Our imagination is within our mind, and it is infinite. Our conscious dwells in our mind and is finite. We are only aware of the imaginations that are within the limits of the abilities of our conscious capabilities, and those are our capabilities that we are aware of and can be performed consciously.
When the conscious desires something it doesn’t have, it becomes a necessity for it to seek that thing which it wishes to have in the area beyond it, which is the imagination, and to actualize it by its abilities. However, it is a very hard task to search the entire imagination, and the abilities of the conscious are very limited for doing this task. Therefore, it is necessary to bring the entire imagination within the limits of the conscious, so that the conscious may have a glimpse of what it wants and for it to figure out how it can realize this desire by its own capabilities. Imagine that we would like to get ourselves a pearl. For us to get a pearl, it is a must that we search the sea for one. But the vastness of the sea makes it quite hard for us to do so. Furthermore, the efforts required for the search can be beyond one’s abilities. To make our search easier, we can put the sea within our reach. We can cultivate oyster beds that we can approach and harvest pearls within our abilities.
Imagine that one desires a specific mental attribute, like intelligence. His desire exists in the conscious, and what he seeks is found in the imagination but can only be actualized by his conscious abilities. If he tries to search in his imagination, I doubt that he would get what he wants, knowing its vastness and the limits of his abilities. It is then necessary that he bring his imagination within reach of his conscious abilities by symbolizing it with such a thing that can be grasped by his conscious abilities, and when he sees knowledge in his imagination and that it is within reach of his conscious abilities, he can now start working to attain it.
I consider prayer as a form of mental conditioning like meditation. Prayer at its vaguest definition is asking some supernatural being for favors. When someone prays for mental attributes that don’t exist in his conscious, he searches his imagination by personifying it and enters into dialogue with that personification. The God of prayer is a personification of a person’s imagination having those untapped attributes which a person desires and having the personality and intellect of the one who conceived it portrayed as a superior existence of that person. By giving his conscious a glimpse of his untapped attributes, and by seeing himself as possessing those attributes, he realizes the potential for the actualization of his desired attribute and up to what extent he can attain it by his conscious abilities and is emotionally inspired by the image of seeing a portrait of a superior self having what he desires.
Imagine that a student needs to study for his exam. This student begins to pray that God adjust his mental configurations in order for him to pass the exam. What I see is that this student does not know how to organize his thoughts, or how to get his mind in the right shape for his exam. In the conscious mind of that student there exists a desire for the organization of his thoughts and to get in shape for his exam. Now, his conscious seeks to attain that attribute of his thoughts being well-organized and of him being in shape for his exam by seeking it in his imagination. However, what he seeks in his imagination is beyond his conscious abilities. Therefore, it is a must for him to bring his imagination within sight of his conscious by personifying it in such a way that is within his conscious abilities of understanding that he may get a glimpse of what he wants. When he invokes God, which is a personification of a person’s imagination bearing those untapped attributes that he wants, he sees a superior self that understands him and has what he wants- that said attribute of being in shape for the exam and having organized thoughts. Now that he has a clear picture of what he wants, he can now start to learn how to attain this attribute by what abilities he has. Furthermore, the experience of seeing a superior self having those attributes he desires emotionally motivates to actualize what he has seen.
In the end, it is still us who helps ourselves. Nobody helps us but ourselves. We ourselves make and walk our own paths.
I don't pray anymore. Not since 2006. But I always make sure I do no harm to anyone or anything. Even helped several in need already.
Fed up with reciting the lords prayer …even backwards yes. I do not worship that which is maybe evil. For if it exists, then it is. Just look at the pain around.
Manny Pacquiao attributes a lot of his abilities to the almighty. If it makes him conditioned, happy, let him. Its his way. Salvage victims? Oh they did pray sincerely.
El Shaddai led by Velarde. Jesus is Lord movement led by the father and sonovabitch Villanueva tandem. Ang Dating Daan led by Eliseo Soriano who is a cockbreath closet queen wanted by the Interpol for being so. and there to is Apollo Quibuloy one simple turd with 20 million victims. Look at them… do they pray or prey?
"In the end, it is still us who helps ourselves. Nobody helps us but ourselves. We ourselves make and walk our own paths." – Gabb
The author is right, we are ultimately responsible for our own actions. Be it answering test questions, or siphoning conditional cash transfer funds to earn interests in your bank account.
@Gabb: Buddhist meditation also inherited a lot of cultural baggage from how India was around 600 BCE . You can see that in the form of the sitting posture, the belief in reincarnation, et al.
The discipline is "useful" for training the mind; at the same time, the benefits that the theory and praxis impart is only truly "good" for select individuals who resonate with that path. Worth noting that Gautama was very systematic in his instructions, and if people who encounter his technique for the first time sense a certain narrowness in the path, much of that sense is likely due to the above mentioned cultural baggage.
Or, The process you described in this short piece is somewhat analogous to the use of language as a system which "makes infinite use of finite means" (to quote Wilhelm von Humboldt), meaning that an infinite number of sentences can be created using a finite number of grammatical rules. Humboldt's work in anguage theory was a force that inspired Chomsky's work on transformational-generative grammar (TGG)
Buddhism is a nice philosophy. It makes people good by self-realization brought on by mind-training. =)
Yes. In style this is like the Satipatthana Sutta ("Foundations of Mindfulness" roughly translated) which was a talk by Gautama Buddha later written down by his disciple Ananda. The repetitive form in the writing made the lessons easier to remember and tramandate (transmit) through chanting.