Prayer: A Lenten Reflection

While it is true that “God helps those that help themselves,” it also seems true, at least in my experience, that help from above is sometimes badly needed. Thus it seems an important part of self-knowledge to be able to sense when we have reached the limits of our own resources.

So where is such help to be sought?

Here I would cite the teachings of German spiritual master Bô Yin Râ (Joseph Anton Schneiderfranken 1876-1943) and his series of teachings he called his Hortus Conclusus, or “Gated Garden.” Three Sages has previously posted several articles on Bô Yin Râ’s works. See this.

At the risk of vast oversimplification, I will try to summarize one of his key ideas by saying that he envisaged human beings as having fallen into this earthly life from their former home in the Spirit and that our earthly life can best be spent by striving to return to that blessed state. See our previous article on Lent.

But surrounding earth and the life we experience through our senses remains the spiritual world from whence we came and to which we are bound to return when we depart this life. Our place in that world and our prospects for further growth will be then be influenced by our progress during life here on earth.

Divine messengers have appeared here on earth to guide us on our path of spiritual growth, such as Jesus, Buddha, the Hindu masters, Lao Tzu, and others, both known and unknown. But according to Bô Yin Râ there are also divine beings living in the spiritual world who have never suffered physical incarnation, or who have reached a level while on earth that they can offer help to earth-bound humanity after their own departure. One name for divine individuals living in the spirit is “angels.”

We can contact divine beings through prayer, but it’s an art that can and must be learned. Bô Yin Râ teaches us to pray throughout his writings, but most specifically in the small book On Prayer that may be found here. At the end of this book are 22 prayers of Bô Yin Râ’s creation addressed to the divine beings on a number of topics, including: “In the Hour of Awakening,” “In Temptation,” “For Success,” “In Great Joy,” “For Inner Certainty,” “In Illness and Pain,” and others.

Bô Yin Râ also advises us to pray for other people before we pray for ourselves and to remember to pray for the deceased who have already departed this life. The book On Prayer also contains an excellent prescription for meditation practice that may be utilized to precede a period of prayer.

Whatever method we may choose, prayer remains essential, as it has always been, to navigate what English writer John Bunyan wisely called, in his classic devotional work The Pilgrim’s Progress, “the wilderness of this world.”

Any positive prayer is to be respected.