹣
Selfless.
Rage to self-mastery; there is no other you.
It’s always been amazing to me how people seem to confuse prayers to the Omnipotent with letters to Santa Claus. A starting point might be what is it that concerns our creator? It seems to me it is the content of mankind’s hearts. If purity of heart could have been imposed inspite of our free will I’m sure this approach would have been already taken. I think prayer is about opening our hearts to our creator through thankfulness and appreciation, allowing the impulses of Heaven to influence our lives. Beautiful prayer Gregg, thank you.
Sadly Epicurus was right!! But what we fail to realize is that every thought is actually a small prayer working its way into creation. It is not just the usual words spoken in the house of a religion, or from one of a religious book, but every thought becomes a request from the universe from usually a spoiled and often self indulgent being. Are we only able to see the wants and believed needs of ourselves? I am reminded here of wars, where every man is praying to his idea of God to kill the considered enemy and survive himself. But sadly, don’t you believe that they both are wrong, and might benefit themselves and their societies more by praying for peace instead. We have been given over the ages many examples of a more perfect prayer by wise men from different cultures and races since the beginning of time, but instead of learning from them, chose to ignore all of those higher ideals and continue on our narrow path of self-centeredness. One of the most beautiful and simplest of thoughts/prayers are the words “May I only be Truth this day”.
The quote is so true!
Beautiful poem and such an important point about prayer.