What is Prayer? Should Sikhs Pray?

Scarlet Pimpernel · #55 (**permalink**) 28-Apr-2012, 18:35 PM

Quote:

As God is everywhere and present in every moment of our lives, anywhere - yes, even an online forum like SPN - can become a meeting place with the Divine and a prayer.

Veera your name confuses me aswell ,any way as you previously said the Self has no gender, another question, If God is present even in an online forum like SPN does that make him a member aswell?

(You don't have to answer any of my questions by the way as I'm a bit of a cynic like Diogenes.)

Ps I love the Saints words that you posted especially 'Verses on Deep' and the last one here , I shared it with a Christian friend by email as he does not come here.Keep up the good work.

harry haller · #56 (**permalink**) 28-Apr-2012, 18:36 PM

no, he is the forum

Archived_member15 · #57 (**permalink**) 28-Apr-2012, 18:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scarlet Pimpernel

Veera If God is present even in an online forum like SPN does that make him a member aswell?

My dear brother (cheerleader) Scarlet gingerteakaur

I think that brother Harry has answered your question for me!

God is everywhere whole and entire but he is not in any single place more than he is another.

If he were a member - then wouldn't that be sorted of like saying that he is especially in SPN? He is everywhere! He is just there, wherever you go, you are in his Presence. In this sense I do not think it would be accurate to say that he is a "member" of anything, since that would seem to limit Him to the finite when he is Infinite.

Catholicism and Sikhism both teach that God is everywhere and in everything, that creation is filled with his Presence and that "God is All" (Book of Sirach). And yet for Sikhs and Catholics, whilst creation is permeated with the presence and reality of God, he is in all things without being fully contained by them or limited to them, indeed he both indwells all created things and at the same time transcends them as their ultimate origin and Creator. Because of this both religions teach that creation is good, the world is good, reality is good and that every place is a meeting point with God and provides us with an opportunity to be in his Presence.

He is the ALL.

Sikhism believes that there is no separation between daily life and holiness. There is no division between the profane and sacred since once we become aware of God's Presence everywhere, we realize that everything is holy and that there is no such thing as a "spiritual life" distinct from daily life. The Adi Granth tells us that,

"...Spiritual liberation is attained in the midst of laughing, playing, dressing up and eating..."

- Sri Guru Granth Sahib ji, p 522.

Catholicism teaches the same.

“...All of creation, even the most material situation, is a meeting place with God, and leads to union with Him...All the ways of the earth can be an opportunity to meet God...He waits for us everyday, in the laboratory, in the operating theatre, in the army barracks, in the university chair, in the factory, in the workshop, in the fields, in the home and in all the immense panorama of work...Your ordinary contact with God takes place where your fellow men, your yearnings, your work and your affections are. There you have your daily encounter with God...The fruit of our prayer today should be the conviction that our journey on earth, at all times and whatever the circumstances, is for God; that it is a treasure of glory, something marvellous, which has been entrusted to us to administer, with a sense of responsibility. But it is not necessary for us to change our situation in life. Right in the middle of the world we can sanctify our profession or job, our home life, and social relations...I dream — and the dream has come true — of multitudes of God's children, sanctifying themselves as ordinary citizens, sharing the ambitions and endeavors of their colleagues and friends...Human life ‑ your life ‑ and its humdrum, ordinary business, have a meaning which is divine, which belongs to eternity. There is something holy, something divine, hidden in the most ordinary situations, and it is up to each one of you to discover it...”

- Saint Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer (1902 – 1975)

Archived_member15 · #58 (**permalink**) 28-Apr-2012, 19:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scarlet Pimpernel

Veer Ji If he is the forum then who are the members?

We all participate in God just as much as God is within all things. mundahug

"...The day of my spiritual awakening was the day I saw—and knew I saw—all things in God and God in all things..."

- Saint Mechthild of Madgeburg (c. 1207 – 1294)

In this sense we are all members of God and of each other, as Jesus said: "I am in them (us) and you are in me".

We are like fish in an ocean. We are swimming in God and yet we don't know it. Saint Augustine explained it as if God were a boundless ocean completely permeating the finite sponge of the created world.

In this way we all soak in God, are permeated with Him, are In him and he in Us.

"...The image of God is found essentially and personally in all mankind. Each possesses it whole, entire and undivided, and all together not more than one alone. In this way we are all one, intimately united in our eternal image, which is the image of God and the source in us of all our life. Our created essence and our life are attached to it without mediation as to their eternal cause..."

- Blessed John Ruysbroeck (1294-1381)

Archived_member15 · #59 (**permalink**) 28-Apr-2012, 19:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scarlet Pimpernel

Veera your name confuses me aswell ,any way as you previously said the Self has no gender, another question, If God is present even in an online forum like SPN does that make him a member aswell?

(You don't have to answer any of my questions by the way as I'm a bit of a cynic like Diogenes.)

Ps I love the Saints words that you posted especially 'Verses on Deep' and the last one here , I shared it with a Christian friend by email as he does not come here.Keep up the good work.

LOL

Vouthon is a strange name indeed! Its French, its the name of the part of France where Saint Joan of Arc's mother came from - I use it because I love Joan! (She's kind of like my 'hero/heroine').

I am very humbled that you shared my quote with another Christian - I hope he liked it too! mundahug

Scarlet Pimpernel · #60 (**permalink**) 28-Apr-2012, 19:45 PM

Quote:

Vouthon is a strange name indeed! Its French, its the name of the part of France where Saint Joan of Arc's mother

Veera
Saints have no denomination in my eyes ,they speak universal Truths and are inspirational to all ,especially Joan of Arc,your quote of a Saint I shared twice ,they then perhaps will share it thrice,thus a little post here travels further than you could imagine.

Archived_member15 · #61 (**permalink**) 28-Apr-2012, 20:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scarlet Pimpernel

Veera
Saints have no denomination in my eyes ,they speak universal Truths and are inspirational to all ,especially Joan of Arc,your quote of a Saint I shared twice ,they then perhaps will share it thrice,thus a little post here travels further than you could imagine.

I am very touched brother Scarlet mundahug How powerful is the written word and what a gift of Providence is the internet! Amen!

I couldn't agree more. The mystics of the world's religious traditions all speak the same language:

"...All mystics speak the same language, for they come from the same country..."

- Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin (1743 –1803), Catholic philosopher and theosophist

Astroboy · #62 (**permalink**) 29-Apr-2012, 23:59 PM

Vouthon,

Your quotes; I'm wondering if they comprise of those from the Latter Day Saints?

And whether the Silk Road in Central Asia formed a route to disseminate profound knowledge of a spiritual kind to and fro Asia and Europe.
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/sikh-sikhi-sikhism/38357-what-is-prayer-should-sikhs-pray.html

Just curious.

Archived_member15 · #63 (**permalink**) 30-Apr-2012, 00:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Astroboy

Vouthon,

Your quotes; I'm wondering if they comprise of those from the Latter Day Saints?

And whether the Silk Road in Central Asia formed a route to disseminate profound knowledge of a spiritual kind to and fro Asia and Europe.

Just curious.

My dear brother Astroboy

The Latter Day Saints - or Mormons as they are known - are a 19th century religious movement that emerged from Protestantism, being founded by a young man in America called Joseph Smith who believed that he had experienced a divine revelation through an Angel called Moroni that led him to a cave were he found ancient golden tablets.

The Catholic mystics do not have any relationship to Mormonism....? They predate it by in some cases nearly 2,000 years and in other many hundreds of centuries. Could you please explain further to me what you mean, my friend? Have I misunderstood?

As to the Silk Road. For the very early Christians of the Roman Empire between 1 AD - 500 AD, I suspect that the extent of cultural interaction and spread of ideas would have been largely within the Empire itself. As for the later second millenium mystics, Medeival Europe was largely, I believe, cut off from the likes of India, China etc. so I probably would doubt that a direct flow of ideas occurred either way.