Into thy hands

I think I'm right in saying that uh in the scripture there are 365 references fear not or don't be afraid one for every day of the year extraordinary isn't it I wonder if you knew that already I was only told it quite recently I started to meditate I went I was taught when I was 26 and almost immediately I said well this is prayer and I've never really seen much difference between the two except that uh prayer is tends to be verbal at least when people start to pray it's how it's normally taught as as as words and meditation is although many people start to meditate with words meditation usually it becomes word word less very soon so what's it all about there's a little boy at school I was taught God bless I think before I went to school my mother taught me to say God bless mommy and daddy and my sister T and our dog Sammy and a man called Fred who helped in the garden that was my prayer I don't know that I've ever prayed more purely in all my life really there's a little boy kneeling by his bed saying God bless Mommy and Daddy I lived several years in Russia I am half Russian by the way and uh with a great love for Russia and I learned very many things when I lived in Russia and one of the things I learned there was that they say that the two purest prayers the two best prayers are the prayers of a child and the prayer of a mother praying for her child I often think of that well as time went on as a boy at school I suppose my prayers got a bit longer so I wasn't I was I was rather a shy but I didn't I I didn't mix easily with other people so I was not too sure really of praying for people long before people really entered into my general Consciousness I loved nature I loved animals so I pray for Animals I'd pray for for nature God bless my lizard and my rabbit and my mice and the farm where I love to go the horses the sheep and the cows the crops and the grass and the trees that I loved God bless I think it brought me great comfort as a child as a lonely little boy at boarding school cut off from the home I loved somehow that hiding my face in my hands I could cut cut out the the competitive hostility of other little boys and feel safe in that little world God bless that's something that I've always loved about prayer it's this work of love as I sit here now just in this presence with the sunlight through the window with this theme of prayer passing through my mind I'm not sure here and now whether anything is more prayerful than just being present here just as we're leaning back into this presence like you'd lean back into a hot bath at the end of a tiring day into thy hands oh Lord I commend not only my own Spirit but the whole world into thy hands oh Lord and with that comes an unquestionable Faith a trust that that actually is the best thing we can possibly do but I say this now the end of a long life whereas as a young man I struggled with words and formulations and different sorts of prayer and then of course I wanted to do things physically I wanted to change the world make the world a better place I did all sorts of things I was a farmer I wanted to serve the land I wanted to somehow e will even overcome the suffering of animals why why did my animals have to go off and be killed I remember being very struck by the fact that I couldn't walk over my beloved Earth without hurting it without crushing it if you look at Earth carefully and particularly Earth that you're work in and it's got a lovely crumb structure it's like a cathedral really there they say there's more air in a handful of soil than there is actual matter in healthy soil mil of little passages and homes where the little creatures live so when we put our foot on a soil and press it down it's rather like a giant putting his great big foot on mle field and crushing it to nothing we do that every time we walk over the soil let loone drive our cars over it and we don't even think about it don't even notice it do we I used to think well if the fairies can dance over the grass and sit on flowers without hurting them why can't I and this put beyond the great long path towards questioning what humanity is all about and what am I and what can we do about it and of course a Cornerstone of all this was is prayer I'm jumping around a bit this these things come into my mind but I'll I'll get to the point before long um yeah when I started to meditate I was 26 then I'd never heard of Consciousness I didn't know what it was what they were talking about anyway eventually it sank in and they talked about raising consciousness and actually that meditation was the work of raising Consciousness what does that mean well I suppose it could be from my great big clumsy feet crushing the ground to fairy light just like that if we can raise Consciousness to just being present here now which is as simple as pie really isn't it and nothing to do apart from just being present do you realize how this presence is completely weightless isn't it weightless care less and it's not bounded by the walls of this room is it it stretches where's the limit is it stretches is it not infinite where's the end of presentence you ask is it powerful darling why is it called almighty God God is there anything remotely comparable in terms of the power and authority and trustworthiness of this into thy hands oh Lord and on the way again it's we've almost forgotten to think about my Clumsy feet haven't I they're there resting on the ground but the sort of center of attention the center of action really has moved from this to that hasn't it and in this present what is not contained and what is not raised similarly so maybe this is PR it was once pointed out to me that real knowledge is not something learned by talking or from books or that or going on Retreats it's actually revealed Revelation and again just by coming back to this presence it's just obvious isn't it it's just revealed I don't have to tell you it's just here isn't it and all that's required is just an open an openness to receive it hence the essence of prayer is really all about first of all oh God which means you're looking as it were at a higher authority first of all we hardly know what we're doing it's just a we just what we're told like a child oh God who art the author of Life Etc light in our Darkness we beseech thee Oh Lord Almighty God our Father however we start it's all this opening isn't it and into that openness revelation comes doesn't it which may just be the comfort of doing so the simple comfort of knowing that we're not so alone maybe and helpless in this world or rather there great comfort in realizing we are helpless and alone and in that surrender to something bigger than ourselves we discover that actually is not quite so so dear almost from my earliest Beginnings dear I've struggled with all the many ups and downs of life just like we all do this uh marvelous thing of prayer has developed and is still developing de I wouldn't say I know how to do it but I keep trying I think there's nothing more important I call this my work and there's nothing more important in my life hasn't been for years than my twice a daily period of of Prayer and it must have been I can't remember sort of halfway through my life I began to realize that that this is not only what I love to do it's the most effective thing I can do in this world I did my best with my young man's muscles and my brains but I've got much more faith these days in prayer and God knows and I do not I find great comfort in that God knows and we have be bold and say we do not and in the shity of presence I cannot doubt that that this is well there's certainly nothing threatening about it is there nothing unkind come unto me beloved it's the work of Love isn't it for the surrender of I love you and want to do things to change into the hand of the of the great love itself the most difficult pill to swallow is this what we call the ego the me it sort of gets in between what can I do about it well the great blessing of being old now is that I'm dying out so the less of me me the more of God becomes ever more real it really does I do commend it de you I'm probably am I the oldest person in the room I guess I probably am so I'm the luckiest of all of you but it will come but after struggling with how to deal with all you know with life this sort of final great discovery is that it just simply dies out if you're not sure what I'm talking about think of your childhood where is it where is it or your school days or your first love your first kiss where is it is that extraordinary well I'm almost at the stage now when I can look back can say where is mortality well perhaps I've jumped ahead too far you know think back to oh some Dreadful news items that that that that was turning the world upside down that I'm old enough to remember the second world war was the you these things were cataclysmic or seemed cataclysmic at the time but where are they now wash down the river of time his story extraordinary isn't it what's so real today tomorrow is ready you can't hardly remember it next week you probably can't remember it what is this thing called life wasn't it as real as we think it I've never liked words like illusion because it seems a bit sort of disparaging really who am I to call it's illusion but we don't all forget it we're an ancient Church all the people that have sat here and thought about life where are they now somewhere like internet up in the sky for God's sake who knows now why if I wandered off on that theme perhaps it was just to come back to prayer see what happens when we consider life from the point of view of presence presence is undivided isn't it here now there's this level of Consciousness it's not quite as clear now as it feels it was a few minutes ago I think we're losing getting a bit tired and attention is wandering a bit but try to come back to just this present it's undivided isn't it so what about all this separation all that which divides us all these accumulations of thoughts and opinions and likes and dislikes that are different for each of us which can so often end up making life contentious and unpleasant there is that one sort of reality and yet this presence is another if we feel actually feel more comfortable in presence it rather supersedes the other doesn't it rather like when you switch on the light the darkness what happens to the dark disappears doesn't it more light less dark extraordinary wasn't the dark as real as we thought was real enough of the time w we we were frightened of it I don't know where to go God stumbling more light less dark and how do we let in the light coming to the present wonderful so are all these divisions in the world as real as we think what about if they are contained within this presence is there a a sort of a the subtle power or something that one overcomes the other how does one overcome the powers of Darkness more light less dark do these things just demilition for the last half hour where have they been plenty of of them out there in the Daily Press and news or have we just forgotten about them have they just gone out of the picture which endures the light's still here isn't it even when the Sun goes down this presence won't be affected come onto me beloved come home where you belong come and rest maybe that's what prayer is what about death does this die and all that you might see and hear at the moment as John Butler when all this has died died out what's left ah isn't that what matters why did Jesus wait until the very last the very last I think his very last words weren't they before he his worldly Ministry came to an end I Am with You l i Am With You Always isn't that what it comes to of course we are are we are accustomed to connect visually and with our senses but uh that's why prayer is really practice practice practice practice for this great and gradually the more we practice the more this overcomes this doesn't it with a bit of luck we become lighter the light becomes more real remember we are saved by faith faith is not really intellectual knowledge is it it's higher knowledge it's just coming back to Faith coming back to presence it's unquestionable isn't it it can be realized and it's always here now present because how could we be closer to it than Here and Now for

Channel: Spiritual Unfoldment with John Butler

Views: 20,554

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Id: lEL680nUrew

Length: 29min 12sec (1752 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 14 2024