What to pray for?

The text below is an abridged extract from the book Prayer Energy:

Spiritual growth, and the happiness that comes with it, is not the result of satisfying the basic desires we have at present, but of training ourselves to focus on those desires that are spiritual in nature. With this approach our more basic desires will gradually be transmuted into something higher – a purer expression of love.

Types of prayer to avoid include:

• Any selfish or materialistic prayer, e.g. praying that you, or even your best friend, win the lottery so as to be able to afford a new Ferrari.
• Any prayer that affects someone else’s free will, e.g. praying that someone falls in love with you or that someone changes their political views to concord with your own.
• Any prayer that causes someone else harm.

Positive prayers include:

• Praying for world peace and freedom.
• Praying for people engaged in spiritual work, e.g. genuine spiritual teachers, healers, aid workers, fire officers and others doing similar jobs.
• Praying for the victims of catastrophes.
• Praying for yourself or someone else to be healed or inspired.
• Praying for something that is really needed to achieve a spiritual goal. For example, if you are running a hospital and you know that you need a certain amount of money or else the hospital will close and patients will suffer, this could be a legitimate use for prayer.

When sending out energy in a cause such as world peace and freedom, you should not pray for anyone’s mind to be changed to a specific point of view. You should pray for people to be so inspired as to seek within and find the courage and strength to listen to, and follow, the counsel of their higher selves, their own Divine natures. You are sending them energy that they can use if they consciously or, more likely, unconsciously decide to do so, to inspire themselves into doing what is right. In this way the prayer is not trying to control anyone.