Back to The Garden

Below is once again an excerpt from one of my Anthropology courses. In it I am lamenting against the scholars interpretation of the meaning/function of prayer. I have edited it in part, and tried to make it stand alone. Please forgive anything that was left out for brevity’s sake. Prayer is a multifaceted concept that one can get a dissertation in and still fail to grasp its essence.

I think that the scholarship is questionable at best, that it was written by someone who embraces Aristotelian materialism over openness to the sacred. Religion can be studied anthropologically but also needs to allow attunement to the sacred in the practices themselves. For example Wallace after a cursory glance at prayer, believes it is only bargaining with a deity. It is asking, bargaining or threatening for some desired outcome. If not it is merely thanking for past boons received. He utilizes Christians as a prime example. Extolling that prayer is a means to some end, a form of bargaining. From the outside i.e. to a non-Christian or at least someone uninitiated this seems right. Prayer is a bargaining, “my sister is sick, Lord hear our prayer.” The one praying is asking for  relief or a boon of some sort, be it healing, a new car, or a raise. The prayer is merely a means to an end, a way to gain some favor from God. 

However Wallace misses the mark. Prayer is not just a form of bartering or a means to say thanks for prayers answered, it is entering into God’s grace. It is literal communion with God (communion does not always happen in a congregation on a Sunday) i.e. an attempt at entering Grace. Christians believe that since Adam and Eve were ejected from the Garden, anytime we sin, we leave God’s grace. Hell is seen as the ultimate separation from God, rejecting his word altogether. Many falsely believe Hell is endless torment and intense flames And a red faced Devil sticks us in the ass with a poker.. It is much worse, it is pure silence. The severing of one’s connection with the divine. 

It is declaring spiritual bankruptcy and castration. Prayer is one attempt at purification, a means to enter back into communion with God. Whether Adam and Eve serve as myths as metaphors for our fractionated relationship with the divine. The point remains, that human beings wish to transcend to a higher level of consciousness. We seek redemption for our lostness. And prayer is one such religious practice utilized to attain God’s grace.

Wallace hints at this when he mentions the use of drugs in religious practices. I am not trying to treat him unfairly but he is stumbling around the idea, but still misses the mark when it comes to the meaning of prayer. I am choosing Christianity as my primary example of the point of prayer to show the limits of his scholarship. And because it is one of the most popular religions in the West. And something that I am deeply familiar and connected with. 

J.D. Salinger in his novella “Franny and Zooey” highlights the aim of prayer, specifically the Jesus prayer from “The Way of a Pilgrim.” A small book where a young Russian Monk seeks to “find out what it means in the Bible when it says you should pray incessantly.” The monk wanders around talking to anyone and everyone, trying to learn how to pray without ceasing. Much later he runs into a religious sect of advanced monks called Starets and is taught the Jesus Prayer. Thus finally learning how to pray without ceasing. 

Is this simple pilgrim, bargaining with God, seeking material objects? Are his prayers asking for healing of some sort, or merely giving thanks for passed blessings? What are his motivations? Is he simply a madman, a holy fool? The monk is ultimately aiming for Christ-consciousness (as any wise Holy fool does). Salinger using his mouthpiece Zooey states “the Jesus Prayer has one aim, and one aim only. To endow the person who says it with Christ-consciousness Not to set up some little cozy, holier-than-thous trysting place with some sticky, adorable divine personage who’ll take you in his arms and relieve you of all your duties.” 

The prayer is meant to elevate the one praying, it is meant to induce a higher consciousness. Bringing them closer to the Kingdom of Heaven, and into God’s divine grace. Praying without ceasing leads to enlightenment, and any true prayer is meant to spark this. Buddhists, Christians, Hinduists, and Occultists alike, are all shooting for the same thing. At attaining spiritual fulfillment, breaking the cycle of Samsara, piercing through the veil of Maya. 

Dr. Suzuki for example “says somewhere that to be in a state of pure consciousness-satori-is to be with God before he said, Let there be light.” Salinger/Suzuki is emphasizing the commonality between all religious and spiritual practices/aims. Zuzuki was a prominent Zen Buddhist and is merging the two religions together. In that enlightenment is seeing the forest from the trees, if anything it is seeing it is both, and neither. Beyond words. The Jesus Prayer, the Buddhists prayer wheel, any/all meditations and prayer serves at attaining/inducing Christ/pure-Consciousness, satori, or enlightenment. I do not blame Wallace for missing this, for as a good and objective anthropologist he must take meticulous notes, and observe but not believe! His writing lacks flavor because he cannot see what existed before the Light.

Prayer is the religious practice I chose to both criticize Wallace’s explanation and to highlight his 13 categories. It serves as a means to create a physical and psychological change as outlined above. Prayer also requires sacrifice in the form of time and devotion. Much like the Pilgrim, prayer requires some form of a sacrifice. Someone may not have to wander to and fro to learn how to pray unceasingly but they still must make sacrifices and concessions. In the form of eliminating their ego, and being receptive to God’s grace. It is so much more than asking for a raise or for a snow day tomorrow. Prayer may also be a physiological exercise in that many repeat mantras, (even unceasingly as our Monk shows) until some form of ecstasy is achieved. Communion (which is another form of prayer or meditation) is also meant to be the physical embodiment of Christ, imbibing his blood i.e. the transfigured wine. The bread is his literal body, and Holy communion is meant to change the petitioner with each morsel. 

Prayer/communion serves in the capacity of cultivating that higher level of consciousness. And being one with Christ.  One is also part of a congregation during communion, which highlights that each of Wallace’s 13 categories is not fixed. In that they dance between each other, building and feeding off one another. Spiritual nourishment in the form of prayer is a result of sacrifice, communion, and/or a physiological exercise. If one strips prayer down to its essence it will still end up dipping into numerous of the 13 categories if not all to some degree (As the 3 above show i.e. sacrifice, communion and physiological exercise).

I will conclude that prayer may not always require the ultimate sacrifice of Abraham, i.e. his beloved Isaac, however that story is a parable to show the true Christian what may be expected of them. That they must be willing to sacrifice anything in their devotion to God. That they must have faith that God will make the impossible possible. While I may not be promised to be the Father of a nation, I must be willing to sacrifice my beloved and only son (please do not take this completely literally. It means being willing to sacrifice what you hold dearest. Which can be one’s own family, in the instance of Abraham and Siddhartha Gautama).  Devotion and sacrifice are two sides of the same coin. And that while prayer may be done in holy communion with others, in a congregation. It can also be seen lying prostrate in devotion, in meditation or done without ceasing. Prayer is complex and also the simplest thing in the world. For it’s aim is beyond dualistic reasoning, and is parting the Cherubim blocking the entrance into the Garden of Eden. Being with God before the Light.