United in Prayer...

We live in a religiously diverse & interconnected world; a world that is rapidly growing smaller as we become more connected & interconnected through technology. We are no longer isolated tribes living on an isolated tribal island. How we communicate our religious beliefs & what we choose to communicate matters. Not only because of the religious diversity that surrounds us, but because our words can be instantaneously communicated around the world. Unfortunately, our prayers rarely respect the religious diversity of our global human family. They are often far too “religious” & filled with religiously “tribal” terminology & language that; ignores the reality that others may not share “our” tribal beliefs & is insensitive & disrespectful to those who choose to not only believe differently, but to those who may choose to reject religious faith beliefs entirely. Atheism & agnosticism are “religious” beliefs about the nature of ultimate reality that also need to be respected. It is clear that tribal religious narcissism, a growing lack of humility, respect & compassion for strangers, & our judgmental insensitivity to those who have different faith beliefs, is creating much of the conflict & violence we see in the world today. If we want our behaviors to match our faith beliefs on the importance of unconditional love & compassion, then we need to be more conscious & sensitive to the possibility that those around us might belong to a different religious “tribe” & may therefore hold very different faith beliefs than we do. If our goal is to create a compassionate & peaceful global human culture, we need to replace our particular religion’s tribal prayer language with a more gentle & compassionate universal spiritual language. We all have the right to pray how we want to inside our faith communities, but it is important to remind ourselves that even inside of our faith communities “tribally specific” religious prayer is a form of human conditioning that unconsciously reinforces our “tribe’s” insensitivity toward those who choose to believe differently. This is especially true for a number of “tribes” who seem to have a deep need to pray publically, & whose prayers tend to be “tribal” or ethnically religious in both content & language. It is rare that they ask for permission to offer public prayer, but even when permission is sought, the prayer language almost always reflects that of their “tribe”. Public prayer, especially in the presence of strangers, needs to reflect spiritual prayer language, not the religious prayer language of a specific religious tribe. In the past, many nations were considered a “Christian” nation. That is no longer true. We are rapidly becoming less “religious”, less “Christian” & more religiously diverse. We are nations of many “tribes” … atheists, agnostics, Muslims, Buddhists, Wiccans, Hindus, Jewish, the spiritual but not religious, those who embrace a more evolutionary or naturalist spirituality, those who are anti-Christian because they have been harmed by other Christians or Christian clergy in the past, traditional Chinese, traditional African, Sikhism, Juche, Baha’i, Shinto, neo-pagan, Unitarian-Universalists, Scientologists & so forth. Despite the growing presence of “religion” and “ethnic religious beliefs” in our national and global politics, there is clear evidence that rigid ideological religious beliefs are creating evil in the world; not love & compassion. This inflexible religious ideology, a religious insensitivity to the needs, beliefs & rights of others, & a growing narcissistic lack of mutuality, love & compassion for those of other religious tribes, all contributed to the deaths of over 100 million people in the 20th century alone. Because ethnic religious intolerance & violence is growing in severity, the need to awaken a more spiritually enlightened human consciousness; a consciousness that tames the collective primitive ego narcissism of our human species, is becoming increasingly urgent. If the prayers of all of our world’s religions, both inside & outside our religious institutions, could learn to adopt the non-dual prayer language of our world’s great spiritual mystics; an inclusive spiritual prayer language that respects & honors the religious diversity of our world, I believe our human species would become more compassionate & peaceful. Our big problem is that our primitive ego is concerned with self-identity, not unconditional love & compassion. Developmental psychology teaches that the primary goal of our self-focused primitive ego; the ego of our unconscious inner-child; the part of our human ego that controls the behaviors & thoughts of almost every living adult, is that of establishing a clear self-identity for itself. Our primitive ego scans the world through the lens of its many beliefs & “certainties” so as to insure that the tribal boundaries between its sense of “me” & those who are “not-me”, are clearly defined. It also thinks dualistically in judgmental, either/or, black-and-white terms. In other words, it maintains it sense of “self” by assuming that its beliefs are always right & the beliefs of others; those who are “not-me”, are always wrong. When our self-identity” is strong & clear, our primitive ego feels happy & safe. Thus, our primitive ego “loves” religious prayer because the “absolute certainty” of our religious beliefs supports and strengthens its sense of self. “I” am a Christian. Or “I” am a Muslim. Or “I” am an atheist. Or “I” am Wiccan. Or “I” am Jewish. Because the primitive ego of our inner-child is happy & content when its self-identity is strong & un-ambivalent, insisting that our religious beliefs reflect “absolute truth” is more about our primitive ego making sure that “our” beliefs are absolutely right”, than we are about the actual “truth” or “accuracy” of those beliefs. Don’t take my word for this. Just pay attention the next time someone challenges your firmly held “beliefs” & you will “see” the energy of your primitive ego for yourself. Spiritual prayer on the other hand, frightens our primitive ego because spiritual prayer is focused on personal responsibility, non-dual unity, compassion, unconditional love, mutuality, respect, non-dual mystical seeing, gratitude, thankfulness & our human co-creative inter-connectedness. The focus of spiritual prayer is not on tribal identification, but rather on a more unity based, contemplative, collective, co-creative responsibility for the unfolding evolution of creation itself. In other words, spiritual prayer has no sense of “us vs. them” for our primitive ego to compare itself to & thus make the boundaries of its self-identity clear. Because children like clear, well-defined boundaries our primitive ego will always resist the use of spiritual prayer. Finally, I would like to offer this personal note to my Christian & Jewish friends & all who read this who have other tribal, non-Christian religious beliefs. If you are truly serious about your faith beliefs, I would urge you to practice humility & show the world the compassion & unconditional love of an awakened, enlightened consciousness; not the consciousness of your primitive ego’s “religious” beliefs. I have been on my spiritual journey for many years & my understanding of what it means to be a child of G-d has changed & hopefully matured, over those years. I am a deeply religious man, but like you, my understanding of the nature of the Initiating Consciousness & my interpretation of G-d’s Word has been shaped by the journey I have been on & the subjective experiences I have had on this journey. I do not assume that your religious or spiritual beliefs are the same as mine. So let’s talk. Perhaps we can help each other deepen our understanding of this amazing thing called life. Life will continue to offer all of us daily opportunities to learn about & offer love to others. So let’s practice kindness & do no harm to those who might believe differently. We are all just attempting to make sense of life & this amazing universe as best we can. The melody or music that all religions are attempting to harmonize or sing for the world is called peace, unconditional love & compassion. If all religious faiths could drop their collective primitive ego’s tribal identities & learn to sing together & support this beautiful melody, what an amazing song our global human community would be singing. I am convinced that until we all mature our collective primitive egos & our need for an inflexible religious tribal identity, our collective voices will continue to be a cacophony of meaningless religious tribal noise, chaos, & violence. If we could all learn to eliminate tribal religious prayer language & embrace a more contemplative spiritual prayer language, it would be a giant step toward the creation of a peaceful & more compassionate global human culture. No matter how strongly our primitive ego believes something to be true, it does not mean our beliefs represent absolute truth. It only means we would really like to believe our beliefs are true. Allowing our primitive ego to go beyond our subjective understanding of “truth” is giving our primitive ego permission to “become” G-d. If we could stop “selling” our tribal beliefs as “absolute truth” & embrace the humility that we are talking about an ultimate reality that will remain a mystery to our finite human intellect, we would no longer be inclined to disrespect others by “assuming” that “we” hold the “right” understanding about the nature of “ultimate mystery”, or the “right” interpretation, accuracy, or relevance of “our” tribe’s religious scriptures. We would be too busy learning to be kind. We would be too busy learning to do no harm to those who believe differently. We would be too busy awakening our enlightened adult consciousness & taming the arrogant narcissism of our frightened primitive egos. We all live on the same planet. We are all members of the same tribe, it is called humanity & we were all created by one G-d. Let’s see if we can learn to harmonize together … it is a beautiful melody. G-d Bless. *Smile* J