Eckhart explores prayer beyond asking for things, describing it instead as deep listening and presence. He references Jesus and Joel Goldsmith's teachings on a non-dualistic approach where you stop seeking and simply become still.
The deepest prayers then are no longer prayers as such. They are when you adopt a listening attitude rather than a saying words. Perhaps you can upgrade your prayers from petitionary prayers. Please make this happen. The petitionary prayers, to what little just mental pointers towards peace, for example, little mental pointers that still use concepts. Because every prayer is some kind of consists of words and concepts. In other words, to use a concept to point to help you go beyond concepts, you could say, for example an affirmation, the one we talked about earlier, which really what Jesus said, I am the light of the world is an affirmation and it's a concept. It points to a deeper reality that is deeper, that far deeper than the words you can say. Please let me know if you still want some petition. Please let me know that I am the light of the world. Duality is implied usually in the usual prayer. It implies that there is God and here is me asking God. The ultimate, of course, is that that duality is ultimately an illusion because you are an expression of God. You and God merge. And the deepest prayers then are no longer prayers as such. They are when you adopt a listening attitude rather than a saying words. So if prayers gradually become from saying, as long as you enjoy it, that's fine. But gradually get away from asking somebody to do something for you, because that keeps you stuck in duality. But if you can realize that this affirmations are, if they are done rightly, can be very beautiful substitutes for prayers. I'm healed and whole and at peace. And after that, let there be a space. And really the power is in that space. In the space you experience that you are already whole. The outward form might tell you something different. I am holy, of course, in miracles says I am holy, for example, that's again you are. And so it's simply an affirmation of this is how it is. Or if you healing for somebody else, you are either with that person or that person comes into your mind, you're thinking about that person and that person may be ill. And then the most powerful healing I find is to be to hold the image of that person and then go deeper into yourself, where the wholeness of life lies, where nothing is needed, nothing needs to be added. And there you find the wholeness also of that person. They already healed. At that deepest level beyond form, they already healed. So you go from form and then into formlessness. That is the healing that was practiced by Joel Goldsmith. He has a little lovely book called the Art of Spiritual Healing. And that is really to not to dwell at all on the condition that needs to be healed. But to focus on the essential reality of that human being, which is one with your essential reality, and go into deep stillness where nothing is needed. So he would often get phone calls. Sometimes in the middle of the night, somebody desperately needs healing. And they would say, that's the name of the person and that's what he or she is suffering from, is this and that. And what he would then do is immediately put the phone down and go into absolutely no thought for a moment. He heard the name of the person, he heard what was wrong with the person, and immediately let go of that. And immediately, just for two or three minutes, went into no thought, just absolute presence. And in that, there's absolute perfection in that realm of the formless. And that is the essence of that person that needed healing. So you take the form into the formless, where the form is no longer no condition to be treated, nothing is needed, just go into that. And that was his way of healing. He was quite a powerful healer. That is the ultimate form of healing. And that really is the non dual kind of prayer. It's no longer, it's going beyond prayer where you say, please, God, heal you. Go to the very source itself that is inseparable from who you are and is inseparable from who that person is. And so that's the listening. If healing, if prayer can gradually, as I said, become listening, listening to God rather than talking to God. What does listening mean? Listening means there's a field of bare, pure attention. And listening doesn't mean that you're waiting for some answer. Then you're not really listening. In listening, you're not waiting for anything. There's just a field of just pure attention. And that is a much deeper prayer than any words. That's the attitude of. That's true prayer. Is that where prayer also becomes meditation? You could say, not even wanting an answer, it's enough to be in the silence. And sometimes an answer comes or the thing becomes resolved. Sometimes suddenly listen. Any trouble in this world, any disturbance, and they happen all the time. People around you, maybe even a disturbance in your mind, go into just pure, aware, bad listening presence. Because presence and listening are very just. Listening is a way of speaking about presence. You can say, when you're present, it is as if you were in a state of listening. Now, listening usually is associated with the auditory sense perception. But this listening goes beyond the auditory sense perception. It's the state of consciousness that underlies the auditory sense perception. Everybody knows what that is like, because when you're really listening for some faint sound. What is the state of consciousness that underlies this listening to the faintest sounds? It's a state of absolute relaxed alertness. So when we. So when we say listening, listening is a helpful thing, because everybody knows what listening means. But now I'm just pointing out that it's not the external sense perception that's the essence in listening. The essence in listening is the underlying state of consciousness of alert absolute receptivity and alert presence. This is why I believe that Jesus had as parables about the servant and the staying awake. Because the master doesn't know when the master is going to come home. So the servant needs to stay awake to know whether the master is coming home. Otherwise he'll be asleep. And I think what he really was talking about, because many of the things have come down in a somewhat distorted way because it got transmitted verbally and verbally again and finally written down. And in the process, some things got turned around and missing. I think he was talking about the attitude of that absolute. He was talking about a state of conscience, this servant, waiting just to hear the Master come home. Just be waiting in a totally different sense from the normal thing that we call waiting, which is the mind saying, when is it going to happen? Why isn't it happening yet? He uses waiting in a totally different sense. So there are quite a few. Many times Jesus talked about, obviously about staying awake. That's an important part of. Very important part of his teaching. Stay awake, don't go to sleep, stay present. So any words you use in prayer, use them as pointers towards that. You could say, I'm listening. It.
Why alcohol feels like relief, and what it is really giving you | Eckhart Tolle
