I grew up in a Christian prayer tradition that was mainly focused on asking God to do things for me and for people I loved: “Please, God, hear my prayer and do such and such.” I no longer experience a God who does specific favors for me or others simply because I ask him to. I cannot imagine a God who plays favorites because of prayer petitions. The old type of prayer, no matter how lovingly motivated, just doesn’t work for me anymore.

Prayer: Welcoming Spirit & Love

Spirit doesn’t force its way into our hearts. Whether we accept it is always our choice. But spiritual help and guidance are always available, eager to flow in when we open up. And to the extent that we welcome Spirit and love into our personal lives, we can also choose to allow love and inspiration to flow outward from our centers and into the hearts of others. In this entirely unaggressive way, Spirit does directly touch the outside world and participate in the outcome of historic events — through us!

In the traditional form of prayer that I was taught, I remained mostly in broadcast mode rather than receive mode, talking nonstop to my concept of God, asking him to intercede in the world and bring about what I wanted to have happen. I was in essence asking God to play favorites, trying to manipulate him into manipulating the physical world. “Dear God, please make things go the way my fearful ego wants them to.”

Meditative Prayer: PEAR Studies at Princeton

As demonstrated in the PEAR studies at Princeton, meditative prayer expresses a more mature act of the heart. It entails the subtle but realistic involvement of spiritual flow into everyday life, through our focused attention.

Meditative prayer uses your personal consciousness
to channel the universal power of love,
harmony, and healing intent
into the world.


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Meditative Prayer: Listening, Receiving, Responding

Meditative prayer is about listening, receiving, and responding. The assumption underlying it is that the universe is God’s creation and is continually unfolding as it should. So, logically, when we participate in this deeper unfolding we don’t tell God what to do, but choose to receive and broadcast an inspired consciousness as we radiate a positive spiritual presence into the world.

It’s essential to keep fearful projections of the ego mind quiet throughout the process. This is accomplished first by staying aware of your breathing and your whole-body presence. Sometimes, as mentioned before, when you say [the seventh Focus Phrase], “I accept everyone I know, just as they are,” you will feel the natural desire to send love and acceptance into the world.

Likewise, with the ninth Focus Phrase (I am open to receive), you will often find yourself spontaneously wanting to also focus on giving, and as you become aware of a particular friend, loved one, or colleague, your heart will open up to this person. You’ll experience a natural outflow of the same spiritual love, healing, and insight that you’re in the process of receiving.

Focus Loving Attention & Compassion

All you need to do is allow this person’s presence to become clear and strong within you. Then focus loving attention, total acceptance, and openhearted compassion toward this person’s presence in the here and now. In this way, you can channel spiritual love and energy into the world and other people’s hearts without manipulating them or the deeper flow of the present moment in history.

There’s also another, more extreme giving-loving-accepting experience that might come to you. Sometimes I surprise myself by focusing suddenly on a nasty world leader, terrorist, criminal, or other negative presence or situation, and allow the bright spiritual feelings that have flowed into my heart to flow out to this person or situation. This aims love exactly where it’s most needed, where the pain and craziness are most acute in the world. The PEAR studies indicate that we can use our personal attention to influence the world, and meditative prayer expresses this radical type of action.

Just be sure you don’t slip back into an old habit of prayer and think you “should” be doing something to help others around you. In my understanding, the giving mode must come spontaneously, as your heart’s natural response to receiving spiritual love, insight, and power.


This article was excerpted from the book: Expand This Moment by John Selby.This article was excerpted with permission from the book:

Expand this Moment: Focused Meditations to Quiet Your Mind, Brighten Your Mood, and Set Yourself Free
by John Selby.

Printed with permission of New World Library, Novato, CA. ©2011. www.newworldlibrary.com or 800-972-6657 ext. 52.

Click here for more info and/or to order this paperback book on Amazon.   (Kindle version here.)


John Selby, author of the InnerSelf.com article: Meditative Prayer

About the Author

John Selby is the author of more than 20 books including Quiet Your Mind, Seven Masters, One Path, and most recently Expand this Moment. He was educated at Princeton, University of California, Berkeley, the Graduate Theological Union, and the Radix Institute. John spent two decades working as a therapist and mindfulness coach, while continuing with research into more effective cognitive methods for quieting the mind and maintaining a more alert, relaxed, enjoyable present-moment focus. Visit him online at http://www.johnselby.com.