Learning to Pray How We Find Heaven on Earth

OUR When we pray, we never pray alone. Nowhere in the Lord's Prayer do we find the word I. Prayer is not a solitary practice; as prayer guides us inward, we are led into deep communion with everyone who has ever prayed. Beginning with the word Our, we cultivate a deep intention to pray on behalf of, and in the company of, the entire family of creation. We belong to something larger than ourselves. Even in complete solitude, we remain part of a living community. When we pray--when we retreat to a still place of deep listening--even in our intimate seclusion, our prayers reverberate through the connective fabric of life. When we pray, even as we lift up our own deep needs and yearnings, we also pray for grace, joy, and the alleviation of suffering for all beings. Prayer honors deep, unseen connections that place us in kinship with all beings. Throughout this prayer, we hear the echo of our collective yearning--our Father, our bread, our trespasses. Sadly, our society seeks to deny the astonishing power of our deep interconnectedness by promoting a corrosive illusion of isolation and self-sufficiency. As we seemingly become more and more self-sufficient in our cars and on our computers, we are trapped by an insidious lie that we can somehow live apart from the subtle dance of interdependence. This is a terrible misunderstanding that does violence to the spirit, and promotes a feeling of being crushed by the weight of deep loneliness. In truth, countless others accompany us each step of the way, and we do nothing without their assistance. Have we ever grown all our own food, built our own homes, woven the cloth for our own clothing? Every moment we live, we depend on the labor of countless farmers, teachers, doctors, carpenters, truck drivers, nurses, miners, parents, children, artists, loggers, steel workers, cattle, bees, worms, trees--numberless people and beings. When we proudly proclaim that we are "self-sufficient" we deny the nourishment and companionship offered us by the rich family to which we belong. So when we pray for inner peace and healing, we also seek some benefit for all who are in need. But how can we pray for so many, when our own needs seem so immediate? Pulled by too many demands, committed to too many projects, we often feel overwhelmed by the needs of others, and seek in prayer to retreat, to remove ourselves from people, and take refuge in solitude. This is, for many of us, the attraction of prayer. WHY DO WE PRAY? I often feel called to pray when I am weary and depleted, when I feel as if the weight of the world were on my shoulders. As much as I resolve to offer my best, to do my work, raise my children, contribute to my community, and be a good friend and useful citizen of the planet, I can feel overwhelmed and discouraged that I have not done more. But if I look carefully at myself in these moments, I find I have taken on these things as if they were my work alone. Whenever I take on more than I can honorably do, or try to do more than I can honestly handle, something inevitably goes wrong. Then I feel like a failure, disappointed I could not do everything right. In the end, I feel isolated and lonely. It is in times such as these that I find myself needing some solace, seeking comfort and sanctuary in prayer. "In isolation," the Buddha cautions, "lies the world's great misery." I was newly graduated from Harvard Divinity School when I moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico. There, a group of Plains Indians invited me to take part in a sweat-lodge ceremony. Although I had spent three years studying the world's religions, I had never participated in such a ceremony, and I was more than a little nervous. The temperatures in a sweat lodge can get very high, and I was afraid I wouldn't be able to stand the heat. What if I needed to leave? My hosts were gentle and understanding, and assured me that I couMuller, Wayne is the author of 'Learning to Pray How We Find Heaven on Earth' with ISBN 9780553105537 and ISBN 0553105531.