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Body Prayer
Information on Body Prayer Return to main
IX. Body Prayer
(A devotional variant of the
body sensation)
First quite yourself through the awareness of sensations in
various parts of your body....
Sharpen your awareness by picking up
even the subtlest sensations, Not just the gross and evident ones....
Keep your hands on knees. Now very gently move your hands and
fingers
so that your hands come to rest on your lap, palms facing upwards,
fingers joined together.... The movement must be very, very slow....
like the opening of
the petals of a flower.... And while the movement
is going on BE AWARE OF each part of it.
Once your hands
are resting on your lap, palms facing upwards,
become aware of the sensations in palms.... Then become aware of
the
gesture itself, this is a gesture of prayer to God.... What meaning
does this gesture have for you? What are you saying to God through it?
Say without words, merely identifying with the gesture... It may give
you
some taste of the kind of prayer you can make with your body....
When you pray with your body you give power and body to your
prayer. People fail to attend to their
body in prayer; they fail to
take their bodies along with them into the holy temple of God. When
they themselves
visit temples or places of worship, they stand or sit
in the presence of God, but they are carelessly slouched in
their seat
or standing in a very slovenly fashion.... They are still not gripped
by the living presence of the
Lord. Therefore, a devotee of the Lord
should try to understand the meaning and purpose ofBody Prayer. The
gesturessuggested are merely samples. Adevoteemay
invent his
own gestures to express hisLove,Praise,Adoration,
Surrender,Gratitude. ...
Close your eyes. Quieten yourself through one of your awareness
exercises. FEEL you are in the presence of God in a very devout way,
hands devoutly joined in front of you, slowly
raise your face upwards
towards God.... Let your eyes continue to be closed.... What are you
saying to God
through your upturned face? Stay with that sentiment or
communication for a few moments.... Then become as fully
aware as
possible of the position of your face.... of the sensations on your
face.... After a few moments ask
yourself once again what you are
expressing to God through your upturned face and stay with that for a
while....
X. The Touch of God
This is a devotional variant to the exercises on body sensations
that you will find helpful if you have reservations about
calling the
body sensation exercises true prayer or contemplation. Repeat one of
the body sensation exercises. Take some time to experience as many and
as subtle sensations as you can in various parts of your body......
Now make the REFLECTION: Every sensation I
feel, no matter how
light and subtle is the result of a bio-chemical reaction that could
not exist except for Gods Almighty Power.... FEEL Gods power at work
in the
production of every single sensation... . Feel HIM touching you
in each of those sensations that HE is producing... . Feel the touch of
God in different parts of your body:
rough, smooth, pleasurable,
painful....
The experience of God need not be something sensational or out of
the ordinary, unless your devotion and Divine Love is
developed. There
is, no doubt, an experience of God that is different from the ordinary
run of experiences that we are accustomed to: there is the deep
silence that I spoke
of earlier, the glowing darkness, the emptiness
that brings fulfilment.
There are sudden, unaccountable flashes of Eternity or of the
infinite that comes to us
when we least expect them, in the midst of
our work. One needs to do so little, really, to experience God. All
one needs to do is quieten oneself, become still-and become
aware of
the feel of your hand. Beware of the sensations in your hand.... There
you have God, living and working in you, touching you, intensely near
you.... Feel HIM.... Experience HIM. Most of the devotees look upon an
experience like this as far too pedestrian. Surely there is more to
the experience of God than just the simple feel of the sensations of
ones right hand. This needs a long
explanation to know the reality-
Yet, you are assured that these simple and humble exercises shall help
you a
lot to march towards that reality.
We forget all too easily that one of the big lessons of
incarnations is
that God is found in the ordinary also. Do you wish to
see God? Look at the fact next to you. You want to hear him?
Listen to
the cry of a baby, the loud laughter of a simple party, the wind
rustling in the trees. Or just quieten yourself, become aware of the
sensations in your
body, sense HIS ALMIGHTY POWER at work in you and
feel
how near He is to you.
XI. Concentration
Continued to how to pray