Prayer: The Key to Life Mastery
As Evidenced by the Masters

Let the Divine Mind flow through your own mind, and you will be happier. I have found the greatest power in the world in the power of prayer. There is no shadow of doubt of that. I speak from my own experience. Cecil B. De Mille Isn't it amazing how the most powerful paths of blessedness are most often overlooked? I should know, because I have done this myself. Although I have been around this technology for most of my life, - the one habit that eluded me and the one which I most often overlooked was prayer. For most of my adult life, I have been fascinated to know and practice the most potent methods for becoming greater in character, for experiencing life more fully, for becoming more effective. In fact since I was just 11, I have been researching what are the principles and actions upon which great lives are built... Having come from humble beginnings, I wanted to make the most of my life and the opportunities I had - so I wanted to know, 'what are the most potent methods for tapping into our potential, and making the most of our lives?'

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Prayer is the single most powerful tool we have on Earth.
And yet so many people misunderstand it -- or ignore it altogether.
Those who ignore prayer are missing the best part of life.
John LeBoutillie

As a result, I intensely studied this question in hundreds of books, speeches and seminars, - from personal development, to philosophy, to theology and even business practices. I experimented with many, many 'tools for change', and have been afforded the practice by working for many years as a life-coach and personal development teacher.

I have researched and applied tens of psychological and spiritual tools, - from hypnosis, to neuro-liguistics programming, to cognitive therapy, to all types of meditations and esoteric practices. I don't know how, but somewhere in my mind I had it linked up that real wisdom and character development comes through sophisticated and complex procedures.

Prayer on the other hand seemed a bit too 'old fashioned' and 'uncool' to be of any real value. It seemed a bit too simplistic. After all, 'what is the use in just repeating a bunch of words?'

Well, maybe it was a matter of time in having researched the lives of so many great geniuses, saints and philosophers, - but slowly, I happened to observe a clear and undeniable pattern:

Most, if not all of the greatest souls throughout human history, have used prayer as the primary tool for personal and global change! It wasn't actually some esoteric technique, it wasn't psychotherapy, and it certainly wasn't 'subliminal affirmation tapes'.

It consistently was and still is, the act of absolute prayer.

When you pray, you open yourself to the influence of the power which has revealed itself as love. The power gives you freedom and independence. Once touched by this power, you are no longer swayed back and forth by the countless opinions, ideas, and feelings which flow through you. You have found a center for your life that gives you a creative distance so that everything you see, hear and feel can be tested against the source.
Henri J. Nouwen

Jesus told us that we shall 'know the good practices, by the fruits', or by the final results. And what is factual and real, is that the great souls that shine and inspire us today, are the ones that prayed.

So just who consistently practices the art of prayer, and is able to demonstrate measurable results in creating miracles and in changing the world for the better?

Now let's not look at the saints or spiritual leaders on their comments about prayer. That would be too easy. After all, prayer is synonymous with saintliness. It's impossible to express holiness without prayer...

Let's take an objective list of 'Greats' that seculars themselves have put together.

Just a few months back, the Discovery Channel on TV ran a nation wide poll to find who is considered 'The Greatest American' of all time. Millions of votes were counted in the making of the show, and in the very top position the following 5 people emerged:

Ronald Reagan, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King,
George Washington, and Benjamin Franklin.

So what do these Great Americans have to say about prayer?

Let's see...

He affirmed: "We must seek Divine guidance in the policies of the government and the promulgation of the laws… When we open ourselves to Him, we gain not only moral courage but also intellectual strength."

In the second position was Abraham Lincoln.

When asked about the power of prayer in 1863, he responded, "Well, I will tell you how it was. In the pinch of the campaign up there (at Gettysburg) when everybody seemed panic stricken and nobody could tell what was going to happen, oppressed by the gravity of our affairs, I went to my room one day and locked the door and got down on my knees before Almighty God and prayed to Him mightily...

And after that, I don't know how it was, and I cannot explain it, but soon a sweet comfort crept into my soul. The feeling came that God had taken the whole business into His own hands and that things would go right at Gettysburg and that is why I had no fears."

Abraham Lincoln reminded all people of what is as valid today as it was then, that "it is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, -- to recognize the sublime truth…" And to watch out that we don't become "intoxicated with unbroken success and become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us."

In the third position viewers named Martin Luther King.

As his wife Coretta Scott King states, "For my husband, prayer was a daily source of courage and strength that gave him the ability to carry on in even the darkest hours of our struggle.

In one instance, she remembers her husband getting up from bed, making himself some coffee, and worrying about his family and the heavy burdens of the Civil Movement. Then with his head in his hands, Martin bowed over the kitchen table and prayed aloud to God.

She observed how prayer at that moment destroyed his worries and was overcome with a sense of confidence. Later Dr. King told her, "At that moment, I experienced the presence of the Divine as I had never experienced Him before. It seemed as though I could hear a voice saying: 'Stand up for righteousness; stand up for truth; and God will be at our side forever.'"

"To be a Christian without prayer
is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.
Martin Luther King

In exactly the same way, George Washington (the forth Greatest American on this list) was also known as a consistent pray-er.

As eyewitness testimony from Isaac Potts have stated, - during the most distressing time of the war, when all were ready to give up, in the woods, "I heard a plaintive sound as of a man at prayer. I tied my horse to a sapling & went quietly into the woods.

To my astonishment I saw the great George Washington on his knees alone, with his sword on one side and his cocked hat on the other. He was at Prayer to the God of the Armies, beseeching to interpose with his Divine aid, as it was ye Crisis & the cause of the country, of humanity & of the world. Such a prayer I never heard from the lips of man. I left him alone praying..."

For as George Washington himself put it, "It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God. It is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favors."

Benjamin Franklin, the great inventor, philosopher, and statesman was voted in at five.

So resolute was Mr. Franklin's belief in the power of prayer, that when he met with the architects who wrote the Constitution, he proposed that "henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessings on our deliberations, be held in this Assembly every morning before we proceed to business."

As he stated, "I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth - that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid?"

Is it a coincidence that practically all of the greatest souls in history have used prayer to accomplish miracles... to lead and change the world for the better?

The practice of prayer is universal, and is not limited to America or the Western Civilizations.

Mahatma Gandhi for example, has proved beyond the shadow of a doubt, the incredible power that 'applied truth' has. As a short frail man with glasses, he moved out an entire empire without a single bullet and inspired millions of people to live close to God. He demonstrated, that power of heavenly principles are more powerful than all the military force of the British Empire.

What I find fascinating, is that a man who was grounded in an Indian spiritual tradition, - used just prayer as his primary tool for causing changes. If you think about it, being in India he had access to all the 'New Age tools' that are popular today... He was surrounded by thousands of 'gurus' after all.

Yet when you read his autobiography, "My experiments with truth", you'll notice that Gandhi simply used prayer to strengthen his soul in embracing the heart of non-violence. He used prayer to strengthen his mind in maintaining integrity upon truth. He used prayer to strengthen his body in times of intensive physical punishment from armed aggressors... He healed and transformed relationships by praying for his devotees and for their aggressors.

Gandhi understood the divine power inherent in prayer. This is what he said:

"Let everyone try and find that as a result of daily prayer he adds something new to his life, something with which nothing can be compared. Prayer is not an old woman's idle amusement. Properly understood and applied, it is the most potent instrument of action. No act of mine is done without prayer. I can give my own testimony and say that a heartfelt prayer is undoubtedly the most potent instrument that man possesses for overcoming cowardice and all other bad old habits. The man of prayer will be at peace with himself and with the whole world. The man who goes about the affairs of the world without a prayerful heart will be miserable and will make the world also miserable... I can say from experience that he who does not pray is certainly a loser. Prayer is the only means of bringing about orderliness and peace and repose in our daily acts. Take care of the vital thing and other things will take care of themselves. Rectify one angle of a square, and the other angles will be automatically right." MAHATMA GANDHI

Still, some may argue that perhaps prayer is only necessary for leaders and the ones that seek to influence with heart, by their call upon values, - and it is unnecessary in the real world of science, facts and objectivity...

That is, in the world of rational thinking, logic and left brained activities, - there is no need for the 'mysticism of prayer'.

So let's then take perhaps the three most important characters, who we learn in science classes, have fundamentally established the scientific enlightenment of the last millennium: Isaac Newton, Blaise Pascal, and Immanuel Kant. What did they have to say about prayer?

Isaac Newton, perhaps the greatest scientist of all, - credited with the development of 'scientific enlightenment' and with moving our culture away from superstition and magic, - constantly prayed. As he described, it was through prayer and meditation that he was able to penetrate into the profound realizations of light, gravity, mechanics, calculus and much more...

He saw himself as an alchemist, - one who needed transform internally his mind through prayer and meditation as to perceive these 'higher laws'. (that's a key insight right there by the way)

As he stated, "in earnest prayer I see more of Heaven and get closer to God than I can when assisted by all the telescopes and material agencies on Earth".

His note books are full of studies, and references from the Bible, from Cabalistic texts, from the Talmud... etc. In the times he lived in, he was actually forced to keep silent about this, lest he be condemned and declared a 'heretic'. He did not really approve of established Christianity of the times with its hypocritical man-made rules and clerical bureaucracy, - and practiced prayer and meditation in secret, as he believed it was the heart of true religion and spirituality.

In the same way Immanuel Kant, perhaps the greatest philosopher of the last millennium, - had dedicated whole philosophical sections to the principle of prayer in his books, 'Religion' and 'Lectures on Philosophical Theology'. Like Isaac Newton, he refuted man-made religious formalities and 'idolatry of words' of the times, and sought to get to the integral experience of prayer:

"We must never regard prayer as a means to getting our own way; if a prayer concerns our corporeal advantage, we ought to say it both with a trust in God's wisdom and with a  submission to this wisdom. The greatest utility of prayer is indisputably a moral one, because through prayer both thankfulness and resignation toward God become effective in us.

The contemplation of the profound wisdom of the divine creation in the smallest things, and of its majesty in the great ... is a power which cannot only transport the mind into that sinking mood, called adoration, but also, in respect of its own moral determination, is so soul-elevating a power - that words, in comparison, pass away as empty sound because the emotion arising from such a vision of the hand of God is inexpressible."

And last, Blaise Pascal, the genius who at age sixteen had developed a mathematics theorem that is now named after him, at eighteen constructed the first mechanical calculator (the basis of computers today) then went on to establish whole new branches of study in mathematics and physical sciences, then wrote extensively on the subjects of philosophy and theology...

This is what he affirmed about prayer:

"There is a God shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God, the Creator. Happiness is neither without us nor within us. It is in God, both without us and within us...

Why did God institute prayer? To give his creatures the dignity of causality."

Can it then really be 'an accident' that the great leaders like Gandhi, Reagan, Lincoln, King, Washington, Franklin and all the great thinkers like Newton, Kant, and Pascal - all used prayer as the fundamental tool to change themselves and to change the world?

And of course these great souls aren't the only ones that used prayer. One could put together pages and pages of other examples, - but let's talk about a short list of people who even the secular groups consider as 'Greatness' personified. Is it by mere chance that the most actualized and positively influential men and women consistently used prayer?

I would like to suggest that not only is it not an accident, but according to their own words, - prayer is THE CAUSE for Greatness.

* * *
So why is that? Why are 'the most praying souls, the most assured souls', as Thomas B. Brooks put it?

Well, it's simple. They single handedly moved the world, because they used 'the prop' strong enough, and 'the lever' long enough to do just that... God.

The Source was the same then.
The Source is the same now.
The Source will be the same tomorrow.

The method to tap into Our Source, is the one that God has already 'ordained' and the one that every Great Soul has used throughout history, - prayer.

As Charles Spurgeon put it, 'whether we like it or not, asking is the rule of the kingdom.' And it doesn't matter what you want. It doesn't matter whether you consider yourself a leader or not. It is through prayer that you and I create ALL profound changes in our lives and in the lives of others:

• in strengthening and healing our body,
• in illuminating and expanding our mind,
• in developing and freeing the expression our soul,
• in cultivating harmony and love in our relationships,
• in beautifying our environment,
• ... in creating heaven on earth

I have come not merely to believe in the power of prayer, but to know it.

This course here has been created so you can experience this for yourself. I invite you to participate in this 'prayer experiment' for yourself. Plant daily 'Seeds of Greatness' in your mind and notice the fruits they create.

I look forward to our journey together.

God Bless,
John James

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P.S. Here are just a few more references to ponder upon - for as Emerson put it, "Coffee is great for talent, but genius wants prayer":

	"The act of prayer clarifies and purges our heart and makes it more capable of receiving the divine gifts that are poured out for us in the spirit. In prayer, the vision of the pure heart can bear the pure light that shines divinely, and abide in it with unspeakable joy, - the blessed life is truly and genuinely brought to fulfillment…God has made us for himself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in Him." AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO (arguably the most important philosopher and theologian that established Western Christianity)
	“Every one who is seriously involved in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that a spirit is manifest in the laws of the Universe — spirit vastly superior to that of man, and one in the face of which we with our modest powers must feel humble… I want to know how God created this world. I want to know His thoughts. The rest are details.” ALBERT EINSTEIN (arguably the most important of modern scientists, who gave rise to the atomic age)
	The time will come when the schools and educational institutions of the country will teach the "science of prayer." Moreover, then prayer may be, and will be reduced to a science. When that time comes, (it will come as soon as mankind is ready for it, and demands it), no one will approach the Universal Mind in a state of fear, for the very good reason that there will be no such emotion as fear. Ignorance, superstition, and false teaching will have disappeared, and man will have attained his true status as a child of Infinite Intelligence. A few have already attained this blessing. NAPOLEON HILL (arguably the most important of all modern self-help authors, who based his philosophy on a 20 year research project on the world's most successful people)

P.P.S. As a fitting conclusion to article, consider a contrary biographical note - the person who on June 17, 1963 convinced the Supreme Court of United States to outlaw the voluntary practice of prayer in public schools. (Madalyn O'Hair, pictured on the right)

As the founder of 'American Atheist' organization, she had prayer, Bible readings and all religious references abolished from schools. Amongst other things, she advocated free birth control, the taxing of churches and sued the Baltimore school for using the word 'God' in the Pledge of Allegiance.

What was her life like? Well, it's probably best characterised as one full of chaos, disorder and destruction. It ultimately culminated in her death at the hands of her own office manager of 'American Atheist'. He murdered and cut her into pieces - as to steal funds from her 'organization'!

Again, let's take Jesus' word to heart here and know the right role models for our lives, by their fruits - what they produce for others:

"Do men gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles? Even so every good tree brings forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree brings forth corrupt fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit."

"The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart,
and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart."

P.P.P.S: Okay, getting carried away with the P.P.s here... :-)
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