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Getting Prayers Answered

by Ariel Bar Tzadok
Copyright © 2013 by Ariel Bar Tzadok. All rights reserved.

Some prayers are answered, and some are not. Here's why.

Most people do not understand how to pray properly. It is easy to ask for what we want. It is another thing entirely to receive that which we wish. Optimism is fine, but it does not answer prayers. Also, there is no way to bribe God. Indeed, all that we do to solicit Divine favor may in fact do just the opposite. We cannot expect God to do as we ask, nor can we expect to bend the world to our wishes.

There is, however, a secret to prayer, and those who know this secret, and practice it, are in a much better position to have their prayers answered, than those who know it not. Before, we learn the secret, let us first dispel some fallacies about prayer.

First, God hear the intent (kavanah) within prayer, He does not listen to the words of prayer. Prayer is a matter of the heart. It has nothing to do with eloquent speaking or poetic language. It does not matter what language one prays in. God listens to one's heart. Only prayers spoken in the language of the heart are heard by God. One can speak whatever words one feels, in whatever language, in whatever way. Sometimes a moan or a cry is all it takes. Prayer is of the heart, and God listens to the heart. So, there is no one language better than another, or one form of ritual prayer better than another.

Second, there is no guarantee that even if God hears one's prayers that said prayers will be answered the way that one wants. God's thoughts are higher than our thoughts, and His ways are higher than our ways. God knows and decides with a wisdom far beyond human comprehension what to do and how to do it. We may pray with the greatest of devotion and sincerity, and still God may decide to answer only part of a prayer, or none of it at all. We never receive denial letters from the “heavenly post office,” so we never know for sure whether or not our prayers have been heard, or not, or whether they will be answered, or not. All we can do is have faith.

Third, prayer is not fantasy. Prayer is not one's imagination. Prayer is an actual communication from the inner-most essence of one's humanity, which is one's soul and the Source of All, the Universal Mind, which we call God. Prayer is essentially a mind-to-mind communication. Essentially, this makes prayer an actual telepathic form of communication.

When we give up the juvenile image of prayer being some kind of a person-to-person chat between us, here on Earth, and a “friendly God/Father in Heaven,” we can finally come to a more mature and proper understanding of not only what prayer is, but also how it works. With proper insight into how prayer actually works, we significantly increase the chances of our prayers being answered.

We have been taught that at the unconscious level, all humanity shares something like a “hive-mind.” In Kabbalah, this is referred to as all human souls being bound up within the greater “super-soul” of Adam. Essentially, what this means is that at some deep unconscious level, we are all connected with one another. This concept is also reflected in the Talmud.

Being that we are all interconnected at this deep level, each of us have the ability to influence the entire collective. Not only can we project thoughts into the collective hive-mind of greater humanity, we are also subject to projections received from within the greater collective. This is how prayer works.

When we pray, we are asking God for His blessings. Essentially what this means is that we are acting as mental magnets to draw down from “Heaven” positive, Divine energies, and to channel them into the hive-mind human collective.

Once the Divine input has been received into the collective, it is then divided up, and portioned out to wherever it is needed. Essentially, when we pray, and when prayers are answered, it is not at the individual level, but rather at the collective level.

This concept of collective prayer has long been understood within Judaism. This is the underlying reason why public prayers require a quorum (minyan) of ten men. The original intent of this was so that there would be gathered a collective of mental magnets, serving as a singular, greater attractor for the Divine energies. Prayers were formalized into a liturgy so that everyone would be praying for the same things. Essentially, this brings focus of the individual mental magnets onto a greater collective mental image, one that can be more easily focused on, and brought to fruition.

Judaism recognizes the power of collective prayer, even when an individual is by oneself. The ritual prayers are still recited, even in the plural tense. Even an individual, physically separate from others, is nevertheless still part of the greater hive-mind, and is thus connected, regardless of one's physical location in space.

When one prays, be it with a minyan or alone, either way one is to concentrate on soliciting Divine blessings for the collective as a whole, and not just on oneself individually. This is probably one of the most important rules (and secrets) about prayer.

When one is in need of something, rather than pray for oneself to receive one's personal portion, one should instead pray that God provide this specific need (whatever that may be) to the collective of all humanity, and then specifically to each and every individual who has that specific need. Rather than pray for one's own health, one should pray that all be made healthy, and then that one's self should be included within the general, greater request.

When one projects mental imagery and heart-felt passion into the collective hive-mind, through whatever form of verbal communication that one chooses, one is projecting one's prayers both out into the collective, and up to the Source of collective humanity, which is God. This is how prayer works. The force of heart, one's passion, is the force that gives prayer its power to both project and ascend.

Prayer is called a matter of the heart. It is not a function of the mind, nor of speech. Both mind and speech are tools for the heart, not the other way around. Mental imagery becomes real when one's passion make it real. One's words become words of power when they are filled with true, heart-felt passion, and intent (kavanah). When the heart projects the imagery above to Heaven, the word (in whatever form) projects the force into the collective hive-mind. Both work in conjunction with the other.

Prayer, essentially is a mechanical process that operates in accordance to its own laws of physics, yet these laws include not only space and time, but human consciousness, as well. When we understand the proper procedures of what to do, and how to do it, then we can rest assured that we are, in actuality, accomplishing something real and tangible. Yet, even with this said, even with our proper projections and intentions of channeling heavenly energies, from above and out into the collective hive-mind, does not mean that each and every prayer that we pray will be answered that the way we want it to be.

Prayers expose and express needs. Needs are, more often than not, fulfilled. Desires, however are not needs. Desires may or may not be fulfilled, and usually not. There is a big difference between the needs of the many, and the needs of the few, or the one. Needs cry out from the heart, and are thus heard in Heaven. As for mere desires, even the desires of the many, all the more so of the few, or even the one, usually arise from a place of self-interest, as opposed to a place of heart-felt need.

Heaven hears the prayers of the heart, and not necessarily the wants of those crying “gimme-gimme.” There is a big difference between prayers of need, and prayers of “gimme-gimme.” Heaven clearly recognizes the difference between the two. The two are as different as opposite colors. While we fool ourselves, and lie to ourselves all the time, Heaven sees the truth.

Let's sum up. Prayer is a telepathic projection of heart-felt thought from the mind of the individual into the collective hive-mind of humanity. From here, these powerful projections rise to the top of the hive-mind, and from there ascend through various different realms until that energy reaches what we call God.

God, in turn, responds and inject a new infusion of energy into collective humanity, which is then broken down into individual pieces, with individual bits of energy going to those places that called for it the strongest, are the most open to receive it, and who have the greatest need for it.

Prayer is energy. It is the energy of the human heart, projected through the human mind (imagery) and the human word (sound/voice projections). When we understand this actual nature of prayer, maybe it will help us to focus in on it all the better.

Having prayers answered is not a game of chance. Having prayers answered can be as basic a need as is food, water, and air. When we eat right we maintain health. When we pray properly we maintain spiritual/mental/psychological health. With this internal balance, one can discover all the doorways that one needs to pass through in order to achieve all the other needs that one sincerely prays for. This is the secret of prayer.

Surrender to the whole, and give all over to God. Cry out with true anguish and sincere desire, and God will not withhold good from those who walk before Him in this simplicity.