Full Circle: 'Thou', It, I, 'Thou'

When I was a child it was common in the UK, where I live, to have Christian assemblies at school each morning, with the singing of hymns, and the saying of prayers. I also went to Sunday School and then Church. So I was very familiar from the start with the practice of addressing God in the second person, albeit in archaic language, using Thou and Thine, instead of You and Yours. The God I grew up with was personal, to everyone. The word for that, I know now, is immanent.

Then of course I became a teenager, questioning and querying, and came across the point of view that whatever 'being' had created such a vast universe, in which our planet is a tiny, tiny speck, there was absolutely no reason why that entity should be the least bit interested in us, let alone in whether we allowed women to be priests, or banned people from having sex with some-one of the same gender. God became something it would be daft to address as 'you'. God, if it existed, was 'it', in the third person. For a while for me God became a remote and transcendent entity, which left the question, debated by humanists, agnostics and aetheists for centuries, how do we decide what 'good' or a moral life is, if God has nothing to do with it? The universe also suddenly seemed a very cold and meaningless place. Reading the French existentialists (one of them in the actual French, thanks to it being in my A-level French curriculum.) intensified that feeling. Not really a good thing if you're prone to depression anyway.

But then I came across mysticism and panentheism (the latter being the belief that God is everything in the material universe, and a lot more besides.) This made it clear why so many mystics down the ages have insisted that they were God - some being put to death for it. I've already gone into more detail about this in a post called 'A Spiritual Cosmology'. As I say there, God is the origin of everything, including you and me. We are made out of God. You and I are God. So God moved into the 'first person' grammatically

As regards getting our moral code from God, if we are God, then can we decide our own morality? (Is this where Aleister Crowley's suggestion "Do whatever thou wilt" comes from?)   In our post-modern society, where all values are equal, we are having a particular problem with this one.

Also referring to God in the first person made praying difficult. In praying to God I was praying to myself,  which felt extremely wrong. So I prayed to my 'Higher Self',- my more authentic self, beyond my everyday self which is mired in my ego, and pushed around by my id and superego. There was quite a debate on this in the Integral community, a lot of whose members are Buddhists so, being agnostic -because it's unimportant whether there is a God or not- don't have this problem (though a lot of them pray to Buddha, and other Buddhist saints.) You can see part of this debate at http://integrallife.com/member/david-sunfellow/blog/2nd-person-god-active-force-our-lives though it helps if you know something about 'spiral dynamics' to understand the significance of the colours being referred to. See http://integrallife.com/integral-post/overview-integral-theory

Basically the argument for a 'second person view of God' i.e. referring to God as 'you', is that while we are centred in our egos, and most of us are most of the time, it is more appropriate to envisage God as 'other', though it's not actually true. This helps to keep the ego in check, which  paradoxically helps us to remember who we really are.(God.)

This doesn't solve the morality problem immediately, but down the millenia mystics have reassured us time and time again that one can define as good anything that brings us closer to 'God', i.e. to the spiritual and Divine aspects of existence, and experience suggests that the golden rule is the absolute foundation of that.

While talking about prayer, I remember reading somewhere that many prayers don't 'get heard' anyway, because angels are the relay transmitters, boosting the signal so that prayers can reach the spiritual and Divine worlds (which of course is the spiritual and Divine aspects of ourselves) from which they can be answered. Angels originate and exist in the psychological/mental zone (and archangels originate and exist in the spiritual realm) so they simply don't hear prayers that are purely about materialistic things!!! I am intrigued by this concept, seemingly made up of a mixture of metaphor, allegory and metaphysics- and am still pondering its inner meaning; but basically the mystics are agreed that you don't need to pray for anything because God already knows what you need. I've said a bit more about this in my post on this blog entitled 'Daily Practice'.

I've also decided to continue referring to God as 'Thou' in my prayers, as a way of acknowledging that the 'second person' to whom I am praying is not any old person.

I'd be intrigued to know others' experience of these first person, second person, and third person views of God.

Daily practice

There are those who can see some sense in what I’ve written in my first five posts, but who do not have time to read the books I’ve recommended in yesterday’s post, and who are more interested in what this means for them on a day to day basis, i.e. what action can be taken in their everyday lives.

Each tradition has very definite guidelines and ‘rules’ for this – the Ten Commandments, the Eightfold Path, and so on, but if it’s of any help, I have set out here the daily practice that I have evolved for myself, honed from many traditions. I would love to know what others are doing – please let me know.

First thing in the morning, - very first thing,-  I repeat the positive affirmation “I am loved, I am worthy, I am safe, I am free” several times, and then again whenever I remember to do so throughout the day.

Having affirmed this, first thing, the Christian’s Lord’s Prayer is a good set up for the day:

“Our heavenly parent (your ‘spiritual’ parents or, if you like, you at your most perfect level. The main thing about this entity to which you are praying, whether it be male or female, both or neither, is that it is wholly wise, understanding and compassionate, and has nothing but bottomless unconditional love for you. Don’t let any interlopers worm their way in here.)

Hallowed be Thy name (you intend to worship only that which is the begetter of the universe, with what that means, rather than any other person, thing, idea or ambition. I’ve kept the archaic language and capitalisation here because it lifts the prayer out of the ordinary mundane world.)

Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven (you are asking to be a channel for what God would like to be happening on Earth.)

Give us this day our daily bread (self- explanatory, plus you’re asking for what you need, rather than what you want, as we are often blind to the fact that if our wants were satisfied it would not always be in our own best interests.)

And forgive us for what we’ve done wrong, as we forgive those who’ve done us wrong (what goes around comes around. Anyway, holding on to a grudge weighs you down, psychologically and spiritually. This doesn’t mean that you mustn’t take loving compassionate action to try to ensure the wrong does not occur again – both those committed by you and by others against you.)

Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil (This is acknowledging that we can’t keep out of trouble without Divine/spiritual help, and that we’re also trusting that God knows what’s beyond us, and won’t push us beyond what we can cope with.)

For Thine is the Kingdom, the power and the glory (as it should be, lesser entities just mess these things up when they try to pretend this isn’t the way things are.)

Forever and ever. So be it”

It’s important that you concentrate hard on what you’re saying as you recite this prayer.

I then usually round off my morning ritual running through the list of divine qualities I want to be channelling that day e.g. wisdom, compassion, understanding, patience, generosity, peace; and specifically requesting Divine help with that.

I then put a mark on the back of my hand or choose a specific piece of jewellery that will regularly catch my eye throughout the day. When it does I do a quick review of how I have been ‘manifesting’ the qualities I chose that morning, and if there’s anything I need to do as a result of that review.

At some point during the day I meditate for 20 minutes. I happen to use the ‘GetSomeHeadspace’ application, but that does cost money. Plus there are loads of places on the net, and thousands of books that’ll tell you how to do it. Very many people claim that this is the most necessary activity on a spiritual quest. In my opinion, it does help to peel your ego away from your more authentic self, which it is often smothering. This enables your more authentic self (the one more in touch with your Divine origins) to get a handle on the caprices of your ego, and id, and superego come to that. Always remembering of course that all three of them (ego, id and superego) are only trying, within their limited means, to do their best for you. They make great servants but terrible masters.

Now I’m unemployed, I also devote some time to extra prayers and spiritual exercises and contemplations during the day. The ones I currently use are from ‘Open Mind, Open Heart’ and ‘What We May Be’ (see my last posting) and also from Tau Malachi’s books ‘Living Gnosis’ and ‘Gnosis of the Cosmic Christ’. These exercises in these last two books can also be found on the Sophian tradition website I mentioned in my last post.

I’ve found it very important to end the day with prayer as well. It’s a good idea to list all the things you’ve been grateful for that day (e.g. the roof over your head, the food you’ve eaten, the old friend who got back in touch), then to pray for others (both of these are actually for your own spiritual and psychological good) and, finally, to identify the issues and problems you are having trouble with, or are experiencing anxiety about (this is more for your own clarity, the Divine of course has no need to be told) and then, consciously turn them over to this Higher Power. It can see all sorts of angles and wrinkles and possible solutions that you can’t, will be thinking more in the longer term, and what would be good for others as well. I cannot tell you what a help this last prayer has been to me over the years.

If at any point during these rituals you begin to feel gratitude and awe – not an unusual occurrence – direct these feelings ‘upwards’ (spiritually) to whatever you’re envisioning as God, in order to share them. In religious parlance this is known as devotion, and can open all sorts of interesting doors.

As said earlier, I would love to know what others do.