Elder's Meditation - April 4

[Ann]

"You can pray for whatever you want, but it is always best to pray for others, not for yourself."
--John Fire Lame Deer, LAKOTA

When you are selfish and you pray, you are requesting things to flow only to you. When you are selfless, you are praying for things to flow to others. The old ones say this is the highest form of prayer. Praying this way is according to the Natural Laws.

Great Spirit, today, let my thoughts be about others.

[equus]

I think the healthiest part of prayer (and my alternative) is to take the focus off myself - it helps me with perspective, objectivity, empathy, and understanding.

In a sense that still makes it a selfish act because I know it gives me more peace to place myself other than at the centre, just as one of many people going from A to B. I lets me feel aware that I will live and die and all is as it should be - the biggest way to let go of fear.

There's another kind of fear I try to tackle - attachment, the sense that those close to me are more important or that I need to keep them in particular. My way of challenging that is to think what it is they need and then act to offer that - BUT to anyone, a stranger, whoever. If my closeness to a person has shown me or helped me better understand someone else's life then I can use that to better understand the things we can give that improve life - so the answer to whatever I 'pray' is my own actions. Whether what I've wished for is given or not entirely depends on me.