I am trying to figure this out. Please write and tell me what you think.
Recently I have been reading a book titled, Awakening Into Oneness by Arjuna Ardagh. It is about people in India who are praying. They are praying constantly. They call it the Oneness Blessing, but it is actually the same as what Jesus taught us in the Lordś Prayer. The people in the book are letting God´s love flow through them in prayer to others. People are being transformed by the Oneness Blessing.
I really believe that Jesus was trying to teach us to do that . . . to pray powerful love prayers for each other.
The book says that in India, people receive the Oneness Blessing prayers for 21 days before they give it to others. I did not understand why at first. Now I believe that 21 days of experiencing prayer gives you strong faith to offer the prayer to others.
Please comment with your ideas! :)
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8 comments:
Hi M-R, I had not heard about this, so thanks! I love this sort of thing. I googled it and read a little about "deeksha" "the oneness blessing"
I so believe in the power of what I call collective consciousness. We all have seen how negativity can quickly spread - mob mentality sort of thing. Isn't Love just as infectious? (I even blogged about this before..."the LOve Bug" back in the summer).
21 days is three weeks - which I have read is the minimum time it takes for a habit to start to form. Birth control pills are taken for 21 days. hmmmmm (you can take these things too far -or at least I can) :o)
Im always behind times, I just learned about Siddha Yoga which was popular in the 70's.
To me, people coming together to pray and give blessings to others for joy, inner calmness and a connection to the Oneness in everything - is a wonderful thing!
Come to think of it... Similarly, I participate in a group rosary every Saturday with basically the same purpose. I also say it alone. To me it is like a "brain massage" Rosaries are said daily in groups and alone all across the world - probably every minute 24/7/365.
thanks for making me aware of this prayer.
Peace and Love
Keren
Marilyn, thanks to your post, I found http://www.awakeningintooneness.org/ and have done some reading there, and my interest is piqued to learn more about this ecumenical practice of blessing. I'd like to know what you mean by "the same as Jesus taught in the Lord's Prayer"? Did you mean some specific words in that prayer or just praying for each other?
Thanks for all of your comments, Keren and Anne. :)
To me, people coming together to pray and give blessings to others for joy, inner calmness and a connection to the Oneness in everything - is a wonderful thing!
. . .this ecumenical practice of blessing
I have been thinking about prayer the past couple of years. During the 80s, when I was with an extremely fundamentalist type group, they taught that prayer was a formula. Their prayers reminded me of incantations out of a book of magic spells. You say it this way, quote X number of Bible verses, fast this much, have enough faith (that you get by repeating Bible verses over and over) etc. etc. = then God will answer your prayers.
It is my opinion that the practice of prayer in our culture has gone a million miles away from what Jesus intended when He taught the Lordś Prayer, and when He said don´t pray in public like the pharisees do, but go into your closet which is in secret. Was it Paul who said pray for one another that you may be healed? Many prayers offered in religious settings in our culture are arrogant expressions of doctrine. (Many are sincere too, of course.)
As a result, I think most of us don´t really believe prayer has much effect. We might say be believe in prayer, but we really don´t expect it to transform anyone.
So recently I have read a couple of books that have made prayer more meaningful for me.
The first is Inspired by Miracles by Dan Joseph. It is based on the Course in Miracles. Here we are essentially saying to God, not my will but Your will be done by coming to God with our relationships and all situations in our lives. We say to God, let me see this person as You see them and let me see this situation as you see it. Since God sees all things through the eyes of love, a miracle of Love happens in us. God´s love flows through us to that person or situation.
This Awakening to Oneness is the second book. The book documents the events surrounding the Oneness Blessing in India. When I compared it to the Lord´s Prayer it was because I think it captures the spirit of the Lordś Prayer.
For example:
Hallowed be Your name = hanging out with God, silent, in gratitude
Your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven = love God and love your neighbor
Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven = humility, giving our hearts to God
Give us this day our daily bread = God provides for us
Forgive us as we forgive others = a big focus of both books is forgiveness
Lead us not into temptation and deliver us from evil = yeah . . . that too!
Anyway, if you roll all of those things into one, they represent what God is doing in people who receive the Oneness Blessing. The power of this prayer is not contained in the words, or how you say them . . . it is the power of Godś love flowing through those giving the blessing.
These are just my thoughts and opinions.
And it does sort of seem similar to praying the rosary. I am not Catholic, but I attended a Pray the Rosary service with a friend once. The intentions of love were very strong there.
Another thing about the Pray the Rosary service . . .
The intentions of love were strong, and also there were many testimonies of transformation.
We prayed for awhile, then someone would stand up and talk about what God had done for them . . . prayed more . . . someone else spoke . . .
It was extremely cool.
Of Course. Praying for others to change or for God to change them, as we do in the church, unknowingly places us in a position of judgementalism and creates expectation rather than fostering acceptance. Praying for the well being and best interest of others always brings me peace and harmony. Somehow when I first believe God's best for others I tend to believe it for myself as well. But not always the other way around. God is One and God is Blessing Us. Let us take a few moments each day to calm ourselves and let this awareness take root in our lives. No need to join a new movement for this spiritual principle to work.
Dan,
I agree with you that this is not really anything new. For me it is not about joining a movement, it is about doing what Jesus really wanted us to do. The thing that is striking about this book are the stories about how people are changed. It really blows your socks off!
So, I am praying the oneness blessing for those around me, whenever I think about it. I am seeing cool changes too in the forms of more love, peace, generosity, creativity, healing.
This has made me think about things like, why did Jesus tell us to pray for our enemies? Did He expect our prayers to change and heal them? Why does the bible say, ¨pray for each other so you will be healed?¨ Is it for no reason?
Ego, selfishness, and greed have no part in the oneness blessing. That is important for me too. It is all about love and surrendering to Godś good kind safe loving will.
seems to me the oneness blessing is not about making people change by our prayers, it is simply about praying for joy, inner calmness and a connection to the Oneness. To me, whether it is a new thing to hang your hat on or a true wish for thiese things, it is still a blessing and I need all the blessings I can get!
Muchas Smoochas
Keren
Yes . . . . it is simply about praying for joy, inner calmness and a connection to the Oneness . . .
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