On the Virtue of Prayer
Mysticism is often regarded as pure metaphysical speculation without any possibility of experience beyond the constitution of the mind. This misconception arises from lack of real experimentation among those who would make such a judgment, who in consequence judge mysticism only as a group of philosophical assumptions. Metaphysical theory, although not empirically demonstrable, can be transformed in a subjective, and yet authentic, experience by people with an honest and ardent desire for Truth. How can we achieve certainty? How can we discover the Truth in all metaphysical speculation?
Religion is more than an institution with the ability to bind communities, but also a bastion of sacred literature and successful methods of knowing God. This method of spiritual recognition has two inescapable and mutually inclusive sides: on one hand ethics as a guide for behavior for the external, material world, and on the other hand a contemplative exercise for inward, spiritual experience. In order to know the Divine, beyond all the acknowledged metaphysical theory, both these interdependent and indivisible aspects must be present within a given religion.¹
What exactly is this contemplative praxis? Very simple: Prayer. Now, Frithjof Schuon divides prayer into two basic modes: canonical prayer, and meditation. Canonical prayer is the reciting of sacred texts or orthodoxly defined prayers, in contrast with the personal prayer that is a spontaneous message from the individual to God. While personal prayer is good and also advisable, both canonical prayer and meditation have transpersonal qualities that allow man to “listen” to God in a state of quiescence, allowing him to discern the Truth above individualistic aspirations.
The main goal of prayer is to make man sensitive to the everlasting bliss of God. Even when there are well known benefits to prayer at a psychosomatic level, as well as many persons who, in their individual orisons, ask God for their personal needs, the true seeker conforms with no less than the sublime knowledge, and once attained even in a small proportion, will not desire anything less. We must remember this too: “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” (Matthew 6:33). Another way to say this is that in an esoteric approach, the real purpose of prayer is not to help the individual to make him materially successful, not even to relief him emotionally, but to resurrect the attention of his higher self to the spiritual world.²
Every material event must be recognized as transitory, independent of its emotional effect on us; as common humans, we can’t force our ego to be totally unaffected by worldly activities, but we can know our higher self which is beyond the ego, and thus command the ego with more accuracy. Also, we have to be especially aware of such events that are relatively beneficial to us, because they can cause us to deviate from the sacred path in the temporal satisfaction they bring. It is not about surpassing the unfavorable circumstance through prayer, but to surpass every egocentric circumstance, whether mental or physical.
In this ego transcendence (the Unio Mystica of Catholicism, the Hindu Samadhi, the Kensho of Zen) the practitioner overcomes the primordial duality subject-object, allowing his soul to exceed his circumstantial aggregate that defines him and separates him from the Absolute. Prayer permits the mind itself to know about the soul’s rejoicing in the divine fusion. This correct ordination between the mind and soul allows the mind to remember the mystic experiences of the soul, although this process can only be experienced and fully understood by the soul itself.
To exemplify the precise state that we want to attain, we cite Schopenhauer:
“It is then all the same whether we see the setting sun from a prison or from a palace”.
What truly matters is the contemplation of the Intelligence. The material world is convulsive, especially in our modern age. In ignorance, a man becomes very vulnerable to its hardships and recompenses, and easily becomes a capricious person. In ignorance, Man confuses transitory pleasures with divine fullness, and becomes eager to insult God when fortune abandons him. In this situation, Man is not aware of God, but only aware of his own conditions or requisites to love God.
For these reasons, religions recommend to pray daily, whether it is the Catholic Rosary or the practice of Vipassana, as a virtuous habit independent of the eventualities of our lives.³ Prayer must be consistently practiced with patience and fervour in order to achieve, in life, the highest reward of all that lies in faith.
¹The ritual stands between the material action and the contemplative exercise, and it serves to be socially symbolic when public. Thus it is conferred practicality, although it may also provoke an internal, spiritual experience for the attendant. These rituals very often include collective prayer in them, with their social significance as part of the rite. However, individual prayer remains as the specialized exercise of contemplation. ”But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly”. (Matthew 6:6)
²The most common objection to contemplation and prayer on behalf of materialists is that they are nothing but ways to avoid action. Wrong. Mystic contemplation develops the right ordination of all human components in order to equip the individual to perform the best and noblest acts. The religious man perceives the sacred with his spirit and then acts in the material world with wisdom. As has been already mentioned, contemplation is not possible without a strict observance of behavior, and they both require high degrees of discipline; both are more in line with heroism than passivity. The Taoist concept of Wu Wei (no-action) refers to the ego renouncing its isolated, individualistic decisions in order to embrace the flow of Tao, in the same way that the Christians seek for the Logos to act in them. Therefore, in a spiritual sense contemplation is not in opposition to action or movement, but in opposition to the individualistic actions of an ignorant ego, ignorant of the Truth that is upon it. “One cannot remain without engaging in activity at any time, even for a moment; certainly all living creatures are helplessly compelled to action by the qualities endowed by material nature” (Bhagavad Gita III, 5)
³There’s a single transcendental aim for all the creeds, but nonetheless it is not advisable to mix techniques from different traditions, because every technique has a direct correspondence with the orientation of its particular Religion. Of course, it is convenient to investigate the different orisons or meditation techniques within a given tradition to find that which is effective for us, but we can’t detach the significance that a certain Religion brings to our corresponding natures simultaneously in both ethos and contemplative praxis.