The Power and Purpose of Prayer
Prayer
This profound excerpt from the book Heart Dweller by A.H. Almaas explores the power of prayer and the purpose of prayer. Almaas shares his habitual tendency to try to understand through intellect rather than open emotionally to “God.”
He recognizes prayer requires vulnerability and surrender, which his ego resists. Yet being in awe of the divine opens the heart to receive grace. Emotions like remorse over forgetting one’s true nature can lead to redemption.
Almaas recounts a raw, cathartic prayer experience. Repeating “Have pity on me” evokes intense anguish and longing for mercy. Layers of egoic identity dissolve as he sees all his actions as “sins” of self-concern.
Utterly melting into the divine pity annihilates any sense of separate selfhood. Almaas is drowned in boundless light and bliss. However, wanting pity over insights keeps dissolving the ego, as knowledge recreates a sense of separation.
He explores how ego co-opts spirituality, feeling proud of inner experiences. Prayer’s purpose is ego dissolution through devotion, not gathering spiritual credentials. Maintaining humble devotion is an endless challenge.
Almaas models courageously, exposing the ego’s tenacity. Prayer reconnects with the heart’s longing for divine reunion. His raw sharing inspires the reader’s own inner reckoning and surrender.
This excerpt illuminates the power of prayer to unravel the ego and open the direct transmission of grace. Almaas guides us in unleashing the heart’s fervor for truth.
