Prayer, Faith and Charity

There is so much going on in my head right now. Thought I would write a little to try and share some of it. This will jump around. If you found Part One interesting, you might get something out of this as well.

I've been reading two books recently: The World to Come, by Lloyd Geering; and The Sermon on the Mount, by Emmet Fox. On the face of it, these books are different in their interpretation of biblical truth - Geering sees much of the bible as parable, while Fox seems many of the stories as fact. However, their mutual message is pretty much the same.

Reading Fox's book, I am continually experiencing a stress each time he mentions Jesus or Christianity. I've been reading the book slowly, so eventually, I noticed this stressful feeling. Indeed, it was quite strong at the beginning and I nearly put the book down. However, there were fascinating nuggets of truth that kept me going.

One of my favourites is (my interpretation of) his approach to prayer. The whole concept of prayer is highly unattractive to me. Why? Because I could never figure it out and always felt like a failure when it came to prayer. I'd go to church, and sit. I'd look around and there would be all these people praying. People would talk about the power of prayer in their lives. Well, I had nothing to say. In high school we would say prayers all the time, but these were mere mantras repeated because that was what we were supposed to do. I never gave any real consideration to what we were trying to achieve. For me, prayer, church and the sacraments were always dead time. Of course, you'd never have known that - we are social animals and I was good at fitting in!

Anyhow, Fox's view is that contemplation is the highest form of prayer. Now that is something I can relate to. Contemplation. That's what I do when I am riding my bike or running on a trail. That's what I do when I am reading a book, writing in my journal or sitting at my laptop! Intellectually, I love the idea of being able to pray anytime and anywhere just by thinking. It's neat because that means that, under that definition, at least one third of my day is spent in prayer.

Prayer, Jesus, Church, Christian - all words that make me feel uncomfortable. Why? There is much to learn through analysis of uncomfortable situations.

The two books are a little mixed in my head, but there are some concepts coming out of them that I find very interesting. If any of these thoughts get you wound up, ask yourself why? I did, and had some interesting self-realizations. Not all of this is in the books. Some is my extension of the main concepts.

Whether Jesus was the Saviour of all men is meaningless. The fact that his philosophy completely dominated Western thought for 2000 years means that what we see him to be is worth studying. This appeals to me because it removes the sinning through "non-belief fear" that lives in me. Whether I believe or not is neither relevant or irrelevant - the key is to learn by studying.

That thought brought me onto an interesting point. Assuming one accepts the basic tenants of Christianity - right thought, right action, right living. Do you think Jesus, Mohammed or Buddha would really care if you belong to His religion, another religion or no religion at all? The answer, for me, is that the Prophets would respect anyone who is on a spiritual journey. So long as you are making progress your team jersey doesn't matter.

Fox continually refers to Christian Metaphysics - a concept that I find very attractive as it is completely removed from the rules and dogma that I most of us fail to measure up to. Now this is my own baggage, but when I think about church, I think about rules, sin and structure. When I think about Christian Metaphysics, I think about acceptance, tolerance and love.

What is faith? Many Christians would define faith as the belief in Jesus Christ as the one true God and Saviour of all mankind (even typing it makes me nervous!). This works for a lot of people. However, it doesn't quite work for me. In order to embrace the message of Jesus (and all the great Prophets), I think a better definition of faith might be, "the belief in one's self as the embodiment of an all powerful and loving creation". Why belief in self?

I mentioned this in Part One. The more I think about it, it is only through a true and deep self acceptance that anyone will be able to embrace the message of Christ (and the other Prophets I keep mentioning!). For how can we accept other if we are uncomfortable with ourselves?

So if self-acceptance is the first step, how do we go about it? The answer was there all along for me! Prayer - but not by continuous repetition of rote prayers. Prayer through quiet self-reflection and listening to one's inner compass. Fascinating for me. By changing the definition of prayer, I am no longer uncomfortable with it as a concept. I am also gaining a better understanding as to why The Artist's Way has such a powerful effect on people. It is essentially a 12-week course in prayer. Julia Cameron is brilliant! She got me to pray everyday for 12 weeks and I didn't even know it. Indeed, she's managed to have thousands of people praying and they didn't even know it.

If you are like me and find something vaguely unsettling about prayer, don't call it prayer. Call it meditation or reflection or a search for truth. Once again, I sense that everyone is talking about the same thing. I had been too caught up in the differences to see the similarities.

Fox is clearly a student of metaphysics - frankly he is more of a teacher, but it is clear that he has studied many other religions and spiritual teachers (like Geering).

I had an interesting thought, touched on above. Do you think that the Prophets would care about the medium of expression of their message? Put another way, the best salesman is one who tailors the message to the needs (and prejudices of) his audience.

Fox did much of his work in the first part of the 20th century. If you were travelling around the US talking about Buddha, you wouldn't have made much headway. However, if you were travelling and interpreting the bible... then people just might listen to you.

Similarly, Geering has done most of his work in the second half of the 20th century, a time when many people are feeling increasingly distant to the dogma of their churches. They yearn for a sense of community and spiritual fulfillment but increasingly have trouble accepting the strict teaching of their church. In this situation, the best way to get the message across would be to present the spiritual message in a format that ignores many of the areas where people struggle with belief.

Essentially, both men are saying the same thing. Essentially, everybody is saying the same thing and they've been doing so for at least 3000 years.

Geering talks about leaving much of the church's traditions behind. To be fair, he says that we are leaving them behind regardless of what he (or anyone else) wants. He proposes a blueprint for future spirituality, but it is the same message as all the Prophets - tolerance and respect for all of creation (my words).

Coming out of my reading is another concept that I love. We have all read, "ask and you shall receive", "the Lord will provide" and many other similar phrases. Fox has an interesting spin on this - if you accept the teachings of Jesus (or any other Prophet in my opinion), then you will have all that you need. Now if you approach that statement with a Western mind, you will be seeing material riches and you may get upset with God when your share options tank.

Here is where an Eastern mindset can be quite useful. The Prophets are not talking about the accumulation of material wealth, rather they are talking about spiritual wealth, an inner calm that enables one to transcend the desire for material desires. You achieve fulfillment by your desires falling away rather than their being satisfied. Very Eastern to me. However, all of us are equally prone to material obsessions in a world increasingly dominated by globalization.

Consider my favorite quote from Lau Tzu - "Contentment is Wealth". That sums up "the Lord shall provide" for me. It also ties nicely into my concept of faith. When I have belief in myself, when I love myself, then life has truly provided and I am a wealthy man. For what else do I need?

You can give me a million dollars, but without this self-belief, true happiness will be elusive. I may find temporary satisfaction in the pleasures of the material world, but I will find it difficult to locate a lasting calm. Perhaps that is why so many of us need to push ourselves in various areas of our life. It is a search for items to affirm our self-belief. However, once this faith is truly established, everything else becomes pretty minor in comparison.

Hope this doesn't screw my training up! A real concern. If I transcend much of the material world then won't I become unproductive? Will I become some sort of guru walking the world trying to save everyone? I don't want to live like that!

Here Fox makes an excellent observation - faith and right living don't imply a life of inaction. Rather they lead to a life of profound action and influence. The understanding that we have achieved will compel us to assist others in whatever way we know how. Responsible, proper assistance - not charity - helping the world by living as we "ought" to.

This triggered another insight in me. Forgive me if I don't get the details 100% right.

In the bible, Jesus talks about giving to charity. He says that when we give, we should do it such that the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing. I had always taken that to mean that giving anonymously is better than in public. Now I am not so sure. I think what this message might be saying is that we should give of a pure heart.

Interestingly, this ties in with my Hindu buddy's thoughts on charity. He is one of the nicest and most generous folks I have met. However, in his mind, he doesn't do any charitable acts. Rather, he just does what is right. He does what he needs to do. Whether it is charitable is not his concern. He merely does what he thinks is appropriate in a given situation. My Hindu buddy taught me about Christian charity. One of the benefits of moving around the world!

Okay, that's enough for now.

Cheers,

gordo - 13 January 2001

"The Sermon on the Mount - The Key to Success in Life" - Emmet Fox, HarperSanFrancisco - first written in the 1930s!

"The World to Come - From Christian Past to Global Future" - Lloyd Geering, Polebridge Press (in the USA) - Geering recently won New Zealand's highest civilian honour. He was (and probably still is) seen as a heretic for many of his beliefs.

These guys will get you thinking!

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