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16 Sanakara
What Is Prayer ?
Prayer comes from the Latin precarius, "obtained by begging"
and precari, "to entreat" - to ask earnestly, beseech, implore.Prayer
means many different things to different people. At its most basic level,
it is the manifestation of hope in human beings, our ability to say that
we don't know everything, that there is something or someone larger and
wiser than we are that can guide our lives.Mahatma Gandhi, father of modern
India, described prayer as:
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"Prayer is the key of the morning and the bolt of
the evening. There is no peace without the grace of God, and there is
no grace of God without prayer. Prayer is not an old woman's idle amusement.
Properly understood and applied, it is the most potent instrument of action.
Undoubtedly, prayer requires a living faith in God.Heartfelt prayer steadies
one's nerves, humbles one and clearly shows one the next step."
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"Prayer is", according to theologian Ann Ulanov
and Prof. Barry Ulanov, "the most fundamental, primordial, and important
language humans speak. Prayer starts without words and often ends without
them. It knows its own evasions, its own infinite variety of dodges. It
works some of the time in signs and symbols, lurches when it must, leaps
when it can, has several kinds of logic at its disposal."
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| To L. Crawford, |
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"Prayer is a cleansing process, washing our thoughts,
feelings, motives, and will, purifying the entire being including the
heart, thus enabling us to see God, for without purity no one can see
God. Prayer is the greatest spiritual asset in the world."
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Prayer may be individual or communal, private or public.
It may be offered in words, sigh, and gestures or in silence. Prayer may
flow from the subconscious. It may even emerge in dreams, completely bypassing
waking awareness.
Prayer is probably the world's most widely practiced visualization technique.
Those who pray often begin with a relaxation ritual such as attending
a house of worship or kneeling by the bed. Then they conjure a personal
image of a God or some Higher Power and ask that the requests in their
prayers be granted.
Many people feel profoundly calm after praying. Prayer is deeply relaxing,
and those who do it regularly are, in effect, meditating. But science
cannot explain some remarkable studies showing that to a degree that goes
way beyond coincidence, prayer works.
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The Scientific Side of Belief
Beliefs may be classified as: convictions that are extrinsic and those that
are intrinsic. |
| Extrinsic belief may include such things as:
Bare membership in a particular church or synagogue,
Mechanical recitation of a liturgy, or
The intellectual affirmation of a particular set of convictions or statement
of faith.
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| What distinguishes extrinsic belief is that it remains in the head and
never makes it to the heart. Various studies have demonstrated that these
outward practices and affirmations don't have the power in themselves to
improve one's spiritual status, emotional well-being, physical health-or
much of anything else. |
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| Intrinsic belief is characterized by such qualities as:
Profound spiritual commitment,
A sense of having found the ultimate meaning of life,
A devotion to heartfelt prayer, and
A quest for a truly transformed life.
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| This kind of inner belief is the key to real spiritual power. Intrinsic
belief has the capacity to spark major personal enrichment in every area
of life -including dramatic improvements in physical health, emotional well-being,
and fitness. |
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Benefits of Prayer
Kenneth Cooper, author of 'it's Better to Believe', says that having deep
personal convictions and values can do wonders for almost every aspect
of your physical and emotional well-being. He listed several specific
enhancements to health that have been linked to firm, inner commitments
to moral principles, social values, God, or even oneself.
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| Less Depression, Smoking, and Alcohol Abuse |
| In a study of more than five hundred African-American men conducted by
Wayne State University in Detroit, significant correlation between the participants'
religious involvement and their health. The researchers identified a number
of indicators of true religious commitment, including overall religiosity
and church attendance. They found these were linked to various beneficial
health effects, such as less depression, little or no smoking, and infrequency
of alcohol consumption. |
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| Healthier Mothers and Babies |
| Maternity patients with a strong religious commitment, and their newborns,
who were studied at the Department of Family Medicine, East Carolina University,
had fewer medical complications than maternity patients without a religious
affiliation. |
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| Protection from Colon and Rectal Cancer |
In an Australian study of patients with cancer of the colon or rectum,
715 cancer patients were compared with 727 "controls" without
cancer.
The researchers found that the respondents who saw themselves as most religious
were less likely to have cancer than those who were not as religious. In
other words, self-perceived "religiousness" was a statistically
significant protective factor against the disease!
Another interesting finding in this study was that self-reported or perceived
religiousness was associated with median survival times of sixty-two months.
In contrast, those patients who reported themselves as "non-religious"
had a median survival time of only fifty-two months. |
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| Improved Coping With Breast Cancer |
A number of studies have associated a deep religious faith with an ability
to cope more effectively with cancer, including breast cancer.
Researchers at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio
published a study about the impact of deep faith on the condition of women
with breast cancer. They found that with a group of Anglo-American patients,
"intrinsic religiousness" was a strong predictor of spiritual
well-being and hope- both of which are important factors for successfully
coping with cancer. |
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| A Healthier Emotional Balance |
| A study at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, ranked participating
young men and women as high, medium, or low in the quality of their personal
religious commitment. Those in the high religious category, regardless of
their religious denomination, scored highest for self-esteem, emotional
maturity, and non depression. |
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| Lower Blood Pressure, Healthier Cardiovascular System and Reduced Stress |
A commitment to maintain significant social ties, including marriage and
religious community involvements -and a willingness to act on such commitments-can
have tremendous beneficial effects on health.
A study on this issue, involving more than 1,100 healthy men and women aged
seventy to seventy-nine, was reported by Yale epidemiologist Lisa Berkman
at a January 1995 meeting of the American Medical Association. She confirmed
that strong emotional support and social ties can help lower blood pressure
and enhance survival after a heart attack.
Berkman also found that significant social ties, including close friendships
and family relationships, improved the levels in the brain of the chemicals
nor epinephrine and cortisol, which have been associated with excessive
stress. |
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| Stronger Marriage Ties |
| Religious compatibility between spouses at the time of marriage has a
large influence on marital stability. A study, conducted by E. L. Lehrer
and C. U Chiswick of the Economics Department of the University of Illinois
at Chicago, also found that spouses of different faiths generally break
up more often than those with a common faith. |
| A commitment to a meaningful marriage-rather than just cohabiting with
a partner or remaining single-has also been linked in scientific studies
to some specific health benefits. Researchers from the University of Chicago
found that divorced men had twice the rate of alcohol abuse as married men.
Divorced women also had more problems with alcohol than their married counterparts.
Other researchers reported that those who live together before marriage
have higher divorce rates, are more likely to be sexually disloyal, and
are generally less happy than married couples. |
