"Intimate prayer"
“Intimate prayer”. With hands together like an arrow that points towards heaven. ¿Psalm 84,9?” I will hear what the Lord has to say”. It is an attitude of pleading, of humility, but at the same time of donation: my life offered to the Lord and with my life all my intentions.
Topic: attachments–dependencies (I)
We will talk several times about this theme. We will follow the thoughts of Tony de Mello, key in the thoughts of Saint Ignatius.
Mt.16, 26 “What use is it to a man to gain all the world if he loses his soul?"
This idea has helped MANY PEOPLE. Saint Augustine tells us that the children playing on the beach, after making their sandcastles; they kick them down and start building again. How many people would like to kick down their past and start over with SOMETHING DIFFERENT? Well, it IS POSSIBLE, with the mercy of God, to start a new life.
Observe the infidelity that is around you; maybe even inside of you yourself.
What is the cause? God is not the centre of our lives. There are other aspirations, other dependencies. There are false beliefs:
- I cannot be happy without the things I have and that I love. This would be the no. 1 dependency. It IS FALSE. In each and every moment I have all I need to be happy. If I am unhappy it is because the way I am PROGRAMMED makes me think about WHAT I DON’T HAVE.
- Happiness is something for the future. FALSE. You can be happy here and now, but you aren’t because of your false beliefs, fears, dependencies, worries, conflicts, remorse…
- I will be happy when the present situation changes. If we think like that we are mistaken.. None of us is going to change the world. What makes you unhappy is inside of your head: in your thoughts. It is absurd to look for happiness outside of yourself: to change your house, your work, etc. You can change all these things and you will continue to be unhappy. This is happening these days with so many separations. But we insist in continuing as PROGRAMED.
- Another false belief is that of our wishes and desires¨ If my wishes come true, will be happy. These wishes and desires make us live as TENSE, frustrated, nervous, insecure people. (You could make a list of your wishes and desires; it is a good idea to do it…. Do you really think these things are going to make you happy?)
What is happiness? Try to imagine it, to describe it… like they do in the holiday advertisements… Can we describe light to a blind man? Can we describe reality to someone who is dreaming a dream? At this moment in time I am ready the “Diary” of Ken Wilber and he asks himself: Where is my “me” when I am dreaming? A nightmare is a nightmare, and it disappears on waking. Nor is happiness there, in dreams, even though they are very beautiful and noble.
Without wanting to do so, we form these false beliefs in our lives: like wishes and desires that grow inside of us.
They are desires, dependencies that grow in our thoughts, in our feelings: pleasure, money, love. And without wanting to be, without realizing it, we find we are programmed. It is what is guiding us, what pulls us forward. We are terrified of losing the world that we want, that we have. Saint John of the Cross, in his “Spiritual Advice” says “The soul is prisoner of its fondness for human things that even though they are small; as long as we are tied to them, don’t let us walk towards God.
For that reason it is clear, the strong conviction should be clear: to lose is to GAIN LIFE.
Conclusion: a dependency is some that ties us that makes us a slave. How good it is to be free!