Kitabı oku: «The Prayer»

OUR EVOLUTION

Many things have happened in my life for which I had intense longing,

but which I could never have achieved myself.

And I have always said to my co-workers it was in answer to my prayer.

Mahatma Gandhi

The prayer is something that most probably comes into being at the moment when man is born.

The history of humanity can be compared to the existence of a single person, therefore the evolution that accompanies the human race, we can compare it to the existence of a person that grows up, that from childhood becomes adult.

And, at the dawn of man’s existence, we can compare him to a newborn, completely at the mercy of everything, defenseless and not self-sufficient.

The newborn needs security and love, he needs to be supported, followed, has no skills and needs to be guided.

And the newborn humanity had such needs, it was unprotected compared to a hostile and mysterious world, whose forces were frightening and uncontrollable.

The world around was seen as dangerous and deity or deities were powers to be afraid.

The prayers, in that stage of development of religion, what are the animist religions that still survive in certain primitive tribes, the few that still exist, were aimed at appeasing their wrath.

The gods were powerful and capricious, and prayer was a hope to avoid their destructive fury.

Man was a toy in the hands of powers that dominated the entire universe and, as such, completely at the mercy of the humor of divinities, like a child that, without reason, destroys what he had previously created.

Later on humanity, continuing to evolve as a child who gradually acquires new abilities and greater independence, finds itself facing a new step of religious development, the one born with the Sumerians, the mother religion of Judaism and the Old Testament, as shown by the fact that Abraham, founder of the Jewish race, was form Ur, a city first Sumerian and the Babylonian.

Let’s leave aside the Eastern religions that followed a different course, all of them developed from Hinduism which, in full probability, predated the Sumerian religion and was the only religion, after which there was he split between Hinduism, more marker towards the spiritual world where earthly existence was seen as illusory, and Sumerian existence which was instead based on the material world and how to act on the world.

So, what changes do we see the advent of this new religion, which has then diversified itself among the various cults, including Judaism?

The idea of divinity changes.

The deity is still seen as powerful and often capricious, unpredictable and irascible, but man tries, through prayer, to ingratiate himself in its favors.

If before the divinity was a blind fury, a dispenser of life and death at her own pleasure, she has now turned into a God who, if treated in the right way, can also help the individual man and the various human races.

This is the birth of behavioral ethics, whereby through righteousness we become friendly to the divine eyes and therefore worthy.

The same as the child who realizes that, with certain behaviors, he is evaded, punished or even beaten, while with others he makes satisfied his parents.

By chance, from Sumerians the story begins and the prehistory ends, and this is established because of the first written document, which was nothing but a code of behavior, the famous law of the eye for eye, tooth for tooth.

If you wired an eye to someone, yours will be taken away, a simple and very common law in children’s minds and, alas, even in a lot of adults.

The child thinks in this way, if he is given a kick, it’s right for him to return it, if a toy is stolen, he feels in the right to steal to counterbalance the bad at once.

So, the prayer is still dominated by fear of a dangerous divinity, by it is permeated by the hope of being able to ingratiate it.

God himself follows the same human evolution, transforming himself from being capricious to ethical, if he is treated with the proper ways.

The last true religious development, what should represent the transition from a childish humanity to a teenage humanity, which is on its way to the adult stage, is Christianity, the advent of Christ.

From this point of view, Christ completely overthrows all of mankind because it is still powerful and therefore capable of working miracles, but which allows itself to be killed without manifesting its strength.

The Doctrine of Christ focuses on unconditional love, it teaches us to abandon the law of the retribution, to stop reacting, to stop making a bread for cakes by virtue of a higher love.

He teaches us to stop looking for causes on the outside, in other people but to look inside each one of us, to stop judging others but to judge oneself.

Bu this teaching requires that the mankind take responsibility and move from the stage of the child, that needs its parents, to that of a self-sufficient adult.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth’. But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coats as well. If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you” (Matthew 5:38-42).

Why does Christ teach all this?

It is out of all logic, what benefit could we ever gain from such behavior?

But there is one reason, and it is very important: “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful”. “Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you” (Luke 6:36-38).

What does all this mean?

It means that what happens to us does not depend on external circumstances, but it is created by us, by what we are within ourselves.

If we are irascible, for example, we will continue to experience situations where such irascibility will continue to come out and to surround ourselves as a series of events throughout our existence.

In other words, our irascibility will attract further irascibility, this in order to be able to manifest itself, since it is what we choose to be.

If we are poor, but more than being poor, we believe that we are poor, we will only attract more poverty around us.

If we hate our neighbor, we will continue to live this hatred towards us because it is what we have chosen to live, vice versa if we live in love, love is what will be refunded to us, and in abundance.

This is the promise of Christ, who brings us closer to the divinity as his children and not as dancers in his hands.

“Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48), this is the encouragement, becoming the image and likeness of the divinity, becoming co-creators of existence.

The life is manifested around us in the exact way in which we believe it is, the predominant thoughts in us will be those that will prevalently form what surrounds us, according to the ancient axiom “as above, so below”.

And how does prayer evolve when this point is reached?

“So I say to you: Ask and it will be give to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened” (Luke 11:9-11).

This is therefore the true role of prayer, that of being connected with heaven and to be able to obtain, to be able to change one’s own lives, to be able to desire what one wants.