"We have often prayed in moments of great distress for the
things we need; but our prayers remained
unanswered, for we were not inwardly evolved in
the secondary system to receive an answer.
We ask the Reality to give us our daily bread,
yet have frequently starved, and this will often
shake our faith in a wise and powerful God. Still
those whose prayers have been answered did not
receive help from the Innermost or from the
Reality, but from those myriads of atoms that we
call upon by aspiration, who seek to show us the
reason for our sufferings and who preserve the
records of our pasts."


"It is well to send a silent prayer inwardly before
beginning our practice, and this will harmonise us
to our Innermost. A prayer will sometimes evoke
something within us that will operate a centre
which begins to teach us. When the student is
alone, and will not disturb anyone, he should pray
aloud with strength and vigour; this vibrates his
mental body, and will pass more easily and
clearly through the three lower spheres of illusion
and contact spheres of worth.
The shaft of light that we send forth in prayer
interpenetrates into the higher as well as into the
lower planes. The mind should therefore seek
purity and not invoke the animal entities of the
Secret Enemy that will attempt to control our
thoughts and envelop us in harmful conditions.

We are held responsible for our prayers, and
as we have not learned how to pray we often
inflict our conditions upon those for whom we
pray. A group of people praying about a sick bed
can sometimes drive out the real personality from
the body and allow an obsessing entity to enter.
When we pray we often visualise the person for
whom we pray; but we fail to realise that we send
our own atmosphere to them as well. This can
frequently bring greater disorder than ever.
There are many religious organisations that
pray at mass meetings for individuals that they
may be converted to their beliefs. They imagine
they are helping them, but are on the contrary
similar to highwaymen on the mental plane; for
they seek to dominate them regardless of their
liberty of experience. This can often shut out the
true light from those sincerely seeking it."

In a book previously mentioned by us, The Comte
de Gabalis, we have written this passage about
prayer:

"When you pray, think. Shut out all lower
thoughts. Approach God as you would the
entrance to a holy place. Ask if it will be well to
demand to be given wisdom according to law. Be
strong in purpose and firm in demand; for as you
seek power of a spiritual nature you will balance
that power in self on the lower planes. It is to
penetrate beyond these lower planes or spheres
of illusion that Jesus said: 'When you pray, say
these things.' You have by a direct and positive
effort to reach the higher spheres of
consciousness, therefore let your thought be clear
and precise, for a sincere, positive, and well-
defined prayer harmonises man with God. On the
other hand, an idle or unthinking prayer without
definite expression becomes an infliction to the
mind and destroys the receptivity to the light. A
fervent prayer to the Deity crystallises the mind so
that other forms of thought cannot enter, and
prepares it to receive a response from the God
within.

"Prayer of concentration on the Highest Source
man is capable of imagining is a path to Wisdom
found."