Friday, October 16, 2009

The Lord's Prayer

I shared earlier that I would give more detail about what the Lord's Prayer teaches about breathing prayer. I did find a good website that indirectly supports what I wanted to share:

www.thenazareneway.com/lords_prayer.htim

The site has a translation directly from the Aramaic and includes some alternate translations. One challenge with translating from the Aramaic is that a passage can several simultaneous meanings that are different from each other and are not only equally valid, but all are meant to be understood helping each other give a larger sense of meaning. English usually has only one meaning at a time. Thus, when Jesus says, "The Kingdom of Heaven is within you, among you, and in your midst." All these meanings are meant at the same time. In this sense, all the different translations complement each other and help each other to bring out the deeper meaning of the prayer.

What I find interesting is that this translator also sees Abwoon as connected with both divinity and breathing ("O Thou, from whom the breath of life comes,").

When a person connects "Ah" with the inhale and "bwoon" on the exhale, feeling divine energy coming in (prana) and allowing the energy to move inside us on the exhale (letting go, surrendering), then a person will eventually feel "light energy" or sacred energy (d'bwachmaja).

Later on, it will be felt in unity with our being (Nethkadasch schmach). It will not feel outside us.

Then we step in trust of this energy supporting us as we move through our day (Te te malkuthach).

We then feel the energy that surrounds us and fills us as the cosmos infusing the manifest world of our daily lives (Nehwe tzevjanach aikana d'bwaschmaja af b'arha).

We learn to trust this energy to take care of all our needs, spiritual, mental, emotional, and even physical (Hawvlan lachma d'sunkanan jaomana).

We take all meetings with others, whether they take place in prayer or in the manifest world, as sacred meetings, where we learn to forgive everyone so that we may be forgiven (Waschboklan chauben wachtahen aikna daf chnan schcwoken l'chaijaben). We take everything that happens to us as a manifestation of karma coming to an end and completing itself. Seeing that what we sowed in the past and even past lifetimes has come up to be released, that how I treated others has been visited upon me in the form of someone now taking the role that I once had. This is the key karma burning process, the place where we need to "turn the other cheek", "bless those who curse us", "pray for those who persecute us", "resist not evil" and "love our enemies".

When this part of the process arises, we are tempted to forget and get angry with the other person, to feel like a victim of injustice, rather than see that karma is balancing out and completing itself. When we fall into this interpretation, then we replant the karma seed and require another event to manifest to release it. So Jesus asks us to pray to keep on track, to see that this is what is going on, and to see that our purpose is to forgive everyone in order to end karma and release the fullness of love into our world (Wela tachlan l'nesjuna ela patzan min bischa). In other words to take in the right timing of this present moment being perfect for our ascension process (Metol dilachie malkutha wahaila wateschbuchta l'ahlam almin). This is based on seeing the whole universe is unfolding perfectly (the kingdom, power, and glory). This prayer is then sealed with our intent, commitment, faith, and trust (almin).

The key thing is that we will be tempted to react to someone, rather than take them as part of our process of forgiving and releasing him or her with us. We need to stay in this purpose and see that this is the way that the world is healed and reclaimed into the divine domain or kingdom of heaven.

Understood this way, Jesus demonstrates this prayer on the cross and through his resurrection. He forgives everyone who tortures him and falsely accuses him even before they finish sinning. He stays in trust of the Divine orchestrating this event and stays in the sacred breath (Saint Paul, "The same breath that raised Christ from the dead"). If we retaliate, then we are not yet worthy of divine power. Only an unconditionally loving mind and heart, which does not give in to temptation (random negative thoughts) can handle the power level that can raise the dead. Imagine if every negative thought we had was so powerful that we can harm people just by thinking ill of them and that our inner conscience is dampening our inner power in order to protect us from unleashing this intensity of karma into our lives. When events arise to tempt us into being negative, we can give into them or rise above them.

Understood in this way, this prayer solves all our problems and even heals our past by seeing all events as karma completions and then retrusting the energy to give us what we need now, and then to evolve us into the next stage in our growth as sentient beings. It fits in with what the Buddha taught, though with a focus on forgiveness and karma burning.

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