Part IJ.—PRAYER AND THE FORGIVENESS

or SINS
Study: Esoteric Christianity, Chapters X. and XI
PRAYER may be studied under the two broad divisions of Petition and Communion. An examina- tion of New Testament teaching makes it clear that the Master discouraged the former while con- tinually demonstrating in His own habit of life the need of the latter. Yet so deeply rooted in mankind is the instinct for prayer that it demands expression at every level ; consequently a considerable portion of Christian worship is occupied with prayers of petition.
Explanations of certain answers to prayer may be offered along the lines of suggestion and telepathy. ‘Theosophy teaches that we are linked up with many invisible agencies, both with human beings (either discarnate or temporarily out of the body during sleep) and also with members of the angelic king- dom. ‘Thereby our human environment is extended to vaster realms of life, and we may well believe that in prayer a demand “ broadcasted upon the
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ESOTERIC CHRISTIANITY
universe ” may evoke response from sources entirely unknown to ourselves. ‘That response may indeed come in such unexpected or mysterious manner as to appear miraculous ; nevertheless it is obtained under laws of the unseen worlds which are as fixed and invariable as the laws of the natural world.
Faith, the value of which is so constantly affirmed by the Master,* is thought projected in imagination, a creative force of the utmost potency. Faith visual- ises the thing desired, seeing it as already received, and by the strong thought-form thus created assists in bringing it to objectivity on the material plane.
There is, however, another aspect of petitional prayer which can only be understood in the light of what has already been written concerning the perpetually available outflow of Divine love. By prayer the devotee is enabled to gain access to that beneficent stream, when it may overflow into his own being, to be directed according to his necessity. The Divine energy thus drawn upon may be utilised at every level and for the satisfaction of every kind of need, whether it be healing or material sufficiency, mental guidance or emotional and spiritual uplift, for this life-giving stream is one with — the universal life, one in essence, though of many modes of manifestation.
* Matt, xxi. 223; Mark xi. 24; Luke viii. 50.
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THE DOCTRINE OF SALVATION
The higher methods of prayer are those in which the devotee asks for nothing, but in selfless love and adoration seeks communion with the object of his worship. Meditation, by which consciousness is raised to the higher planes of being, is of this order. By such communion the stages of “‘ interior prayer ” or contemplation are entered upon, to the rapture and blessedness of which all the greatest saints and mystics have borne testimony.
Much that is morbid and melancholy has become associated with the subject of Repentance, yet this is the result of misconception or, at least, of the undue exaggeration of one factor involved. Repentance is not merely remorse, though that enters into it, It is above all an effort of the soul towards a fuller expression of the Spirit, the response of the outer Consciousness to an inward and spiritual urge. In true repentance the individual is experiencing a certain measure of identification with the Higher Self. He is able to see past actions from a new angle and with enlarged vision, and from that contemplation there follows the condemnation and repudiation of the lower. Therefore repentance always comprises new resolve ; this is indeed its primary meaning.*
* The Greek word metanoia, translated “ repentance” in the New Testament, means literally change of mind.
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ESOTERIC CHRISTIANITY
The doctrine of The Forgiveness of Sin also springs out of the recognition that the outpoured stream of the Divine love is perpetually offered to those who will receive it. “To experience forgive- hess may not mean that the karmic consequences of sin are escaped from, but it is an assurance that the deadly effect of that sin on character has been counteracted ; the weight of conscience has been eased and the sense of spiritual inhibition and power- lessness (the direct result of sin) removed by the application of a stronger force, purifying and invigorating.
The Roman rite of penance consists of three stages : (1) contrition, (2) confession, and (3) satis- faction. They represent (1) repentance (new resolve), (2) self-examination and self-judgment, and (3) the making good, as far as it is possible, of former wrongdoing (a voluntary discharging of karmic debts). ‘This results in what is called reconciliation. Jt means that certain corrections or readjustments have been made whereby psychic disturbances have been removed and distortions straightened out, rendering easier the transmission from higher to lower. It might be compared to the tuning in of a wireless receiving set, by which communication is improved or a change over to another wave-length effected.
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THE DOCTRINE OF SALVATION
The recognition of this ever available stream of Divine energy further underlies the Roman practice of granting Indulgences, by which, according to accepted teaching, the accumulated “ superfluous merit ” of Christ, the Virgin and the saints is drawn upon and participated in.* Crude as such an expres- sion of faith may be, and open to deplorable abuse in practice, it yet bears witness to the eternal reality of love, which manifests ever in giving, sharing itself in ceaseless, joyous sacrifice. Moreover, to realise this Divine abundance is to have immediate access to it.
As man unfolds the Spirit within himself he too learns the joy of sacrifice. What he possesses of merit, of virtue, wisdom, power, is offered in the service of all; the stream of his love, going forth from himself, is made tributary to the greater stream of the Divine love, and he becomes in his turn a saviour of man,
ADDITIONAL BOOKS
Besant, ANNIE. ‘‘ Thought Power.” BoEHME, JaAcoB. “* The Way to Christ.” BROTHER LAURENCE. “ Practice of the Presence of God.”
* An almost exact parallel in Mahayana Buddhism is the belief in ‘ diverted merit,” by which the worshipper is permitted to share in the superabundant merit of the bodhisattvas or saviours. They are the Blessed Ones who “ hear the cry of the world,” and give what they themselves have won to lessen human suffering. (Johnston, “ Buddhist China,” p. 78.)
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Guyon, Mapame. “A Short and Easy Method of Prayer.”
James, WILLIAM. “ The Varieties of Religious Experi- ence ’’ (Lectures 8-10).
PicotT, F. W. ‘“* The Parting of the Ways.”
Poutain, R. P. A. “ The Graces of Interior Prayer.”
POWER OF PRAYER, THE (Walker Trust Essays).
St. Teresa. ‘ The Interior Castle.”
WysercH, W. “ Prayer as a Science.”
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