True Prayer

A few years ago, I wrote on 2 types of prayer. That of asking for and that of allowing. Allowing is the deep prayer, the prayer of faith, the prayer of trust and acceptance, the prayer of “Thy will be done.”

Near the close of Falling into Grace, Adyashanti explored what he calls “True Prayer.” After exploring how defeat became grace, Adyashanti says, “We’ve all felt moments of feeling pushed down or oppressed, but the kind of defeat I’m talking about is a true surrender, a true opening, where we know that we don’t know where to go. In that sense, it’s a true prayer, and a true prayer is a powerful thing. I often tell people, ‘When you speak a true prayer, you’d better watch out, because you’re going to get what you pray for.’ And what I mean by a ‘true prayer’ is one that is spoken, or made, when you open yourself to the entire universe, from a place of not knowing and not expecting anything in particular.”

[Update:] When we tell God or the universe what we want, we have to ask ourselves if we’re really opening ourselves to what is. Are we opening ourselves to grace? He goes on to describe his own such prayer experience and how he received everything, not always in an easy way.

While what I call Deep prayer is pure surrender, Adya’s True prayer is asking without conditions and with a profound opening. Then we’re opening ourselves to grace. I explored a similar process in 5 Step Prayer. Again – just be careful of your conditions and let it go.

“So never underestimate the power of prayer and its ability to open us to grace.”
Amen!
Davidya