written after a lunchtime walk during my contract with Fujitsu at Bracknell (codename MaxiRam in Babylon Town)
Perhaps there is no God to answer our prayers, listen to our anxious concerns, detect our hidden needs. Perhaps there’s a Creator who has shaped Nature through the interaction of physical laws, Chaos, improbability and long periods of time. But the Creator is unknowable —at least with our ordinary consciousness.
We perceive something different, though. We perceive that prayers can be answered, poetic justice does happen, something does go on beyond the reach of reason. So let reason be stilled, whilst we heed the quiet voice of the wondrous. I know that angels exist, even if they are but thought-forms brought into existence by human yearning for security and wish-fulfilment. They exist, and they are dedicated to the highest good of individuals and the overarching All.
Returning from my walk, at a banal grass verge, passed by speeding cars, joggers and chatting groups of workers wearing like me their ID passes, I spotted some extraordinary grasses. It seems early for flowering heads of grass, and these were exceptional, coloured brown and cream like bumble-bees. I plucked one and it shed a cloud of cream pollen-dust.
I was already thinking about the angels when I saw the grass, whose extraordinary beauty was enough to blow any theories I could develop. But one theory burst out regardless, one that has presented itself to me many times before.
Suppose that the answering of our prayers is an illusion. It appears that
(a) I’m in need
(b) I have the idea to say a prayer, or express to the Universe my desire
(c) my prayer is answered, or the Universe from its infinite bounty smiles upon me and grants my desire. But isn’t it in fact like this?
(i) I’m in need, the Universe having conspired to show me that I’m not all-powerful.
(ii) The angelic power whispers to me that I should express my need in a longing from the heart.
(iii) The angelic power persuades me to wait calmly for an outcome.
(iv) my longing turns into a physical manifestation of that which I longed for, or possibly something far more pregnant and fruitful than what I had been able to imagine.
(v) I give thanks.
a wayfarer’s notes 
The heads of grass were about 4 inches high, and were mixed with various feathery and other weeds as well as ordinary grass and the typical litter of discarded McDonalds wrappings, drink cans, cigarette packets and butts.
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With grateful thanks to Michael Peverett whose recent post on identifying grasses helped inspire me.
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Hi Vincent, thanks for the comment and link. Your plant is Field Wood-rush, Luzula campestris, a rush relative (6 tepals) rather than a grass, fairly common on dry grassland in spring. Beautiful plant, lovely photo!
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wonderful photo, Vincent (and thanks to michael for the identification!)
all sorts of plants bursting into bloom here. Rain today and predicted for the week, to punish us for having enjoyed a dry rainy season. The grass will shoot up and poor Jake will have to bound through it like a rabbit!
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http://www.livinginpoetry.blogspot.com has a tribute for Paul of spiritualdiablog and now in his new website http://www.originalfaith.com. Hope u can join us in this tribute and if you can helps us spread the word among his blog friends
Thanks, see u there
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I have been listening to a few Alan Watts lectures (Tao of Philosophy).
His talks are all based on the idea of a oneness with all things.
I am an atheist. However, I recognize the beauty of nature. I feel that connection. I feel at peace with the world/universe.
I don't credit invisible men, angels on high, or ancient text.
Coming from this perspective, I can still find wonder in all I see.
My most recent post on Philosophmoric, shows how an autistic woman interacts with the world, and her recognition of the lack of understanding of those around her.
There is great beauty there, if we only take the time to see it. No reason to pity, take the time to understand the new viewpoint.
Those who focus on negative are rewarded with more of the same.
Focus on positive and be rewarded with many treasures.
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Wow! Thanks for the ride. That was fun.
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Charles, that was a lovely journey with the artistic-autistic woman around the wonders of her home. Deeply moving. A friend with some kind of autistic tendencies (diagnosed late in life) never tires of telling me it's not an illness but a spectrum within the range of normality. I'm somewhere on that spectrum too: deeply aware of things, often wary of human sociability. I'll comment on your blog soon!
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N2, I mean to comment on your fascinating essays soon! At first I thought, “Oh, a science thing” – being historically prejudiced against Dawkins & science, perceiving in them a tacit denial of spirit. But only when I have stripped away superstition from spirit do i find that the wonders are not diminished.
I ask myself now, who closes his eyes more to reality: the atheist or the “true believer”?
More soon, at your place!
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Prayer is nothing more than self-communication. Literally, it is the internal dialog that we experience all day every day. Whether we set time aside for it or not, we are always praying on some level…but are we praying to some foreign entity called “God”? I don't think so. The sheer fact that “God” is a concept created by my own mind would lead me to believe that I am, in fact, praying to myself…at least the deepest parts of myself (the awareness of my own existence).
After all, “God” is just a word that describes a consciousness so aware of itself that it has no need to doubt, no need to fear, and no need to define….at my core, that consciousness is me. Whether I believe it or not is testament to this fact because I am not the belief itself…I am the thing that chooses what to believe.
When we all realize that we share that same “awareness of self” and it is only our “idea of self” that varies…that, I think, is when we will realize what prayer truly is.
A Forgetful God
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do you always think about angels?
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Thanks Forgetful God for your comments. I don't disagree with you at all, but living in a relatively Godless society here in England, I think about God hardly at all, except where otherwise stated.
But I do think daily about angels, for my world is anarchic and devolved. It doesn't need the centralised dictatorship of one god, and so that entity has been declared redundant.
I think I have a different imagination, one that puts “angel” in a similar place to where ForgetfulGod places God.
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Well, angels are really just reflections of God without so many needless limits and doubts. I've always liked the concept of Angels…in fact, I've met a few. I don't necessarily think they should have literal “wings” but the belief in themselves and their unending devotion to life definately makes them seem as though their “flying”.
God is just a word. The idea is the same.
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“God is just a word. The idea is the same.”
thanks for that.
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Unless you associate with the wrong kinds of Angels.
Of course, we need a Prosecutor too.
And I don't like these kinds of Angels. They are a bunch of stupid kids, who love to parade themselves.
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Strange, really, is everything “built in”. Is there only ONE reality. The roman church would have us believe that there is only black and white, good or evil .. when every aspect of human life tells us otherwise.
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Vincent, this is a post of many colours. The thoughts I want to respond to are those about prayer and angels.
During my life I've vacillated between believing in the efficacy of prayer and doubting it. Manifestly, most prayers of most people aren't answered, judging from the condition of humanity.
I decided that instead of “prayer”, the following worked: The combination of a clear picturing of what I want to come to pass, combined with strongly willing it to occur (your word is “longing”), believing that it will occur, and then turning it over to Whatever the Power Is. One doesn't become concerned about the route to the goal; that will be taken care of, often in the most unexpected ways.
It seems to me that I'm expressing something more akin to your final paragraph than your next-to-last paragraph. And in the process, I'm taking your concept of angels seriously. I know that something or someone powerful has prompted me and helped me and answered many of my important prayers (or prayerful longings) in striking ways, and I might as well call it an angel, a Messenger of Light.
I've begged it to identify itself to me, but it hasn't.
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Fleming, you inspired me to write a post today, which I called originally “Answer to Fleming”, then (because it seemed to jump from one thing to another and I could not think of a title “About the world” then finally “Not from my desk”.
Months ago I seem to recall you calling for angel stories & this is one. But I cannot answer the obvious question “Why did slaves not use prayer to free themselves?”
Whatever our theories, the world remains as it is. The question “Why does God allow suffering?” is an absurd one because the world came first and the human idea of God came later. If the idea does not fit the pre-existent facts, the idea must be changed!
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Thanks, Vincent.
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