Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Prayer is for desperate people!?



There is a square in the centre of Oslo, right in front of the Dom kirke, one of the main churches in the city that has 3-4 florist. The place looks like a garden and it is refreshing to walk in between the pots and plants that are set outside. I browse there on Saturdays, sometimes Sundays and always buy something beside a bunch of roses.

One thing I learned about myself is, in different periods of my life,  even when I don’t have much money, I always give priority to have fresh cut flowers in my home. They are the sign of love, beauty, respect, worth and generosity towards myself.

Today my roses are looking at me laughing out loud and the flame of the candles look quite astonished. Some days ago they saw me shedding tears out of a deep pain. 

When I felt pain deep in my heart, I sat down and prayed.

 Praying is what some  people do when they are helpless, when they feel there is really nothing  else on this earthly plane they can do to remedy the situation. So they fervently beg an entity they don’t even know. These people who pray and, sometimes cry while praying, don’t necessarily feel better after their prayer, they may actually go to bed and sleep to allow the pain to go away from the entrance it entered at first. These type of people are too clever to leave the door open but they leave the window slightly open before they sleep. Some of these people may live in Oslo you know! It is cold.

 The next day when they wake up, all they remember is that there is nothing else they can do, but they are definitely not hanged over! They are alert and they still remember their pain. While washing their face if they remember to look in the mirror they may remember their dream! Oh yea I dreamed last night.

And then they remember what Abdu’l-Baha wrote to August Forel the neuroscientist of Switzerland about dreams.

 ” The mind is circumscribed, the soul limitless. It is by the aid of such senses as those of sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch, that the mind comprehendeth, whereas the soul is free from all agencies. The soul as thou observest, whether it be in sleep or waking, is in motion and ever active. Possibly it may, whilst in a dream, unravel an intricate problem,incapable of solution in the waking state.”

The dream is for the dreamer. I want to believe that when I meet someone in my dream, I have really met him/her. The soul doesn’t need a ticket to fly to another continent : )

It might be that when we step into life in the morning we need to make sure we are open and remind ourselves that we have accepted the situation, regardless of what it is. It seems that it is only then that we start seeing the generosity of the universe and what it offers. 
And it is then that we may experience a surprising joy in our chest, something we have never experienced before and then we may laugh out loud in our own company, so authentically, that even the roses and candles will be astonished.

Prayer, sometimes, is conversation with the beloved, some other times out of urgency and helplessness.The nature of Prayer is that it is always heard, always!

 If it wasn’t for the pain, we wouldn’t be able to identify the joy.



No comments:

Post a Comment