In many religious traditions, prayer is implicitly defined as supplication: "Lord gimme this, Lord I want that". Sometimes it manifests as a form of bargaining: "If You give me what I want, Lord, then I'll do what You want in return." Sometimes we praise God to build up credit, so that we can later specify what we receive in return. But consider what prayer might be without egoic projections. Consider prayer as observing and listening rather than speaking and asking. Objective Prayer is meditation upon reality—the focusing of attention upon all-that-is. In this talk, we will discuss how to put our bodies, hearts and minds in service of the Universe, and the nature of the sacrifices that such service entails.
Stuart Goodnick and Rob Schmidt are the senior teachers of Tayu Meditation Center, the church that owns Many Rivers. They were both introduced to the practice of Objective Prayer by Tayu founder Robert Daniel Ennis.
