I cannot begin to imagine the anguish, the torment, the brutal hemorrhaging of the hearts and souls of people in the Middle East. And although the hostility in that region goes mostly unnoticed or ignored by most of the world most of the time, over the last few weeks it has been hard to turn away, to remain unaffected.
I know that it has affected me and more deeply than I had been prepared for and I know it affects the entire world since we are all interconnected. Geographical distance means nothing in the invisible and infinite world of consciousness so that all of humanity feels the anguish, the torment, the hemorrhage whether we are aware of it or not.
Most of us feel helpless. What can we do? We deplore the violence regardless of whose side we feel more aligned with. This is something that demonstrates to us the force of human nature at its worst – violent, remorseless and hell bent on destruction.
The aggression (or compassion) of a wounded creature is in proportion to the pain it has experienced, individually or collectively
When you can free yourself from the emotional horror, if only briefly, you get the sense that such magnitude of brutality can only arise from a proportionately enraged and wounded creature. The greater the hurt, the greater the violence it exacts on another. Or the compassion. But clearly, the latter isn’t the case here.
Inside us, our souls are screaming ‘STOP, PLEASE STOP THIS INSANITY’ but outwardly we carry on as usual. What can we do?
We don’t want to know yet we feel guilty for not wanting to know. Or we may want to know but we feel guilty because we have chosen to bury our heads about the other awful events that are happening in the world, events that have been happening for too long. Or we may want to know but then feel outraged and helpless by what we know. Physically distanced from the horrors, we are nonetheless horrified. And trapped.
We are trapped in our helplessness. No amount of debate, of rationalizing, of explaining, of cleverness can free us from the hideousness of what is going on. What can we do?
At times like this, our only resort seems to be prayer. But what is prayer?
As I have contemplated the events in Gaza, a verse from the Bible keeps coming back to me:
“Therefore if you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering” Mathew 5:23-24
Prayer is our attentiveness in Divine Presence or Infinite Intelligence, the Ultimate Source of all. Prayer is our conscious presence in Infinite Presence. In such attentiveness or conscious presence, we may allow or offer our thoughts and intentions for all those things that we desire. We may also offer thoughts and words of gratitude.
As you must know, it is possible to think thoughts and offer words that are incongruent with our true feelings. For instance, I might offer words of gratitude – “I am grateful for the food I have, the house I have and the job I have”. But I may not actually be feeling very grateful. In fact, my feelings may ring with dissatisfaction – I wish I had a bigger house, I am sick of eating the same food every day, I hate my job.
But those feelings don’t stop us from uttering the words or thinking those thoughts because we are afraid of being ungrateful. We are afraid that we might be punished for our ingratitude. We actually believe that by uttering the words or thinking thoughts of gratitude, we are safeguarding our wellbeing.
Infinite Intelligence does not judge contrary to what some religions may claim. It merely responds to the strongest vibrations that we offer, ‘good’ or ‘bad’, and the strongest vibrations that we can offer are the vibrations of our FEELINGS.
So, when we wish to pray, to offer our intentions, to ask for what we want, we must make sure that our strongest feelings are congruent with what we ask for.
And today, when most of us may feel we have nothing else to offer but our prayers for the people in the Middle East, we have to make sure that the strongest feelings we offer are congruent with what we ask for since Infinite Intelligence responds in accordance with our strongest vibrations.
This is why we are advised to make peace with our brother before we come to the altar to pray. You see, if there is any hostility or conflict in our hearts toward anyone, then this will undoubtedly have the strongest vibrations to which Infinite Intelligence responds regardless of what words we say or thoughts we think.
The question for us then is:
If I wish to pray for peace in the Middle East, have I first made peace with my brothers and sisters? Is there anyone that I might be holding a grievance against? The politicians? The leaders of the warring parties? The leaders of nations? The media? The soldiers? The religious leaders? The civilians? My friends? My work colleagues? My family? My partner? And if so, am I first willing to make peace with them? Am I willing to let go of my grievance, my anger, my resentment, my sense of injustice, my distrust, my desire for revenge, my impatience, my demands?
What you hold in your heart is far more powerful than anything you may hold in your mind, in your mouth or in your hands.
The wonderful thing here is that, even if we don’t feel able to physically say or do anything with respect to the other person or parties, we can have the desire (which is a strong emotion) for peace with any of these people or parties we feel aggrieved by. And that is far more powerful than any words or actions we may offer. In fact, any words and actions that we offer must arise from such strong, loving feelings. Anything else and they would be hollow and destructive. You see, what you hold in your heart is far more powerful than anything you may hold in your mind, in your mouth or in your hands.
And when you have thus made peace with all those you may be in conflict with in your heart, then and only then will you be able to sincerely and effectively ask for peace elsewhere.
Make peace with everyone before you intend peace for anyone.
So, if you are drawn to pray today, I urge you to consider how you might make your prayer a sincere and effective one. I urge you to first make your inner temple, your heart and mind, a sacred place before you offer your prayer. I urge you to make peace with everyone before you intend peace for anyone.MENTORING
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