The word prayer is one such… We know only too well that we can pray for this and that, yet our prayer goes unanswered. If by prayer for someone we are simply saying ‘O God please make Lucy better’, I am not sure what effect just saying that has. When we pray, as I have mentioned in the past, we need to spend time holding that person in our awareness, reaching out to them, but it is important to let that person know we are doing this for them, whether we hold them in the silence for ten minutes or, in extreme cases, for a whole hour. If someone is in grave trouble or about to have a major operation, simply on a human level, that person knows they are not alone. Our holding them thus may simply act telepathically – and telepathy is a natural gift that we do not use enough – or it may act at a deeper spiritual level. We need to uphold one another in prayer.
Month: August 2026
Some practical benefits
Disenchantment with materialistic values has led to an awakening of interest in the many forms of meditation, from the 1960s onwards, especially mindfulness meditation, which has been adapted from Buddhist techniques. Its medical use as a contribution to various forms of psychotherapy has been widely embraced.
Meditation can also serve as a special preparation for a demanding task, such as a musician, dancer, or actor before a performance, or when we are faced with a major responsibility. Meditation may take the form of repeating a specific word or text, as with the Hindu and Buddhist mantra, the Islamic dhikr, and the Jesus Prayer. It can also focus upon a visual image, as in the Tibetan Buddhist use of the mandala (a Sanskrit word which means circle) as a focal point for one’s meditation.