[Couple summers ago, I had a chance to be in Japan for the Symphony of Peace Prayers. One act that deeply touched me was Maki-san, as one of the most important conveners of the several thousand person event, spent several hours live-translating between me and Masami-san. I was very wowed, and remember thinking that only a person of prayer could do such a selfless act for an everyday person like me. Last week, when I was on a call with all Saionji Sisters, I was remembering that. And I wanted to transcribe a share that Maki shared on that call -- perhaps in the same spirit she offers so much to the world. It is a lightly edited version of what Maki spontaneously shared on our call.]

Maki: Thank you so much for all your shares. I have learned so much and I got so much inspiration. What I felt through the conversation is the question: what is prayer?

I think prayer helps us transform. It is a transformation that helps us go back to our origin. That's the power of prayer.

When we are in fear or anger, our consciousness gets distracted by our emotional impulses and that clouds our connection with our origin. We all have this origin, this spirit, and we can call it by different names -- but in Japan, we have been calling it the divine spark. It's a potential that is always in our hearts.

As someone shared here, Gandhi spoke about one eye pointing towards our microscopic vision and another pointing towards telescopic vision. And if we retain this connection to our origin, this middle ground, this connection to our divine spark, even our big vision can feel microscopic and our smallest acts can feel telescopic.

So what is the transformation that happens to us in prayer? Ever since I was a kid, I have been praying daily for many hours and I notice that when we pray, we start with ourselves. We pray for our happiness, and there is a new kind of balance in us. Then we can go a bit deeper, and share that happiness with our family and loved ones. Then, it's like we climb up the mountain and see more and more people that we can send prayers to -- and soon, all of nature and the entire universe. After that, we can pray for things that even horrify us, like wars and the immense suffering around us. Seeing these horrible things happening, our heartaches and steps into fear. But that's when prayer brings us back into our center, our Origin, and we can embrace everything with love and gratitude. That is the power of prayer.

If we are able to pray for someone who hurts us or hates us or gives us negative energy, and still not got tangled into the emotion stage of our being, then we can stand in our Origin and embrace things as they are, and enter a place in our heart of deep trust -- that everything will be okay, in the end. Yes, many things are happening but I will okay, you will be okay, and the transformation makes you happy despite the current conditions. More than even happy, it is making you be yourself and making others be themselves. Simply by engaging in that process, we can create harmony and peace with anyone who appears to be different than us.

Our religious faiths can often help us come to this place in us, but even without faith, we can experience this transformation. To do this, we need a community to support us -- because when I'm deeply suffering, I might know this truth but still my awareness goes to my base emotions and it's hard to return back to my Origin. When that happens, if I have somebody whom I trust, they will pray for me instead of me shouldering everything. So I am able to relax and embrace the emotion -- I am able to say I am sad. I am able to say that I am scared and not to deny that. That's so important, that we don't project ourselves as a noble person and instead embrace our limits in that moment as a physical being having these emotions. At the same time, my trusted "noble friends", like my sisters for example, pray for me that I will be able to go back to a stronger place in me. That is a big support and helps me experience what I need to experience and then return to the origin.



I think it's very important for us to experience all these different phases of life, together with prayer. Like muscle training, the practice of prayer creates stronger conditions for this continued transformation. When we have a calm mind and can easily send prayers to others who might need help, we can easily experience the transformation -- and feel grateful for it. On the other hand, if someone's loved one dies, I will have sympathy or empathy for them, feel the hurt myself but my prayers will help me return to my Center. In that sense, the suffering of others helps me grow my muscle of returning back to my Center, while also offering some help to the person in need. So in helping others, we are also helping ourselves. Then, in our time of need, we will have a stronger capacity to return to our Middle.

This, I feel, is the power of prayer. It transforms and heals everything in its path, whether it is our own pain or that of others.


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Originally posted in Prayer Circle Pod.