What is Prayer?

I've been turning this question, What is Prayer, over the past day or so, ever since my last post. It's unusual for me to use the word prayer to describe my inner journey, much less post it in a public manner. Actually, maybe unusual isn't the right word...it's new for me to frame my journey in this way.

Historically, I've thought of prayer as it is described in the first two definitions above: a request to God or an object of worship, a religious service of some sort. This form of prayer is powerful, and manifests in so many ways, through the traditions of so many faiths. Millions, maybe billions, of people pray in this manner every day. When it comes to speaking of prayer, the image of a God or a religious service probably comes to mind for most of us.

However, this method of prayer is not the way for everyone. Many don't resonate with a formal place of worship, or with structured religion. The term "prayer" has been so strongly associated with those things that it hasn't been part of my personal language for many years. My way has been to get still, become quiet, to meditate, to get out in nature and center myself...a deeply internal process that helps me feel connected with source, which could be described as God. It's a process that always brings me back into balance when I'm off-kilter.

Something is shifting for me, though - and, I believe that shift is happening on a larger scale, as well. The deep personal and internal process is still very present for me, and I'm aware of something else, a pulling forward, a drive to focus not only on myself, but on the whole. Humanity. The planet. All of it. And that feels like prayer.

The third definition above hit home for me: prayer as an earnest hope or wish. Yes. That's what it feels like. My heartfelt longing for a world in which we care for each other and for the planet; where we treat each other with kindness, are aware of our impact, and our actions are life-affirming.

It feels to me that prayer is about intention. It starts with that inner process, getting quiet, centering, coming into balance. Many folks do this in a place of worship, some get outside in nature, or listen to music...the possibilities are endless. From this place of quiet emerges our longing. Our hope. Our wish. And when we focus our intention and send that energy out into the collective, we send a prayer.

No matter how we pray, whether in forest or a mosque or a temple or a church, whether in front of a statue or a crucifix or a mountaintop, underneath the thoughts or feelings or chants or verses lies the simple essence of longing. Of hope. Of our wish.

That is beautiful.

And so...I pray.

With respect,

Zardoya