PRAYER

How does one pray in The Absolute? As God is all, the Alone One, the
Only, the Infinite All-inclusive Being, who is left beside? As God is all, who is it
that prays, and to whom is the prayer directed? God being all, who will answer,
and whom will He be answering? Does God pray to God? Is there such a need,
requirement or practice? Does Omnipresence pray to Omnipotence? Does
Omniscience request anything from Omniaction?
In other words, does one, and should one, pray? Of what use is
prayer? Is it not basically the outgrowth of theology's dual belief of Creator and
creation, Good and bad, God and Satan; a beneficent God, and a dependent
creature who looks to this God for the continued essentials of his identi -
fication—-nay, for his very existence itself?
Repeatedly these questions are asked of the author: Do you believe in
prayer? Do you pray? If so, how do you pray? Do you ask for something? Do
you inform God of what you need, or wish? Can you be certain that He hears
you? What assurance have you that God will answer? Do you have a special
formula for making your request? Will God answer me the same as He will
answer you? What must be one's attitude when he prays? What preparation
does one need to make prior to his period of prayer? How long should one
continue making his needs or desires known to God? Why should one expect God to
answer or in any way respond to a petition?
What is the basis for expectation-—that is, is morality, sacrifice,
humility, or self-denial one's best approach to God? Just how does one most
readily and assuredly gain the Divine ear? Where is God located-that is, in what
direction should one face to pray?
Is it best to kneel, eyes closed, or will God hear one while standing, eyes
open? Should one be alone, or can one pray while in a crowd?
How does one address God when beseeching Him? For what can one ask,
expecting to receive? Just how far can one go in prayer? What will God consider
as overstepping the bounds of propriety? Should one ask for nothing more
than just enough to subsist on? Is it wrong to pray for wealth, abundance of
the good things of earth, an easy and indolent life, pleasures of the body, table,
amusement?
All these questions, and many more are filling the thoughts of millions
of men and women on the face of this planet today. They are seeking the
answers in every sort of cult, doctrine, system and ism that dots the
countryside. And what is the result? Are not our hospitals, our
insane asylums, our cemeteries having to constantly enlarge their borders?
Theology would deal with these questions in various ways, according to its
doctrinal creeds or denominational beliefs. Metaphysics, a division of theology,
classes certain desires as material, hence taboo, while others are classed
as permissible. It declares that answers to permissible requests are obtained
through understanding affirmations of the presence of Good, and a denial of evil.
The more orthodox systems of worship consider prayer to be chiefly making
every need known to God, but the prayer must be done in abject humility and
with an all-consuming faith that He will hear and answer. However, they warn you
that should He not deem it "best" for you to experience your request, you must
bow your head in spineless subjection. From their viewpoint, one is not to question
the wisdom of his deity when good is withheld, or an excess of unbearable burdens
and misery engulf him. The old human adage "Bear it bravely, Son, for Father
knows best," holds good also as a rationalization for unanswered prayer-—a
safety zone wherein the clergy can find refuge when embarrassed by questions
from their followers or adherents.
Does one pray in The Absolute? If so, how? Who would be praying, God
being all? Does God seek anything from God? Does God need or desire
anything? Is "prayer" merely another term for petition, or request? These
questions demand answers, not platitudes; concise statements, not evasions.
This I that I Am is Life Itself. Does It need, or seek to remind Itself
of who or what It is via prayer?
Beseeching God is not prayer. Asking God to be God is not prayer.
Begging Love to be Love is not prayer. Urging God to be Omnipresent is not
prayer. Requesting Infinite Intelligence to interfere or intercede in human
affairs is not prayer. Rather are all these so-called reverential activities
the mumbo-jumbo of the Adam dream, and as in the recorded tale of Elijah's
contest with the prophets of Baal, calling out to a God does nothing for anyone.
But turning wholly to God as God is, brings instant awareness of His constant
Presence and Power. Truly, no human prays aright, for in Truth there is no
human. All is God, even as God is all.
To repeat, if one requests God to be Life, Love, Awareness —-if one
beseeches God to be Omnipotent, Omnipresent, Omniactive, Omniscient—-to be
the Alone One, the all of All, Infinite Being who is the Sole-I-that-I-Am, the I-
Identity everywhere forever, one is not praying aright, hence is not praying at all.
There is only one One. What is not that One, simply is not. As with the answer
to two plus seven—-if the figure is not nine, it is not the answer. The answer is
already established in Truth and does not vary, does not change or fluctuate.
What is not true of God, Mind, Intelligence, Truth, is not true of the I-
that-I-Am—-is not true of this I-Identity, this Individual Conscious Life. This
Life I am aware of is the Life that is God—-the Consciousness, the Awareness,
the Identity is God. There can be no other. A personal sense of being an
educated mortal, a man, a fear-laden member of the human race, is spurious.
It is not God. It is not the I-that-IAm. It is not Real, not Truth being Infinitely
Individual. In Fact, the entire assumption vanishes, including all the limitation that
goes with it, as I behold the Single I. In this Light of Mind, illusion dissipates, even
as darkness leaves no evidence or trace in sunshine. Not that darkness goes
anywhere, or that anything is lost, altered, changed, improved-—darkness or
evil simply is never genuine, actual, substantive.
In prayer, nothing Real concerning you will vanish, but
rather becomes apparent. Where lack appeared to be, Affluence is in full
evidence. Where disease, fear, doubt and worry seemed the norm, Perfect
Health, Positive Assurance, Unbounded Wealth and Joy are in Full Action.
Where one assumed he lived inside of a body, he will discover his Life to be
Infinite, and that the universe is within Mind, hence his dominion is Present and
Eternal—-all things are his to command, rather than he being subject to
them.
To pray to a god, a deity out beyond somewhere-—to a power that is
removed from the Self—-is duality. Of course, no human can pray otherwise, for
humanity is based on the assumption of a god or creator, and of a man or
creation which is subject thereto. Humanity, manhood, creation, father-mother-
child—-this is theological teaching which permeates every form of thought-
taking in the world today. It is duality, hence any attempt to escape it by
practicing its format, is impossible. When the premise is wrong, the conclusion
must be wrong. A continuance of wrong does not set one right. All the devout
faith, sincere practice, innocent adherence or mad insistence cannot make
nothing into something, or unTruth become Truth.
True prayer is always answered. Prayer cannot fail, for it is Mind's
awareness of what Mind is this very moment. Prayer is God being aware of
Himself in all His present Perfection.
So-called prayer in the field of duality, the limits of religion, the
constrictions of theology, the agony of fear and privation, the toils of disease
and anguish, are predicated on a petitioner and the One to whom the petition
is directed. Most humans term the petitioned one "God," but a human's deity is
actually but a superior human, a man; a man-made, man-authorized power
supposed to reside outside of him, out in the great beyond somewhere. He thinks
of his god as being capable of making him suffer, allowing or permitting him to
suffer-—nay, in fact demanding that he suffer for his own good; that his god
can be persuaded to intervene, if properly asked, and that he will, under certain
conditions, attitudes, or promises made by the sufferer, set aside his plan for
him; that his god can be cruel, vindictive, revengeful, jealous, indifferent!
That we understand the nature of duality better, let us dissect it that
we know what else it consists of-—that we see how unreal and unreasonable it
is, and no longer give it room or power to sway us.
Duality is confusion throughout. It is the babel of present-day materiality-
—the threat of wars, of bombs, of disease, of lack, of governmental usurpation,
of competition, of false ideology and mental domination through malpractice and
brain washing, of death. Its only hope for identity or classification depends upon a
successful refutation of Truth; upon keeping Reality hidden; upon the petitioner or
believer remaining confused and bewildered.
God, Life as Omnipresent Perfection does not exist to human belief with
its multiplicity of demands, lacks, irritations, misidentifications. Why? Because to
the human sense there are many individuals, minds, wills,
determinations, histories, sins and intentions. Duality cannot exist save it
conceives a multitude of lords many and gods many. If duality could ever
behold Oneness, in that instant its very foundation would be wiped out. But it
(ignorance, belief, supposition, evil) can never know Truth, for Truth is Sol -
itary, Whole, One Complete Being without another, while duality is always two
or more.
Yes, God is One, whether called Power, Presence, Mind, Life, Action or what.
To this All-inclusive One, this All-embracing Entirety there can be no lack or
excess, no need for more or less of Himself than already is, for Infinite
Spirit is Totality, Universal Substance-—the Absolute in Intelligence, Endless
Perfect Life and Its own full and completely satisfying Self-manifestation
forever.
Mind is conscious of Its full Presence everywhere; of Its total Perfect
Action throughout Immensity-—Immensity which is included within My Infinite
Conscious Awareness, My Mind. There is no possible place or space, even as
minute as a microscopic pin point, outside of Consciousness. There is no
moment that God is not all of all—-no moment when "time" or measurement
of Life as dimensional or limited, is possible, for Consciousness is forever
Undimensional. The total All-present, consciously Intelligent Absolute is indi-
vidual in His perception, awareness, satisfied enjoyment. It is this I that is the I,
the Life, the Identity, the Substance, the Being of the One Individual
Consciousness reading these words—-the I that I Am, and there is none
other. This I that I Am is never human, never mortal, never a sinner,
sick, dying or dead man. Mind can experience and be, act in accord with and
know only Its own Full Present Awareness. Whatever suggests or pictures a
contrary state is utterly void of Reality, Authority or Power, hence in the light of
Truth can be dismissed instantly and permanently.
Truth leaves no possible "other" mind, no ignorant petitioner who needs
anything, nor anything in need anywhere. Truth excludes the possibility of there
being a lack of Truth anywhere, a place where Intelligence is not, an absence or
poverty of Consciousness, a dearth of Good which must be brought to the Divine
attention.
As God is the alone One right here, this very Life, this Identity, this I
that I am, there can be no second I, no lesser or additional I anywhere to bring
anything to the attention of I. I-God, Everpresent Infinite Intelligence, already
knows all I Am, for I-Spirit-Am-all. Naught of what I Am can be lacking from the
One I Am.
Such praying is instant in answer-—immediate in Positive Presence, in
Conscious Evidence. Truth is already the Truth of My Self. There is no wait for It
to become so. There is no need for, nor value in a philosophical, a religious,
a theological or a metaphysical approach-—one of human purification,
progression, evolution. Neither man-conceived morality, nor any racial, educated
or social provision has anything to do with Truth.
Prayer as a human attitude is worthless in Reality. Human supplication
or adoration, attempting to bargain with Infinite Intelligence, or being informative,
never reaches the Divine ear. Love being all of all leaves nothing human, hence no
human prayer can be answered. That which is not, cannot be nurtured,
supported, aided or rescued. That which God is, is never absent, never in need
of improvement, never imperfect in any way, hence does not require saving,
being already eternally safe and secure.
To state that humanity and its shortcomings are outside the pale of Mind
may seem cruel, but is it? Is it discouraging to dishonesty, cruel or unkind to
deceit, to ignorance or assumption, to call it by name and treat it as it
deserves? Does one wrong evil by giving to God all the honor, glory
and power that belongs to God? Would it be Right to ignore God in order to wait
upon presumption, humanity, disease, evil? Is mortality of such importance that
Life must be sacrificed to make room for it? Is lack so lovely that Intelligence
can be eschewed, while a shrine is erected and the limitation served, hence
worshipped? Is fear and suffering so glorious that they deserve your undivided
attention, Spirit meanwhile being held in abeyance or cast aside? Where is God,
Omnipotence, identified while these imposters are in your every awareness? Is
mythical finite man so fascinating that Omnipresence can be by-passed so one
can blindly serve this nonsense?
In the midst of an adulating, or fearful service to evil, to ask God to be
God-—to do this or that, or to beseech a favor, even when unselfishly uttered
in behalf of someone else brings no more good into so-called human
experience than one's faith in the prayer promotes. It is faith only that
does the work in every such "successful" event. When the woman who had
the issue of blood for many years approached the Nazarene and touched the border
of his garment, she was cured by her faith, not by understanding her identity
to be none other than the sole I that is Life-present. (See Mat 9:20-22.) She
was no more aware of her unborn-undying Identity after the cure, than she was
before. She still believed her Self to be a human being evolved by the family of
man, subject to temptation and sin—-to biology, gender, time, birth,
maturity, age, sickness, lack, fear, ignorance, death.
Lazarus was called from the tomb (See John 11:43-44.) but did that
experience prevent him from ultimately returning to the very place from which
he had been summoned by Jesus? Did Lazarus recognize his Identity to be that I
that is Omnipresent Perfection-—that I that is Infinite wherein there can be
nothing but Itself, hence no otherness, no duality, naught foreign or alien?
Without comprehending his Life to be the Absolute One free of adulteration,
of subtraction or addition, free of opposition, a reverse or perverse sense, and
aware that Life is Single, Entire, Whole, Total, was the experience of
being momentarily freed of the purported wage earned for sin, enough to cleanse
Lazarus of carnal identification? From that moment did he act only as the Self
that is the Self, or, as is general with human sense, was he content to merely
experience a "cure" instead of healing; a respite from separation and pain; a
passing lift that made it easier to bear future physical and social lack and
privation?
In so far as the record goes, Lazarus again returned to the grave with the
passage of time, and in accord with human determination. He was not free of
belief, which is death— the belief that One, that Life is man, is mortal. Still
insisting on personal identification, his respite in "time" was comparatively
short. While God was proved to be more powerful than the "last enemy" (1 Cor
15:26), Lazarus rejected God as Omnipresent Life, the Sole-I-God as
being all of all which left no enemy, no other one, no thing that could perish.
 Raising Lazarus from death, from mortality's cycle, from man's finite orbit
of birth-death, was Jesus' experience. To him Truth was an ever present operative
Fact which could not be set aside or annulled. Knowing God to be the
Sole Mind, the Entire Identity, the Alone Substance, the Conscious Awareness,
the abolition of death was inevitable. To the Present One Mind there was no
cessation of Life, for God knows Himself to be Changeless Omniscience, Omniac-
tion. The certainty of Truth, the awareness of I as the Sole I that God is,
remained constant with Jesus. His was the All-inclusive joy, the Self-evidence of
Total Being being-that Unchallenged Identity which includes the universe, all
ideas, things, bodies, along with the one called Lazarus!
With all thy getting, get understanding of Identity; of the nature of I,
Self, the Alone One God, Life, for such is more to be desired "than gold, yea,
than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb." (Ps
19:10.)
"But where shall wisdom be found? and where is the place of
understanding? Man knoweth not the price thereof; neither is it found in the land
of the living (in the so-called consciousness of humanhood, manhood, of mortal
assumption). The depth saith, It is not in me: and the sea saith, It is not with
me. It cannot be gotten for gold, neither shall silver be weighed for the price
thereof. It cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx, or
the sapphire. The gold and the crystal cannot equal it: and the exchange of
it shall not be for jewels of fine gold.
"No mention shall be made of coral, or of pearls: for the price of
wisdom is above rubies. The topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal it, neither shall it
be valued with pure gold. Whence then cometh wisdom? and where is the place of
understanding? ... God understandeth the way thereof, and he knoweth the place
thereof. For he looketh to the ends of the earth (is All-inclusive Infinity), and
seeth under the whole heaven; to make the weight for the winds; and he
weigheth the waters by measure.
"When he made a decree for the rain, and a way for the lightning of the
thunder:... he prepared it, yea, and searched it out ... Behold, the fear of the
Lord (Behold, the Allness of God which leaves naught else; leaves no lack or excess
of Good possible), that is wisdom; and to depart from evil (to comprehend that One
Infinite Presence, Good, God excludes the possibility of another, an opposer or
an opposite self, identity, mind or power), is understanding. (Job 28:12-
20, 23-28.)
"Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this
world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? (Cor 1:20.) This I
say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other
Gentiles (as humans, men, mortals, personal selves, personal identi ties) walk,
in the vanity of their (personal) minds, having the understanding (of God's
Allness, Aloneness, Infinity; their present, perfect Unchallenged Self-identity)
darkened, being alienated from the life of God (their Sole Consciousness)
through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindess of their heart . .
. and be renewed in the spirit of your mind (behold that God is the Sole Mind,
the Alone-I-Am) ;wherefore putting away lying (against God, My Self, assuming
there is an opposite to the Infinite One) ... neither give place to the devil (for
where can evil or devil reside in Omnipresence?) ... let no corrupt communication
(argument in word, thought or deed that there is an Infinite Good God and
another beside; an opposite or opposer of Omnipotence) proceed out of your
mouth, but that which is good (the Truth only) to the use of edifying, that it may
minister grace unto the hearers." (Eph 4:17-18, 23, 25, 27, 29.)
Prayer in the Absolute means praise, Mind's conscious acknowledgement,
perception, awareness of what God already is. Intelligence instantly, joyously,
continuously comprehends that whatsover It conceives is already at hand —
that Mind alone has all things; that Consciousness can and does do all
whatsoever It desires, and there is no other mind or thing to contend with It,
to question, deny, delay or prevent. God, the I-Self, I-Identity speaks, and it is
done. Mind conceives forms or patterns Its ideas of Consciousness, within Itself,
and instantly those formations are. The conception is God's, the perception is
God's; the Substance and location of each formation or form is Spirit; the
owner, the action is Consciousness; the use to which the conception is put,
for whom and by whom, is Good—-the sole User is God. There is no other.
This Mind, this Identity, this I-Self reading and understanding these words
is none other than the Alone Intelligence, Life, Consciousness that is termed
"God." There is one Life, one Existence only, and if this Life is not the One being,
here and now Self-identified, being this Individual-I entirely, I have no
Existence or Life-—I am not! But as I AM, I am all I-Am, hence I include
every desirable idea or form, and no thing (idea, desire, wish, conception) is
impossible (Selfforbidden, Self-denied, or beyond Infinite Omnipotence) unto Me.
(See Mat 17:20; Luke 1:37; Luke 18:27.)
God's Self-awareness of His everpresent All-inclusive Power, Intelligence,
Substance and Oneness is never a sense of void, but an abiding sense of Total
Satisfaction; any "thing" Mind desires, It instantly conceives, and from
that moment on it is manifest, tangible to Mind. No idea is conceived in vain,
but in Reality. Existence alone is Life. Naught besides can exist.
Only God, Mind can truly pray. Only Intelligence prays aright, for what is
not truly prayed is not prayer; cannot be answered. God's prayer is Truth—-is
Absolute certainty or Conscious Awareness of Divine Allness. This prayer, this
Awareness of complete, perfect Wholeness perpetually excludes the possibility of
limitation, vacuum, void, darkness, ignorance, obscurity, error-—excludes the
possibility of misunderstanding, confusion, a lack of Wisdom. This prayer leaves
no lesser mentality existent-—no finite mentality struggling with its finite
problems of conception and perception; its problems of who, what, when,
where and why it is, and what will become of it; its infinitesimal babblings of lack
of substance, supply, ability, time, accomplishment and duration. Truth leaves no
little notions of an insufficiency of Good; leaves no notions of fear, privation, false
identification or misidentification; leaves no imperfection, no shortages, no perverse
function anywhere, because Omniaction is everywhere present in all Its glorious
Certainty throughout Infinity.
Mind's prayer, the Conscious Absoluteness of Truth (and nothing else is
truly prayer), God's Self-adoration, recognition, praise, being, is Love's conscious
action, conscious use, conscious enjoyment of Heaven at hand in its total complete-
ness. Herein is inviolate Serenity, Intelligence Self-identified, Individual-I-
Consciousness. Prayer may be defined as Mind's conscious awareness of Absolute
Presence, Intelligence, Health; the Totality of Oneness, hence Immortality,
Peace, Security, Satisfaction now and world without end.
All forms of personal or human so-called prayer are either to get
something that supposedly is lacking, or to get rid of something undesirable.
Man-prayer is never based on a sense of Infinity, Truth-—on a sense of
Unchallenged Perfection, God's Perfect Indestructible-Unchanging-Unalterable--
Presence-—on One I-Identity only-—on that I-Self that is forever wholly
Divine, Total, All, and wherein there can be nothing alien, .foreign, finite,
human or mortal. A petition is never based on the Incontrovertible Truth that
One-Infinite-I being the Alone One leaves no other I to be, no other Self, nor
any place, substance, identity, mind or reason for another besides.
Man's would-be prayer never voices Changeless Oneness wherein there is
no opposite, no opposition, no other at all. Even when such prayer is raised in
gratitude for favors sincerely believed to have come from God, via faith in Him or
His Word, the emotion cannot extend beyond just that! When raised in
appreciation for blessings realized, for help and succor from distress, it still
remains human duality, and of itself has no virtuous properties or power. It
supposedly acknowledges a god out beyond, one who is separate or removed
from the one voicing the prayer—-a god who has bestowed good upon one of
his children, upon a creation or a creature.
While such praying may stimulate one to greater effort to seek the
Absolute One, the good it brings into his human experience is still human and not
True, not Divine. Improving your way up-to-God is an impossible task. It would be
as easy to improve a flat earth to the point of merging with the one alone round
earth. So long as one clings to a flat earth he does not perceive the truth
concerning the earth, namely that there is already, and always but the round one,
hence there is no flat one to be worked with, over or on-—no flat earth exists at
all, hence cannot be improved, cured, changed, altered or made to merge or
become anything.
The human who would emerge from matter or mortality, humanity or
manhood into becoming one with Spirit, cannot succeed. God's Way is already
established, and he who would "climb up some other way is a thief and a
robber." (John 10:1.) God's Way reveals that God is already all of all. This
leaves nothing human, no other world, state or condition.Perfection already is
Real. What is not Truth does not exist at all, and cannot be improved or evolved
into Reality. It is as simple as this.
Whatever form the prayer takes, if not a complete acknowledgement
that there is but one God and there is no other mind, presence, identity or
thing besides, it is not Truth; it will not, and cannot go any further than the
sound of the voice uttering it, nor be lifted any higher than the faith doing the
levitating. Truth is the only prayer that is answered, for Truth is the Answer!
Truth is already the sole Fact concerning Life, Reality—concerning any
and every situation, form, idea and thing. That which has not Truth as its Sole
Substance, does not exist, hence has neither power nor place, identity nor function,
and can not do, nor stop doing anything. What is not existent simply is not. Where
Truth is (and there is no place throughout Immensity, Infinity, where
Truth is not), no lie, no error, no problem can appear to be. Where Infinite
Intelligence, Infinite Perfection is in Full Conscious Action there can be no con-
fusion, no stoppage, no insufficiency or imperfection extant. Where All is all, what
more or less can be?
Divine Self-adoration, Self-praise (the only prayer of Intelligence) rejoices
in the Oneness of the Unchallenged Self, the Absoluteness of Life, the
Indestructible, Inalterable Perfection of Soul, the Total Presence of All-
embracing, All-inclusive Awareness, Conscious Self-Identity here as this very I-
that-I-Am. It never fails. It is the Light wherein Mind sees all, and is all Mind sees,
feels, hears, tastes and experiences. There is naught possible beyond. There
can be no less with All.
Mind has no brethren to accuse, and being Perfect cannot accuse. Love
does not need to, nor can It conceive of the possibility of excusing Itself.
Perfection is the forever order of Infinite Mind wherein there can never be a
hesitancy, or the possibility of a question, a mistake, an opposition, a reversal
of Self. In Infinite Perfect Intelligence there is nothing that can work or make a
lie, a falsity, a denial of Truth.
The Absolute praises Himself by being Himself. Truth has no other manner of
Self-recognition than by Its Self-evident Existence forever. Mind appreciates Its
loveliness-—not in comparison with ugliness, but as Wholeness wherein there is
neither higher nor lower, no lesser aspects than Total Perfection. There can be
no degrees to the One Altogether Perfect Love who is the all of all, for nowhere in
Mind's totality is Perfection more nor less than perfect.
Love is praised through the wonders of a glorious all inclusive Heaven
within, where nothing is lacking, nothing still to be desired or yet attained, and
where nothing useless, no clutter, no excess can be.
Life praises Itself as this very I that I Am by fully acting, fully knowing,
fully including the totality of Mind's universe consciously, alively; by a conscious
Self-awareness of the beauty of Being-—the being of Beauty wherein there
is present identification of total grandeur, infinite expanse, eternal variety,
everlasting satisfaction, perpetual conception, undiminishing perception, vital and
spontaneous enjoyment, eager appreciation and unfaltering interest in Self-
expression.
True prayer never fails in positive, present and immedi. ate
acknowledgement from the Self to whom it is addressed, for it is from Mind to
Itself, and is instantly seen by Intelligence as being already answered. Might
not this be the correct interpretation of the passages in Holy Writ:
"What things soever ye desire when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and
ye shall have them"? (Mark 11:24.) "And it shall come to pass, that before they
call, I will answer (I am the Answer: I am all of all-—there is no lack, no
absence of Myself anywhere at any time) : and while they are yet speaking, I will
hear." (Isa 65:24.)
When one asks as a human, filled with fear and doubt, with a belief in a
kind god off somewhere in the sky, or at least far removed, aloof or out
beyond, he is blind to what is already his. He has denied his Identity, his Power,
his very Being; denied the Everlasting Self that is all-inclusive of the Kingdom of
God.
Believing that God has one Mind and that we have another, a human,
finite, mortal, material or man-developed mind, is duality—-is being double
minded. James states that
such need not expect to receive anything of God, Intelligence, Substance, for
a double-minded petitioner is unstable in all his ways. (See Jas 1:8.) To such, the
Way of Love is foolishness. (See 1 Cor 2:14.)
To pray as man is to assume one has a lack of Good —that some of
Soul is missing (and this is exactly what any lack implies, whether the lack
appears to be of health, money, friendship, tranquility or what). To base one's
prayer on such an assumption or premise is to deviate from Truth. The result is
an enlarged conviction of lack. To diverge from Reality at the outset is to find the
separation widening, proportionate to its continuance. That is, the more distant
one assumes he is from God, the wider the chasm will appear to be, but to
whom? Can God know anything of such separation? Can Infinite Intelligence
know of a divergence? Is there another life or mind that can exist, separate
from the Alone Present Existence, the All-being One?
Can God hear a man's prayer? Can Infinite Intelligence be aware of finite
assumption? Can that which is, be cognizant of the personality, shape, size,
location, movement, form ormanifestation of that which never is? Can Truth
assist that which is not? Can what-will-never-be receive help, succor, salvation,
emancipation from the Perpetual, Real, all-inclusive Being? Can God include or
be aware of a spot within Himself where He is not? Are there places in Infinite
Mind where there is no Mind—-islands of God's absence completely surrounded
by God; islands of ignorance and fear surrounded by Truth, Infinite Awareness,
Absolute Positive Certainty? What manner of God is the Infinite One, the Sole All
of all, the Absolute Substance of all, the Alone Place, Power, Mind, Action of all?
No, God cannot hear a finite declaration of His absence; cannot be
influenced by personal supplication or assumption; cannot change from being
the All that He eternally is to satisfy ignorance (which is not!) from presuming
He is not. Wisdom cannot become stupid, cannot reverse Itself, cannot depart from
the Total Being It is, in order to acknowledge and fulfill the requests or behests of
foolishness. Life cannot stop death because in Life there is no end, no termination,
no start-stop cycle. The Fact that Life is forever means that death is never. The
Truth that God is Infinite, One Alone, means there is no duality to overcome, no
devil, evil or error, no sin or guilt to be corrected, set-right or cast out.
Perfection is eternally perfect, without variance or dissimulation. And this
is Salvation, already an accomplished, living Reality, and never otherwise.
Life can no more comprehend or wrestle with death than death can cross
swords with Life. Where Light is there is no darkness. If darkness could manage
to exist in light, even for the fraction of a second, then light would lose its
status—would vanish. So with evil (ignorance, darkness, disease, death)-—if it
can exist for but a fleeting moment in God's Presence, then God, Life,
Existence is through, finished, done with-—there would be nothing whatever,
hence nothing for the finite to even pretend could die-—there would be only a
void without even a mind to know it!
To pray aright—-to pray the only prayer that is certain of answer—-the
prayer that never fails the one who uses it, one must begin with what is;
must begin with God only; must comprehend that when Intelligence says that
Life is Omnipotent, Omnipresent, Omniactive, It means just that! One can not
withhold from God any single particle of the Truth that is His. One cannot
declare that Love is "all" and yet define that word as meaning only a "portion."
One cannot rob Mind, delete Its Power and Action, or add to Its Perfect
Presence and expect to reap the reward of accuracy, any more than if he
ignores the value of figures in a column he is adding, assuming a five to be two,
or a three to be nine. One cannot fail to have the answer if one is accurate, hence
honest. God must be evaluated for what He is. No value, no worth, no Truth can
be withheld if one would enjoy the Omnipresent Answer. Mind cannot be devalued,
nor can one inflate, or add to Truth and be honest, trustworthy. Dishonesty never
reveals or enjoys Actuality.
When Love is acknowledged to be all there is of all there is, instantly it is
seen that error cannot be, for there is no place, power, substance or reality in
it. It is but the purported absence of God, existent only in and to
ignorance which of itself has no place in Truth! Truth does not change Being,
nor rid Itself of un-Truth, for to Reality the Truth is the Alone Fact. Evil, error,
human creation and all the foibles of its pretended existence as a manifestation
of, and in ignorance, never has existed at all—-there has never been
ignorance in All-embracing Present Intelligence!
As Life is accredited as being the sole Power, Identity, the I-awareness
that knows and understands Being-—that experiences Consciousness, Health,
Supply and the Joy of Being —-the possibility of an opposite state is
permanently excluded. What cannot be, is not. What is not, can never exist.
Praying from the basis of Truth, as the I-Self that is all I Am, any sense of the
finite or limited, cramped or diseased, confused or fearful, personal or human
falls away. In this Light one no longer assumes he has to follow the behest of
theology or human methods, doing battle with evil or lack, guilt, sin or the
devil. Rather does he behold that all of Good is present, in full Omnipotent
operation as the very I that is his Total Self being!
As said so often in this work, evil is only an assumption that God is
absent, a theory or teaching whereon theology bases its premise; whereon
religion, philosophy, evolution, humanhood with all its limitations and shortcomings
are predicated, but only to an equally assumed finite or personal mind! To it,
evil is, because God, Life, Intelligence is divisible, separable, capable of being
partitioned, of becoming un-Whole or but a fraction of Itself; that
while some Good can be present, it does not follow that all of It must be! Yet God
is One Whole, One Total, the Unseparable, Inseparable One Absolute! God has
to be wholly Present, or wholly absent; God cannot be cut into portions; human
belief cannot cast lots for His vesture. Truth cannot be dissected
into component portions-—It is One Whole wherein there is no "variableness,
neither shadow of turning"—One Complete, One All. (Jas 1:17.) Truth admits
no compromise, no rationalization. All either is all, or is an absolute fraud.
Honest prayer is always answered. No one can begin with what God is,
continue with what God is, end with what God is without having Truth's Answer.
This Answer reveals Present Perfection in everpresent operation as the Conscious-
Self-I-Am; Heaven, the Kingdom of Intelligence at hand ready to be actively
enjoyed!
 To try to make God be all is an impossible undertaking. Nothing but a finite
ignorant assumption would attempt such folly, and being finite, of what substance
would it construct Infinity? Can the finite weigh, judge, criticize, provide for and
tend the Infinite One? Can ignorance rearrange God, allocate Substance,
distribute Intelligence, supervise Action, dispense Life, disperse Good, pervert
Identity, undermine Soul, sabotage Mind, outlaw Spirit, superintend Deity,
or dominate Consciousness? Can a finite brain-mind, a man or mortal sense, a
personal intellect even comprehend the Absolute, much less tamper with or
limit Omnipotent Awareness, the I that I Am? Why then should one attempt to
behold the Self, Reality, by beginning with personal experience,
finite identification? Rather, if he would know Truth, begin with Truth; if he
would know Life, begin with Life, not with Its purported absence!
Already God is all. The Absolute does not have to wait or struggle to
become what is. All that is, is the Infinite One inclusive of every idea, every
thing. This leaves no spot where God is only partially present, partially
operative, partially identified.
Praying, hoping to change evil to Good, or bring about more Good, more
God to balance or outweigh evil, is basic ignorance, a finite ignoring of Truth for
fiction; the presumption that fiction can function in lieu of Reality with the
same results.
Ignorance of Truth is never rewarded by Actuality. Perfection cannot be
known or experienced by the finite; by the twisted, distorted, hideous; by that
which depends wholly upon defamation, denial, denunciation and destitution, for
its presumed existence. Fear, absurdity, falsification or error has no
relationship whatever to God, to Truth. Reality will not set it right, heal or
correct it. Rather does Truth reveal that because It is all of all-—that there is
naught else, nothing more or less than the Infinite One-—there is no error, no
blunder, no mistake, no finity; nothing distorted nor destitute, destructive nor
bedeviled.
To Truth there is no problem concerning Omnipresence, no failure of
Omnipotence, no insufficiency of God anywhere. There is no alien entity, no
negative identity, no existing nonExistence to delete Conscious Individual
Awareness from the Infinite One, nor make God the lesser, or even the greater
of two infinities! There cannot be a Wholly (Holy) Presence operative,
contending with or co-existing with a whole negation, opposite, reverse, devil,
Satan, hell! Whichever is, the other cannot be. Which shall it be? If there is
Existence, Its purported absence is a myth. If there is no Existence, there is
naught to report.
To insist that the moon is the Dog Star is contrary to fact. He who
would make use of the position of heavenly bodies in computing astronomical
data should not hope for evidence or certainty, should he grossly ignore truth.
To begin with Fact, continue with Fact, will naturally reveal only the Fact. What
other revelation should one, or can one find convincing? If the conclusion is based
merely upon assumption and presumption, there is no validity, no value, no au-
thority or Truth being evidenced. Guessing is floundering in a mist. What is not
Positive Truth, unchallenged, unscarred, unmoved and unquestioned, is not, hence
cannot even enter a protest.
For anyone to be concerned with what God, with what Reality is not, is
a waste of effort and will appear to rob him of the rich enjoyment of what is.
Like the one who has ten million dollars to his credit in the bank, if he refuses
to use it-—if he ignores the fact that it is his and refuses to draw his
check against it—-he is experiencing a useless self-sacrifice, self-denial; his
assumed state of poverty, privation, limitation and curtailment is foolish, if not
inane. No one has a Divine Right to go about in poverty, whether it appears as a
dearth of Health, Wealth, Power, Intelligence, Life or what. Truth knows only
the full presence of Perfection, Individually being this I that I Am. To claim
Spirit, I Am is incomplete, My Infinite Self is divisible, poor or limited, with-
out all Good-things, is to falsify, to assume, to presume and to deny Reality.
The sole "I" of Infinity cannot be less than Entire, Absolute. Where in
God can Mind discover, or even imply a diminished Awareness? Where in Life
can there be an absence of Consciousness? Where in the Purity of Love can there
be an opposite, another, something alien or contrary to Substance? Where in
Spirit can Truth reveal an inverted, or perverted active non-intelligence, a
militant non-sensible, non-wisdom that can knowingly and deliberately outwit
and destroy Omniscience?
A problem seems only this so long as he who entertains it refuses to
properly evaluate Everpresent Truth. When one begins with what is Real, what
Truth is, what Infinite God is, and continues step by step along the Way, he
suddenly is aware that Actuality is the Sole Fact, and that what had appeared
as a problem, a lack of some sort, some missing aspect of the One Indivisible
Whole, is nonsense. One may call this "healing," but it is rather Perception,
Prayer-—Intelligence being aware of Itself. As every problem is but the hu-
man's failure to behold Truth where a lack-of-Truth appears to be, every
Solution is but the Self perceiving what is actually present right now! Nowhere is
Truth less than all of All, hence no absence of Good exists throughout Infinity.
For one to concentrate on the lack of the Answer, the lack of Supply, of
Health, Happiness, Wealth and so on, or to strive and struggle with the
conditions that have accrued to a fear-laden sense because of this
assumption—-to try to get or secure things via any form of human prayer,
mortal persuasion, personal petition to a power outside or beyond one, is folly,
and is working only as the heathens (those who ignore God as the Sole Self, the
Only Life, the Alone One, Mind, Presence, Intelligence, Identity) work.
However, should they, through faith in their prayer, enlarge their sense of
personal holdings, of possessions, or improve their sense of health and well -
being on the human basis, God is still as far off and unavailable to them as
before; Heaven is still as uncertain; their Identity, Life, Intelligence and Power is
still ignored, unused.
Awareness of Being as Being is, is true prayer, and Mind is doing this
praying "without ceasing." (1 Thes 5:17.) Mind is constantly positive of Its full
active I-Identity, I-Individuality here and now. This I-Being that is the Entirety of Me
is forever inclusive of every Good-idea; of Heaven at hand. Mind does not
petition, beg, ask for, nor argue with Itself. Consciousness knows Absolutely
what is, and is all It knows. This is the praying My Mind is doing always.
He who would have instantaneous answers, immediate awareness or
evidence of the efficaciousness of his prayer—the manifestation of its
correctness and power, must begin altogether with Life, God-—with Infinite
Perfection as all Substance, Intelligence, Action; as the Alone All-inclusive One,
and then, like a child adding one figure to another he cannot fail to behold
Truth as the Present, the Only Action. This Truth reveals that the very Life right
here is none other than the Sole Infinite One, God; that God being all, All being
is the whole of this I, the only I that I Am, the alone Identity-I that is My
Entirety.
To repeat, there can be but one Infinite. Nothing else is possible.
Nothing extraneous exists to disannul It. While this revelation appears as
"healing," to Truth no change has occurred, for Truth is Changeless—-all
there is of all there is, and no contrary has ever appeared to question or
dispute It. This appears as "God with us," yet in Reality Truth has never been
absent; has never fluctuated, never come, gone and must return again. Truth is
Constant, Undeviating, Everlasting, hence never fails to be Present, Operative,
Whole, Mighty. No one can turn to Truth without instantly beholding that because
It is what It is, no reverse, no disaster, disease, lack or problem exists
anywhere. Truth is all-inclusive Being. Nothing is, outside of the Infinite One.
Nothing is contrary to God, for God is all of all. This leaves nothing
imperfect anywhere, under any circumstance for anyone, regardless of the
concocted, documented, revered assumptions and senseevidence of human
conception to the contrary. Nowhere in God do such mentalities or adverse
conditions exist. Love is the sole atmosphere of Mind wherein Heaven is, All-
inclusively Perfect.
It is impossible to behold God aright, to give to God all the Honor, Place,
Intelligence, Glory and Power due Him and not perceive or experience Freedom,
Abundance, Awareness, Wellbeing.
Do you wish to have your prayer answered? If so, add your column
accurately, even as a child with his example in addition. Give to each
declaration of Truth Its full and Absolutely-accurate value, without human or
finite reservation or evasion, and you are certain to rejoice in the Answer which
is already established. The Answer is Truth. But should you attempt to alter
what IS, by withholding value, or adding thereto, naught but confusion will be
your reward.
Truth is available to all, and all must ultimately behold It. It is the Whole
of All; It is the Substance, the Life of My Sole Self; the Composition, the Entity,
the Only Identity of this I that I Am right now. He who puts off the acknowledgement
of who and what he is, is foolish. Going without the things that are available to
one who has millions in the bank, merely because he refuses to claim it and
use it, is folly indeed!
Anyone who thinks he can have the answer to his everyday living by
cheating, by ignoring the Self, by Self-denial, Self-repudiation, Self-ignorance or
Self-effacement, is wallowing needlessly, futilely. What can he hope to gain by
such? Can his denial of God, Truth, render Reality null and void? Can anyone by
Self-denial reduce his stature one iota? Can God be shrivelled, merely by a
steadfast refusal to acknowledge that which Eternally is? Can the thief and the
robber actually ever make way into Heaven? Can dis-honesty ever become
Honesty? Doth a sweet fountain give forth bitter water? (See Jas 3:11.)
Can martyrdom become a virtue, or pervert Truth into error? Does rejection
of Truth result in something pleasant? Does it render Truth less available, less
legitimate, less powerful, less the sole and only Answer?
To wait and expect that another can do the ultimate sum for one, is
also folly. One's Self-identification is Individual. Another mind cannot supplant
the Only True One; cannot climb up to Truth, to Reality for another, any more
than the Tower of Babel could reach heaven and protect those who sought
refuge thereon. Truth alone is true. What is false to Truth is forever false, not
true. One cannot destroy it because it does not exist. To attempt to rid one's
Self of error is like trying to remove a flat earth where no such ever was.
To assume that Jesus, or anyone else has done our work for us, is as
fatal as to assume that, because someone else has served a sentence for
theft, we can steal in safety and with impunity; that we are immune from
apprehension or sentence. Had the theological myth that Jesus paid the price
for evil, the wrong-doing of the race, been correct, would we be suffering the
"wage of sin" at present? Who, among all those you know, are personally free of
birth, time, age, sickness, ignorance, want, privation, fear and an ulti mate
death? Yet supposedly Jesus "made all things new" and set us free of evil! If
he paid the price of sin for us, why should we also suffer it? Is it in accord
with Justice that the price be paid doubly? If you went to the market
to purchase five pounds of sugar, and were assured that it had already been paid
for, would you assume you also had to pay for it?
Do you assume that Jesus merely showed us how we were to pay for
sin? If so, was not his sacrifice entirely useless? Would not the price be
naturally extracted from us, without the Way-shower? If the general practice of
Christianity is the correct Way, why has evil grown these many years past?
Why has death continued at the same high level of 100% victory throughout
the world? If death is the "last enemy" and comes because of sin, what has
been accomplished in these two thousand years by theology? Why can death
now take over, via the dropping of bombs on cities so that thousands can be
snuffed out without even the preamble of disease? Is anyone safe?
These are important questions. Do not ask them of another, but ask
them of your Self. Turn to God and ask how these things can appear where God
is all of all, Omnipresent, the sole Life, the only Infinite Individual, the I that is
All? Or are these things appearing because God is not beheld as God is; the I
is assumed to be a small personal sense far removed from Truth, Power,
Presence, Action? What "I" do you claim when you pray? How do you pray?
To whom do you pray? Do you know what prayer is? Are you praying as if you
were one small, suffering, fearful and besieged human while God, Omniscience, is
far off? How close is God, is Intelligence, is Life, is Truth, is Heaven to you?
Do you claim to be a Christian? What is a Christian? Of what value is it
to you? Is God a Christian? On what do you base your answer? Does God
require sacrifices, repentance, suffering, advancement, evolution, retribution,
penalty or punishment from anyone, for any reason? If so, what reason? How
can these things be in Mind when God is all of all, the Alone One? Can God
sin against Himself, deny Himself when He is the Sole-I that is Life, Mind,
Infinite Intelligence? Can God know an offspring, another, someone or something
besides His own Infinite Individual Self that is All? What is the answer? Who
says so? Are you sure? How then do you pray? Is there any sense in prayer? Do
you pray knowing you have the Answer already?
Jesus had nothing more to work with than you or I. No matter what the
experience, the time, the conditions, the events, the historical outlook or
nature of the so-called problem, the absence-of-God, the Answer is the same!
Give the full value to God, step by step, and you cannot fail to know Truth which
reveals your Eternal Freedom. It is not: "How terrible my problem is," nor "How
long this has lasted-—how useless, how hopeless it all is." Let us repeat, begin
with God who is all of all. Stay with this Truth and you will behold this Truth is
your very Being, your actual living Individual Identity right now, and always has
been, always will be.
Problems of all types and of all times are but a denial-of-God, of Good.
To attempt to navigate about in a never-never state in a never-was land, as a
never-can-be personality, is absurd. Whatever denies, is contrary to or the
reverse of Perfect Perception, is false throughout-—even its
pretended existence!
Truth is always Individual in function, use and operation; It is forever
Absolutely Acting, being Itself in Its total Perfection. This Awareness,
Individually Identified, is the I that I Am, and I can never be other than this. I
Am never dual. No pretense has origin, cause, intelligence, place or power,
hence can never be present to detract nor stop the I that I Am from being.
Should a friend eat a meal and digest it, does that satisfy you? If your
friend is thirsty and drinks his fill, does that prevent you from ever being thirsty?
Are not these common experiences, and is not the satisfying of them an
individual experience? But when it comes to knowing your Self, does not theology
or religion, education or personal inclination suggest that others can "show you
the way," and even do your work for you?
Can another take it upon himself to remove the requirements of the I that I
Am from experiencing Self-awareness? Can the money another has in the bank,
and that he draws for his use, satisfy me if I fail to draw and use what is
mine? Because my friend correctly identifies himself and uses his bank balance,
does that relieve me from claiming my own Self-identity and making demands
on my own account, in my own Name or Identity in accord with the situations
wherein this is contingent? Does my friend's Self-identification relieve me of making
my own Self-identification also, or does his Self-awareness enable
me to draw on my account? Never! Each claim to what is yours, must be
Individually Self-identified, Self-certified.
 Can another be the One I Am? Never! I only can be I. The experience is
exclusively Individual. The Sole Prayer of Truth is the Prayer of I; the I-
Awareness, the I-Identification, Evaluation, Realization, Revelation. To
this I that I Am all things are possible; whatsoever I desire is already done!
All of Truth is Mine now; the Kingdom of Good is within the Intelligence I Am; I
Am everlastingly the Perfect-I-that-I-Am, and there is no other. Can one want
more? Who is so remiss that he will accept less?
True prayer, prayer in its certain, instantaneously manifest sense, is
God's conscious declaration of the All-Self to Himself, the I-that-I-Am, the I-My-
Self, the Individual-I-Am--Awareness, I-Am-Perception, that Infinite Mind is all-
inclusive of All; that there can be nothing else. In this awareness God is not
mocked by another, either greater or less, for Infinity, Boundlessness is the
measure of Self-Being. The all-inclusive One-All is forever all-exclusive of an
imitator or imitation, regardless of form, size, pretended validity, source, evidence,
duration, multiplication, extent or authority. God alone is Presence, Place,
Intelligence, Power, Action. Where the Only is, no pretender can be; no lack of
Good, Life, SelfAwareness, Self-Satisfaction, Infinite Perfection can be
even suggested. God's, Truth's declaration, Self-evaluation, Selfperception, Self-
adoration and praise is the Alone Answer, the sum of Self-existence already and
always Self-manifest to Love!
This is Prayer that "never faileth." (1 Cor 13:8.)
Go thou, my friend, and pray likewise, knowing the Mind of you that prays
or declares the Truth, is God, thy Sole Self, and there is no other self, no
other mind, body, world, universe or existence!

Alfred Aiken