So why would prayer help us with our addiction to words?
This addiction is manifested in way that words get stuck in our head. It’s the way they suck away our consciousness and make us think that we are words. How could prayer help with that?
In our Native story this week, when the elder is talking about prayer, he’s talking about something very specific. He’s not talking about the kind of prayer where when you’re praying to Jesus and asking for stuff. And he’s not talking about chanting, something like trying to go into a bliss state through chanting. He says that Navajo prayers are actually teachings. They’re stories with lessons. Stories that are teaching us how to be decent human beings.
It’s also not like the prayers we do in eastern teachings. In eastern traditions we are given the technique of meditation. In the context of eastern teachings meditation is very helpful because what you’re trying to do is get underneath the words. These same words we are hearing about in this native story.
Many people find meditation really hard. It looks easy from the outside, but in reality you don’t just sit down and “Pow!” It doesn’t just happen by itself. Sometimes you sit down and your mind goes crazier than it’s ever been.
And then there’s the other side. Some people get stuck in endless meditation. One problem with meditation is that it really does make you feel better. It makes your whole life work better.
You say, “How can that be a problem?”
The problem is that you’re still dealing with a temporary state. It can still go away.
One interesting thing in in our story for this week is that Wally talks about how he really loves a few particular Christian prayers because they are structured like good prayers. One of them is the Our Father. What’s interesting about that is that the Our Father prayer does give a little story. It’s morality saying, and it’s also not your regular words. It is something that you can just say at any time as an offering. Prayers like these are an offering. You offer it as a prayer. It’s a thing, a real thing that you can give.
In the Our Father you’re not really asking for anything, you are giving a prayer.
Try adding that into your meditation: Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Amen.
Say it like a prayer. A simple prayer and nothing more. It doesn’t need to have a special meaning.
Go ahead and do it in English. Just the regular version that you know, because it of comes off your tongue easily and you can simply offer it as a prayer.