SEVEN CIRCLES OF PRAYER: Chapter 5: TOUCHING

Posted: 18th July 2004

Chldren of Preik Krobao with their mothers

5. TOUCHING:

Prayer begins in silence and space. Prayer makes a see more deeply. Prayer opens us to suffering.

Prayer is also REACHING OUT AND TOUCHING. It is MAKING CONTACT.

To touch and to be touched is to find and to be found. It is to know through your skin that there is love alive in the universe.

It’s skin that registers touch. Skin feels. It feels simple contact and the degrees of pressure. But it also feels warm, cold and pain. It’s through our skin that we are in touch. When we are small we need to be touched, caroled and fondled. From parent to child and from child back to parent love is passed in touching. It’s lovely to touch and lovely to be touched. And touch isn’t a private possession. It’s a gift to be shared. Touch can bring warm, comfort and healing. Touch can also gently dissolve barriers and misunderstandings.

When words seem inadequate, touch can heal.

So, how do you bring this human gift into our prayer?

How in your prayer do you reach out and touch others?

When you pray take time to bless God for all touching. Prayer is being in touch. Bless Him for your skin, your hands, Feel your whole body. Then reach out in your prayer to one person who needs your touch. Surround them with love.

Perhaps is someone who needs a touch that says: “I’m sorry”.

Perhaps is someone who needs a touch that says: “I forgive you”.

Perhaps is someone who needs a touch that says: “I’m here”.

To touch another person with love is to bless them and to be blessed. The God we move towards in prayer is a God who loves our human bodies. Who made them and who rejoices in them. In our prayer through touching and being touched we are discovering the kind of God, God is.

To know more you have to go deeper. It’s like being drowned by a magnet. The closer you get to the center, the stronger you feel the pole. This is the point where you need not to seek, but to respond. Not to speculate, but to listen.

That what you’ve been listening to, we’ve discovered: So far, that to pray we need silence and space. We need to learn to see more deeply and to share in the suffering of others. We need to reach out and touch and be touched.

But what lies behind all this?

Is this just the restlessness of the human spirit?

Is it just weariness with material values?

Is it fear? The fear of death? Of being finally alone?

The religions and philosophers of the world offer different explanations. There are hundreds of possible interpretations to choose from. Many believe that we can’t never finally know and that all speculations are futile. Man is a tiny, fragile point of consciousness in a vast, dark universe.

Article Source: CAHAYASUARA CENTER - KUALA LUMPUR