Read an Excerpt
The Way We Pray
Prayer Practices From Around the World
By MAGGIE OMAN SHANNON Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC
Copyright © 2001 Maggie Oman Shannon
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-60925-238-0
CHAPTER 1
Affirmations
Employing God's Gifts
The soul is dyed the color of its thoughts. Think only on those things that are in line with your principles and can bear the full light of day. The content of your character is your choice. Day by day, what you choose, what you think, and what you do is who you become....
—Heraclitus
Like a number of disciplines that have become diluted, even muddied, through the popularity of their practice, the word affirmations can either raise eyebrows or elicit enthusiastic examples of their efficacy. Some stories about affirmations have become part of our modern folklore: the $10 million check for "acting services rendered" that Jim Carrey wrote to himself just years before he made the news for being signed for that exact amount; the discipline of writing daily, "I will become a syndicated cartoonist," by Dilbert creator Scott Adams—with the result that he not only became a syndicated cartoonist but, thanks to enthusiastic merchandising efforts, a millionaire as well.
Affirmations as we know them were brought to the public eye in the nineteenth century through the work of French pharmacist Dr. Emile Coué. In the 1870s, Coué became fascinated by the power of the mind, practicing "mind conditioning therapy" in his free clinic. One of the first and best-known phrases defined as an affirmation comes from Coué: "Every day in every way I'm getting better and better." As that example illustrates, effective affirmations follow similar guidelines: they are focused on a specific goal (such as cartoonist Adams'); they use the present tense ("I love and accept myself"); they are positive and focus on the desired outcome ("I feel wonderful and radiate perfect health"); they are short and easily memorized; and they are repeated out loud or written down several times a day for weeks—often longer.
While affirmations are a proven psychological tool for enhancing success—they are used in combination with visualization by top performers in every field, including business, sports, and entertainment—they do have roots in older, more spiritual arenas. Indeed, as authors Willis Harman and Howard Rheingold wrote in Higher Creativity, "In institutionalized religions, prayer probably originated as a living exercise in affirmation, but degenerated to a ritual of supplication or penance directed toward some external being. Yet those whose devotion leads them to the true meaning beneath the outer form of their religion's prayers come to realize that it is not an external message system, but a dialogue between self and Self, a channel to the wisest of our inner personalities."
According to spiritual teacher Paramahansa Yogananda, who nearly fifty years ago wrote a book on affirmations titled Scientific Healing Affirmations,
The Lord helps those who help themselves. He gave you will power, concentration, faith, reason, and common sense to use when trying to rid yourself of bodily and mental afflictions; you should employ all those powers while simultaneously appealing to Him.
As you utter prayers or affirmations, always believe that you are using your own but God-given powers to heal yourself or others. Ask His aid; but realize that you yourself, as His beloved child, are employing His gifts of will, emotion, and reason to solve all difficult problems of life. A balance should be struck between the medieval idea of wholly depending on God and the modern way of sole reliance on the ego.
Affirmations, used as a prayer practice, help us to focus on the Divine and to affirm ourselves as spiritual beings with creative power. Using the "I am" format of affirmations echoes the name of God: "I AM THAT I AM." Being mindful of what follows the "I am" construction is crucial, because there is great power in that declarative sentence. It is wise to use it to affirm that which you want enhanced in your life, not to announce that with which you are dissatisfied.
Shakti Gawain, author of Creative Visualization, and Louise Hay, author of various books, including You Can Heal Your Life, are two contemporary writers who have helped to bring the practice of affirmations into popular, even mainstream, use. Hay also created a compendium of healing affirmations to treat specific illnesses, believing—as a survivor of cancer—that what we say to ourselves does have the power to positively affect our health. Writes Hay, "We have learned that for every effect in our lives, there is a thought pattern that precedes and maintains it. Our consistent thinking patterns create our experiences. Therefore, by changing our thinking patterns, we can change our experiences."
New Age wishful thinking? Not when you place it in the context of New Testament scripture, which, in Philippians 4:8, advises us that "whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things." Here, it would seem, we're asked to affirm that "I am a unique and valuable expression of God," not to whine "I am so fat." Though we're all familiar with the nursery rhyme that proclaims, "Words will never hurt me," practitioners of affirmations believe that words can hurt us if we repeat them often enough—especially if we believe that they're true. Jesus, in Matthew 21:22, indicates why we should watch our words so carefully: "If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer."
Suggestions for Beginning the Exploration
• Choose an area of your life that you feel has been an impediment to your spiritual life—such as feeling you don't have the time to go to church or temple or to volunteer for a cause you believe in; spending too much time watching television instead of reading uplifting material; or not scheduling a consistent period of prayer and meditation. Create affirmations that will support you in these endeavors—for instance, "I enjoy my schedule, which allows me the time to engage in activities that nourish my soul" or, "As I turn off the television channels, channels for good and channels for God open up in my life."
• Surround yourself with your affirmations—put them on mirrors, in your day planner, on your car dashboard, on your computer at work.
• Begin an affirmation journal, and keep a record of the changes you see manifesting in your life.
CHAPTER 2
Altars
A Place to Grow Your Soul
Through an altar, including the objects placed on it and the acts performed around it, a person invokes and has a relationship with the transcendent. It's a place to invite, to talk to, and to know God. It's a place of aspiration of and dedication to ideals. It's a place to bring and grow your soul.
—Edward Searl
Altars are as ancient as civilization itself, and, paralleling our own social, psychological, and theological development, the use of altars has evolved as we humans have. The word altar derives from the Latin adolere, meaning "to burn up." Indeed, as the dictionary further reminds us, the classic definition of altar is "a usually raised structure or place on which sacrifices are offered or incense is burned in worship." Altars historically have been used in exactly that order in earlier societies, for dark and fear-based rites sometimes involving live sacrifices, and later, as a platform for holy accoutrements specific to the religion being practiced (and usually accessible only to those who were proclaimed the intermediaries to the Divine). Today, altars are undergoing a renaissance in Western society and are being used in creative, new ways that are both empowering and deeply individualistic.
The practice of creating a personal altar is one that we do naturally, instinctively. Whether or not they view it as an altar, most people have groupings of personally significant elements in their homes, such as framed photographs of loved ones, special candles or fresh flowers in a beautiful vase, and cherished treasures from a dear friend or family member. The only thing that would distinguish these arrangements from what many are calling their personal altars is simply the conscious intention behind them.
In both this kind of tableau and on a personal altar, the objects chosen for placement are visual reminders of what's most beautiful, true, and precious in our lives. What transforms a tabletop arrangement into an altar is the intention to make that space sacred, to use it as a place where we can acknowledge the God of our understanding. The altar then becomes a sensory cue to transform the way we are holding ourselves, our lives, our hopes and fears; in front of our personal altars, we indeed sacrifice or surrender our lower thought forms as we shift our consciousness to honor a Higher Power.
Eleanor Wiley is a former speech therapist who currently makes and leads workshops on contemporary prayer beads all over the world. Eleanor's funky Victorian house and studio are full of altars and small corner shrines; it is a prayer practice she's engaged in since she was seven. Explains Eleanor, "My altars are ways of reminding me that our whole lives are sacred. My first visit to Bali made it a more conscious thing, because the Balinese honor every facet of their lives; they don't exclude anything.
"It is important to have representations of all faith paths around me, and on my primary altar—which includes pictures of my family, Nelson Mandela, a monk I met in Thailand, and the Dalai Lama; a dressed Ganesh doll from India; a cross from El Salvador; and a brass fish figurine that is inscribed with the words 'Celebrate Life'—I keep reminders of both the wonderful and the awful things that have happened in my life. A lot of the objects on that altar remind me that we only have today.
"I think what's really important to say about altars is that people don't have to go out and get something special for them—it can be anything. It's about keeping your space sacred rather than thinking it has to look a certain way. The reason I have so many altars is to keep them in my consciousness—so that when I see them, I'll come into the present moment and say a prayer."
In addition to including elements that remind one of inspirational figures or beloved friends, family members, or pets, items placed on a personal altar can have symbolic significance. In her book Altars Made Easy, author Peg Streep delineates a number of approaches one can use mindfully when creating a personal altar. For example, deliberately placing an altar in a particular direction can be significant to one's spiritual focus, as can the lore and symbology behind different numbers, colors, animal representations, stones, flowers, plants, and herbs.
In addition, altars can be created for specific intentions. When entering the doors of Asian-owned businesses, one often sees small raised altars replete with incense and offerings such as flowers and mandarin oranges. During Mexico's Day of the Dead festival, ancestors who are no longer living are commemorated with elaborate ofrendas, which include candles, marigolds, religious icons, and the ancestor's favorite foods and drink, along with sweet breads in the shape of people and sugar skulls.
As Denise Linn suggests in Altars: Bringing Sacred Shrines into Your Everyday Life, possibilities for altars are as far ranging as the concerns in a human life. One can make altars for love, abundance, fertility, creativity; for new relationships, new marriage, or a new baby; for remembering one who has died or for mourning the completion of a relationship; for celebrating and setting intentions for a birthday, anniversary, vacation, or new project. One can also use the same altar to hold the various intentions and focuses of one's life. No matter what our approach or our practices, we all touch common—and holy—ground when we create a personal altar. In the words of writer-photographer Jean McMann, who has been making altars since she was eight or nine, "Arranging and celebrating them, we give shape to our world, visible and invisible."
Suggestions for Beginning the Exploration
• Take a look around your living space. Note the arrangements you have in place already. Do any of them represent your sense of the Mystery? You may have an altar in place without consciously acknowledging it as such.
• If not, mindfully gather items that will support your prayer life. These could include a candle, a book of sacred scripture or poetry, or fresh flowers. Return to this place to pray and meditate, and, if you feel called to do so, add to your altar collection.
CHAPTER 3
Amulets
Reminders of the Most Sacred
The entire journey in God is a journey in symbols....
—Lalech Bakhtiar
Picture these: a pewter angel, a copper medal depicting the Hindu elephant god Ganesh, a blue glass anti-evil eye charm, a clay scarab, a rose-quartz pendant, a walnut carved with 108 likenesses of Buddha. Though the wearing or carrying of amulets may seem to be a material flourish of this generation's New Age movement, the practice is as old as human history itself. Every culture and every major world religion has a particular way of enfolding amulets into its spiritual practice, though there are differing interpretations on why or when to use them. Though we're not always aware of it, we use amulets throughout our lives, ascribing sentimental or symbolic significance to inanimate objects: a wedding ring that reminds the wearer of loving vows made to another, or a "lucky" pen given at graduation with blessings for future success.
The Roman naturalist Pliny first described differing types of amulets, drawing a distinction between those that offered ameliorative or healing effects to the wearer and those that served a protective function. As George Frederick Kunz wrote in his 1915 work, The Magic of Jewels and Charms, "It is sometimes difficult to establish a hard and fast dividing line between the two classes, as everything that conduces to the happiness and well-being of man also affects his bodily health." Others have used the term talisman to refer to a charm that wards off negative influences and amulet for a charm that serves as a magnet for good—though, interestingly, the word amulet is derived from the Latin amuletum or amoletum, meaning "means of defense."
Using amulets can become a prayer practice when the object connotes a communication to the Divine or is carried as a reminder of that which is most sacred to the wearer—although it could be argued that any intention behind the amulet is itself a prayer. The ancient Egyptians were great employers of amulets, many of which depicted Egyptian deities; ancient pagans also wore figurines of their gods. Pieces of paper holding quotations from sacred religious texts—including the Torah, New Testament, and Koran—have been carried in containers that served as amulets; today, mezuzahs containing inscribed verses from the Old Testament are fixed near the door of Jewish homes as a sign and reminder of their faith. The carved fetishes of indigenous cultures pay homage to the sacred qualities embodied by the subject; tiny Buddhist prayer stones represent a range of spiritual figures. Islamic amulets are carved in calligraphy with scriptural verses or a list of the attributes of God; medals depicting various patron saints are worn by Catholics for comfort. The contemporary "WWJD" jewelry—and the subsequent "WWBD" rejoinders—reminds the wearer to ask, "What would Jesus (or Buddha) do?" in challenging circumstances.
For Celeste Smeland, an artist and nonprofit arts administrator, wearing an amulet has brought forth spiritual fruit for a decade. For more than ten years, she has worn a pendant of watermelon tourmaline—it derives its name from its gradation of color from green to red—around her neck. For her, it is a reminder and a prayer to keep her heart open.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from The Way We Pray by MAGGIE OMAN SHANNON. Copyright © 2001 Maggie Oman Shannon. Excerpted by permission of Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC.
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