January 26th

Adoration


Images on the altar,
Or imagined within :
We pray to them,
But do they answer?

The wise tell us how important adoration is. So we kneel before altars, give offerings, and make sacrifices. In our meditations, we are taught to see gods within ourselves and to make supplications to receive power and knowledge. This we do with great sincerity, until the masters say that there are no gods. Then we are confused.The statue on the altar is mere wood and gold leaf, but our need to be reverent is real. The god within may be nothing but visualization, but our need for concentration is real. The attributes of heaven are utopian conjectures, but the essence of these parables is real. The gods, then, represent certain philosophies and extraordinary facets of the human mind. When we devote ourselves to gods, we establish communion with these deeper aspects.
The thought that we are worshipping symbolism may make us uncomfortable. We are educated to accept only the tangible, the scientific, and the material. We doubt the efficacy of adoring the merely symbolic, and we are confused when such reverence brings about genuine personal transformation. But worship does affect our feelings and thoughts. When the wise say that there are no gods, they mean that the key to understanding all things is within ourselves. External worship is merely a means to point within to the true source of salvation.

Personal Interpretation: 

It is healthy to believe in something greater than ourselves, even if that something is the idea of a perfected self, the idea that we are capable of more than we imagine. In prayer, we give thanks for our blessings and ask for assistance, and often, in the process, we learn what we need to do in order to bring about meaningful change within our lives. We come to realize that we are capable of more than we previously believed. That is a wonderful thing, a life-altering thing.

We are taught to look beyond ourselves as we make inquiries of our world. An external object or the idea of something divine that is separate from ourselves, may help us to focus our energies. Ultimately, we should turn within.

Prayer is an act that benefits the self. It is an act that works to connect one to the universe of which one is a part.