1. Prayer has no beginning and no end. How could it, when prayer is the sharing of Love between the Father and the Son? It is a part of life. But it does change in form, and grows with learning until it reaches the formless state, and fuses into TOTAL communication with God.

Reflect for a moment about the “asking” form of prayer. In this form, prayer need not, and often does not, make appeal to God, or even involve belief in Him. At these levels, prayer is merely wanting, out of a sense of scarcity or lack.

2. These forms of prayer, or asking out of need, always involve feelings of weakness and/or inadequacy and can never be made by a Son of God who knows Who he is. No one, then, who is sure of his Identity could pray in these forms. This leads one to ask “how can I be sure of my Identity?”

It is also true that no one who is uncertain of his Identity can avoid praying in the way of asking or wanting. Therefore, knowing the truth of Who you are (God's Son) is paramount to being able to have that TOTAL communication with God.

Prayer is as continual as life. Everyone prays without ceasing. Ask and you have received, for you have established what it is you want. Now ask yourself “what is it that I truly want?”

3. There is a higher form of asking out of need than simply continually “wanting.” The next way is to address God in honest belief, though not yet with understanding.

Example: "Father, I believe You can solve this problem for me, yet I do not really 

understand prayer or the answer to prayer. Yet I can trust that You do . . ."

4. In this way of praying, a vague and usually unstable sense of identification has generally been reached, but tends to be blurred by a deep-rooted sense of sin and unworthiness in which the one praying is hoping God will forgive him and help him anyway. He forgets that without guilt there is no scarcity, and that the sinless have no needs, so he is still praying with supplication (entreaty).

5. At this level also comes that curious contradiction in terms known as “praying for one’s enemies." The contradiction lies not in the words themselves, but usually in the way in which they are interpreted. For while you believe that you have enemies, you have limited prayer to the laws of this world. And you simultaneously (perhaps subconsciously) believe that you have limited yourself to the same narrow margins of receiving and accepting the answers to prayer. And yet if you perceive that you have enemies, then you have great need of prayer!

So what does the phrase “praying for one’s enemies” really entail? It means that your perception of your brother is awry, that you have imprisoned Christ (and thus vision) in yourself and do not see your own Identity as God's Son, and therefore cannot see your brother’s true Identity as God's Son either. This is what it means. So do not see any enemies, or any traitors, or you will be seeing an enemy within you and outside of you, where none could ever truly be. Remember, God did not create “enemies,” therefore there are none. If you perceive any enemies (within or without), then you perceive incorrectly. Then correction, through prayer, is needed. So pray in this way, which recognizes that you are ready to receive the understanding that you have blocked from your awareness.

Example: Father, I thank You for seeing my brother and myself truly as Your Sons.

6. Look a bit more at the concept of “enemies.” An enemy is the symbol of an imprisoned Christ. And who could Christ be except yourself? So the prayer for “enemies” thus becomes the prayer for your own freedom, to free the Christ in YOU. Now a prayer for your enemies becomes a statement of the unity of Christ in you and your brother, and a recognition of the sinlessness of Christ. Remember, it is good to pray that the Christ be Himself in you and in your brother.

7. Let it always be remembered that prayer at any level is always prayer for yourself. It is YOU who see a need in a brother, and it is always a reflection of this need in yourself: to see your brother and yourself as whole, perfect and complete. Did Jesus see lepers? If he had, he would not have been able to heal them. He had to see them as perfect, and to accept perfection for them, and then they appeared perfect. We must do the same for our brothers as they are made miracle ready.

If you unite with anyone in prayer, you make him part of you. Therefore the enemy is you, as the Christ is you. It is all in your perception. So before a prayer can become holy, it first becomes a choice to see differently -- A Better Way, if you will (idiomatic), to like, to approve of, to accept, and/or to appreciate.

Pray to forgive your enemies for your sins, your errors in perception, and you will be forgiven indeed. The “sin” is your perception of yourself that you have projected onto your brother. It is a mistake in your mind – a mistake indeed! True prayer is the correction.

See Addendum below.

8. God is the goal of every prayer. This must be kept in mind as you pray. This is why prayer is timeless, as even when the goal is reached, prayer continues, as prayer is sharing God’s Love. Nor does prayer have a beginning, as the goal has been, is, and always will be the same. Prayer in its earlier forms (wanting, asking) is an illusion, for the Son of God has simply forgotten Who he is and forgotten that he has no needs. So prayer in the earlier forms is a prayer to remember what you cannot have forgotten in truth.

Yet prayer (as an illusion) is a part of forgiveness, as long as forgiveness, itself an illusion, remains unattained. Prayer is coupled with learning until the goal of learning (remembering God and your true Identity) has been reached. Then all things will be transformed together, and returned unblemished into the Mind of God. Being beyond learning, this state cannot be described. The states necessary to its attainment, however, need to be understood if peace is to be restored to God’s Son, who lives now with the illusion of death and the fear of God.

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Addendum:

Prayer is a ladder leading up to Heaven. At the top there is a transformation much like your own, for prayer is part of you. The things of earth are left behind, all unremembered. There is no asking, for there is no lack. Identity in Christ is fully recognized as set forever, beyond all change and incorruptible. The light no longer flickers, and will never go out.

Now, without needs of any kind, and clad forever in the pure sinlessness that is the gift of God to you, His Son, prayer can again become what it was meant to be. For now it rises as a song of thanks to your Creator, sung without words, or thoughts, or vain desires, unneedful now of anything at all. So it extends, as it was meant to do. And for this giving God Himself gives THANKS! Amen

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