THOUGHTS ON PRAYER - 3

.

No prayer can be ethical when the

petitioner seeks for selfish advantage

over his fellows. Selfish and materialistic

praying is incompatible with the ethical

religions which are predicated on unselfish

and divine love. All such unethical praying

reverts to the primitive levels of pseudo magic

and is unworthy of advancing civilizations

and enlightened religions. Selfish praying

transgresses the spirit of all ethics

founded on loving justice.

.

Prayer must never be so prostituted

as to become a substitute for action.

All ethical prayer is a stimulus to action

and a guide to the progressive striving for

idealistic goals of superself-attainment.

.

In all your praying be fair; do not expect God

to show partiality, to love you more than his

other children, your friends, neighbors, even

enemies. All praying, whether individual or

communal, may be either egoistic or altruistic.

That is, the prayer may be centered on the self

or upon others. When the prayer seeks nothing

the one who prays nor anything for his fellows,

then such attitudes of the soul tend to the

levels of true worship. Egoistic prayers involve

confessions and petitions and often consist of

requests for material favors. Prayer is somewhat

more ethical when it deals with forgiveness

and seeks wisdom for enhanced self-control.

.

While the nonselfish type of prayer is

strengthening and comforting, materialistic

praying is destined to bring disappointment

and disillusionment as advancing scientific

discoveries demonstrate that man lives in

a physical universe of law and order.

The childhood of an individual or a race

is characterized by primitive, selfish, and

materialistic praying. And, to a certain

extent, all such petitions are efficacious in

that they unvarying lead to those efforts and

exertions which are contributory to achieving

the answers to such prayers. The real prayer

of faith always contributes to the augmentation

of the technique of living, even if such petitions

are not worthy of spiritual recognition.

But the spiritually advanced person should

exercise great caution in attempting to

discourage the primitive or immature

mind regarding such prayers.

.

The Urantia Book

Part III, 91, 4

THOUGHTS ON PRAYER - 1

.

Children, when first learning to make use

of language, are prone to think out loud,

to express their thoughts in words,

even if no one is present to hear them.

With the dawn of creative imagination

they evince a tendency to converse

with imaginary companions. In this way

a budding ego seeks to hold communion

with a fictitious alter ego.

By this technique the child early learns

to convert his monologue conversations

into pseudo dialogues in which this

alter ego makes replies to his verbal

thinking and wish expression.

Very much of an adult's thinking

is mentally carried on in

conversational form.

.

.

The early and primitive form of prayer was

much like the semimagical recitations of the

present-day Toda tribe [of India], prayers

that were not addressed to anyone in

particular. But such techniques of praying

tend to evolve into the dialogue type of

communication by the emergence of the

idea of an alter ego. In time the alter-ego

concept is exalted to a superior status of

divine dignity, and prayer as an agency of

religion has appeared. Through many

phases and during long ages this

primitive type of praying is destined

to evolve before attaining the level

of intelligent and truly ethical prayer.

.

.

.
The simple prayer of faith evidences
a mighty evolution in human experience
whereby the ancient conversations
with the fictitious symbol of the
alter ego in primitive religion have
become exalted to the level of
communion with the spirit of the
Infinite and to that of a bona fide
consciousness of the reality of
the eternal God and Paradise Father
of all intelligent creation.
*

The Urantia Book

Part III, 91, 3