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| Picture from the film "12 years a slave" |
Unfortunately, in the West, prayer had become something functional;
something you did to achieve a desired effect—which too often puts the ego back
in charge. As soon as you make prayer a way to get what you want, you’re not
moving into any kind of new state of consciousness. It’s the same old
consciousness, but now well disguised: “How can I get God to do what I want God
to do?” It’s the egocentric self deciding what it needs, but now, instead of
just manipulating everybody else, it tries to manipulate God.
This is one reason
religion is so dangerous and often so delusional. If religion does not
transform people at the level of both mind and heart, it ends up giving
self-centered people a very pious and untouchable way to be on top and in
control. Now God becomes their defense system for their small self! Even Jesus
found this to be true of his own scribes, Pharisees, and teachers of the law.
Richard Rohr
