How to Pray/Distraction

 

 

HOW TO PRAY/ DISTRACTION

 

 

            We live in a world of distraction. In fact we’ve become addicted to it to the point that we feel there is something wrong if we are not continually occupied with our phones computers and i pads, the TV, the radio and all the visual assaults of our commercial, materialistic world. And when the bombardment of sound, information and visual stimuli stop, our brains take over, burbling up thoughts and images like we’ve got a kind of mental indigestion. The trouble is that after spending so much time on all this mental input, there isn’t time to digest it, let alone make sense of it, so our unconscious minds are never easy. And then we think to put ten minutes aside to say a few prayers. Should we really be surprised when our minds refuse to settle to it? We begin to long for inner peace and wonder what’s wrong with us.

          Well, first we need to take our lives in hand, break our addiction to permanent messaging, texting, googling and listening to music. And instead of spreading ourselves round the world in blogs and tweets, we need to draw in to ourselves and learn to just be. At least the mental indigestion should stop. But we will find our minds are still restless, unable to settle. And so we have to start training our thoughts a little bit. Here’s a few tips on how to do it.

          Sit in at least exterior silence, radio and TV off and start listening to your thoughts. Really notice them. Note negative thoughts in particular and start dealing with them. Here is a useful exercise. Visualise your stream of thought as cars on a motorway, the good, positive thoughts one colour and the bad or negative thoughts another. Then, when you see a negative thought, substitute it with a good, positive thought until your stream of thought has become positive. You’ll find it has effects on your life. People will be drawn to the new positive you, and things will start to go better. Now start watching where your thoughts burble up from and where they are leading you. Once you are aware of all this, you’ll be better able to shut down unwanted thoughts and better able to think constructively where you must. Having started on these mental exercises, you will want to go further. So now, try listening to the silence. Yes, listening. The silence is there all the time, existing under all the noise of daily life, and we can enter into it at any time, and we can let it enter into us. Try this exercise ; find yourself a ticking clock and put it beside you. Close your eyes and start listening to the tick tock. Now listen to the silence between the ticks. And then hold onto that silence as the clock moves on. Now you are with the stream of silence that accompanies the march of time. And this can lead you directly into contemplation.

          Once you feel strongly established in the silence, meditate on something pre chosen. You’ll find your mental capacity is much clearer and freer. So sit back and let inspiration take you. This is the beginning of real prayer. And now for the next step. Hold onto the silence and don’t think of anything. Just listen. God is there in the silence. Listen for his voice. It speaks in any number of ways and will surprise you. He has been waiting for this moment when your ears are really open. But if you still feel blocked, there is one more thing you can do, because the heart has ears.

          In Orthodox teaching, the heart is hugely important. They say the devil cannot enter in there, cannot distract us, because it is the place where God dwells in us. Certainly this exercise really works. There you are sitting still, doing your best to listen to the silence. Now pay attention to where you’re listening from. You have been trying to discipline your brain, so that’s where you are now, in your brain. You are listening from your head. So, imagine an elevator. It’s waiting for you inside your head. Escape your thoughts, the distractions and the blocks to inspiration and step inside the lift. Press the button and feel it going down and down to your heart level, where the lift will stop. Now wait. Perhaps the doors will open, perhaps they won’t. It doesn’t matter. You’re there. Time to start listening. It’s a whole different experience of meditation and prayer.

          Now you will want to begin the prayer of oraison, the conversation with God. Of course you could talk to him before, only, you weren’t listening for his reply. But now you’re ready. You’re in his hands, and he will lead and teach you. You can ask like the disciples, ‘Lord teach us how to pray’ and you will learn the protocol of talking with God. You begin by acknowledging that HE IS. ‘Our Father who ART in heaven. You do him reverence. You pray that his plans come about, him first us second. And you pray that his will be done on earth in the same way it is in heaven, spontaneously, naturally, because, like the angels we are always listening for his voice. And now we can make our intercessions, ask for our needs and the needs of others, ask forgiveness for where we’ve gone wrong, ask for protection from our own weaknesses and from the influence of evil, and we will finish with praise, giving glory to God. Next time we say the ‘Our Father’ let’s think about what we’re saying.        

          When you’re finished your prayers and its time to return to the world, don’t take the lift back upstairs, stay in the heart, stay listening, peaceful and may God bless you.