Eternity has nothing to do with time. Eternity is that dimension of here and now which thinking, and time cuts out. — Joseph Campbell

St. Paul would tell you that the time for prayer is “Always.” This means that you are always available to the way in which Divine Intention wishes to express through you.

This isn’t where most people begin. This availability happens over time with a committed practice of prayer.

The best time to engage with prayer is the first thing in the morning. This is engagement on every morning before you begin the routine of your day.

Awake at dawn with a winged heart ready for another day of loving – Kahlil Gibran.

You need to decide whether this journey of availability to Divine revelation is your priority.

The Master Jesus warned about the issue of being “lukewarm.”  If you are lukewarm then don’t expect much transformation. Transformation requires some fire.

All wisdom teachings from all traditions warn about this issue of being “lukewarm.”

Very often what makes the individual more than lukewarm is that they get fed up with the level of suffering they are experiencing within their everyday life.

The Journey of Prayer is not for the faint of heart and certainly not for those who would use prayer as and when they think they need to dictate to the Divine with whom they have no direct relationship.

It takes time to learn any skill.

What you are attempting is really an Olympian task.  You are preparing to be in communion with Divine Intention. You are attempting through the practice of prayer to live in union with the Cosmos.

If you aren’t prepared to give this invitation to Infinite Fulfilment time and commitment, then don’t expect too much to change.

People have been praying for aeons and not much has changed within the world of time and space. This is prayer at Level 1.

Your sacred space is where you can find yourself again and again. – Joseph Campbell

There are two aspects related to prayer space.  There is the outer space and the inner space.

It isn’t necessary to have space set aside for the practice of prayer.  I engage with the Journey of Prayer in my bedroom each morning lying on my bed.

What is more important is the degree of inner space that you open within you.  This is the key aspect of effective prayer.

Most of the time when anyone engages with prayer at Level 1 there is far too much of themselves involved.

It’s all about what I want from prayer and how God can meet my personal agenda in relation to health wealth and relationship. This is understandable because those who claim authority in the matter of prayer remain at Level 1.

The Journey of Prayer is the journey of Kenosis or self-emptying or surrender.  The Master Jesus stated it this way

He who saves his life.

This doesn’t mean you have to give up your life in a physical sense. It does mean you have to give up the idea that you are separate from the Divine.

The space you are required to create is an inner emptiness whereby you create the dynamic to have the fullness of the Divine pour into you.

The Christian mystic Miester Eckhart said it this way.

When the higher flows into the lower the lower is transformed by the higher – Miester Eckhart – German mystic and Theologian.

For the flow of the higher to move into the lower there must be space for it to do so.  Learning how to create this space is key to an effective prayer practice.

Keep the Window Open and the Singing Bird will Come – Chinese Proverb

When you engage with prayer at Level 1 you will find that most of your prayers go unanswered. At Level 1 it’s all about petition and what you need to have resolved.

Level 1 is where you pray to a God outside yourself and only on occasion as is necessary to fulfil your needs.

The whole of the Journey of Prayer could be summed up in the word “Trust.”

The related word is “faith”, but this word has been misused.  It is equated with connection to a religious teaching rather than as an energetic inner dynamic and a way of Being in the world.

The word ‘faith’ has been equated with the word “belief.” Each of these words have lost their deeper meaning.

Trust in prayer means that you trust the process of prayer to be in communion with the Divine. You enter the unknown but not the unknowable.

You trust and let go.  There is a lovely expression that says, “Let go and let God.” You keep the window of your heart open (beyond the intellect) and wait for the singing bird (Divine Intention) to sing through you.

Most people engaged with Level 1 prayer do not have their focus on the letting go of their agenda. They are not prepared to take the adventure into the paradox of the emptiness that is forever full.

Love is the flower of emptiness – Osho

If you think you know where the Journey of Prayer will take you then you are taking the journey of your own making and not the journey of your Soul.

You will never be in communion with the Divine using your personal overthinking mind. You must learn to trust the silence within and allow the Still Small Voice to be heard.

For the person who has learned to let go and let be, nothing can ever get in the way again. – Meister Eckart

Trust and vulnerability go together.  Pray and vulnerability are not spoken off.  In all the time I have been exploring the spiritual journey never have I come across this important issue.

What keeps you from being available to the KNOWING of Divine Intention are all the blocks that you have erected against feeling those feeling you avoid.

The Journey of Prayer is the journey of the KNOWING OF LOVE.  This is the direct KNOWING that GOD IS LOVE and that you are made in the image of LOVE.

This is not something you earn.  It is never kept from you.  You keep it from yourself. The tragedy of religion is that it keeps you locked out of the KNOWING of this INFINITE LOVE.

Religious hierarchy would prefer that you remain a believer (Level 1) rather than a KNOWER. (Level 3) When you become a KNOWER you are religious in the true meaning of that word.

The mystic Rumi says it this way.

Your task is not to seek for Love but to remove all the barriers that you have erected against it – Rumi.

Most all the barriers that you have erected against the KNOWING of LOVE are taught to you.

They are not part of the TRUE SELF. The Journey of Prayer is a journey of letting go of all those ideas and beliefs that don’t serve you.

The Journey

One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice –
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.

“Mend my life!”
each voice cried.
But you didn’t stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.

It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do –
determined to save
the only life you could save.

The Journey – Mary Oliver

The life that you are determined to save is the life of your soul – that aspect of you that is connected to Divine Intention which is LOVE.

Letting go of what does not serve you can feel threatening.

What if it means you admit to having doubts that may leave you feeling you no longer belong to your faith family.

What if it means, as if often does, that you metaphorically speaking, spend time in the desert of the unknown.

Are you prepared for that kind of courage (from ‘cour’ meaning to enter the heart)?

Are you prepared to be courageous enough to Awaken the Heart and Follow the Message of Love as is Divinely Intended to be gloriously expressed though you?

Are you willing enough to Companion Your Greatness?  Are you willing to become the revelation of LOVE you are always created to KNOW?

This is the Journey of Prayer

This 10 Day Prayer Challenge is being written as from the beginning of August 2021.  It often takes more than a day to write, edit and add images to one day of content.

Below are links to those days of the challenge that have been written as of 21^st August 2021.

• Day 1 – What is Prayer.
• Day 2 – Prayer and Intention
• Day 3 – Prayer Preparation – Part I
• Day 4 – Prayer Preparation – Part II
• Day 5 – Ask and it is Given
• Day 6 – Believe and Receive.
• Day 7 – Levels of Prayer
• Day 8 – Challenges of Prayer.
• Day 9 – Benefits of Prayer.
• Day 10 – The Prayer Process.