The Prayer of Silence

From: Free Yourself of Everything -- by Wolfgang Kopp

Awareness of the divine essence as our innermost true self first requires absolute silence and release of all that God is not. It implies no less than turning away from the external toward what lies hidden within (en krypto). It is a turn from the external, or realm of opposition, to the internal -- the all-embracing totality of divine being. It is the way of meditation beyond objectivity, the way of inner silence before God.

Remaining quiet before God is a "prayer of silence" through which we listen to that which secretly speaks to us in the "inner room of the heart." This prayer is the same as what is meant by Jesus' urging: "When you pray, go into your room to your Father who is in the secret place" (Matthew 6:6)

What is hidden deep in our innermost being lies in silence and stillness, and in the silence of the deep springs the eternal, inexhaustible, original source of all being. Countless words trouble the soul; where words fall silent, the everlasting begins.

Keeping inwardly silent before God is the implicit precondition for perceiving the everlasting within us. If God is to speak, then all thinking, imagining, and supposing must stay quiet. All faculties must remain silent and prepare a place of inner stillness for God to speak in us.

"According to Rabbi Irwin Katsof's book How to Get Your Prayers Answered, the Hebrew word for prayer is li-heet-pallel. The latter part of the word -- pallel -- means to inspect, examine, while the initial part -- li-heet -- makes the term reflexive. Therefore, prayer is self-inspection, self-examination." Helene Ciaravino

"I am convinced that intense self-introspection does not require large amounts of time. It requires only short meditations which regardless of the form they take, in essence, amount to a prayer -- a plea to the higher self for help and guidance. This sets in motion a direction so that amidst busy-ness and hard work -- that higher self will manifest and the inner man will get through to communicate -- which you will experience as insight or mini-realizations -- that translate into a change of being." Bob Cergol:

"Well, we have to distinguish between two kinds of prayer. There is one kind of prayer which is petitionary -- asking for my tummy-ache to get better or for the weather to improve, or someone to stop behaving nastily to me. That kind of petitionary prayer is not of interest to me, and I don't think it is effective. I suppose it may be for some people. It could act as a kind of magic if you put faith in some providence out there who will work this magic for you. But it's not for me.

"The other kind of prayer, which is very different, is like this: Say I desire the health of someone I love very much, or my own health, or my own ability to do my job, that kind of thing -- which are really very deserving requests -- but adding always at the end 'Thy will be done.' I would like this, but not my will but Thy will be done. Then the question is who is praying to who? and of course in the last absolute resort it is who you really are having a conversation with who you really are. It's a kind of internal process within your true identity, and not only important, but indispensable." Douglas Harding