What Is a Miracle?
Our special theme says, “The miracle is taken first on faith, because to ask for it implies the mind has been made ready to conceive of what it cannot see and does not understand.”
There are two points from today’s selection that I would like to contemplate. First, let’s look at faith.
Bernadette Roberts wrote, “Indeed, it is because Truth is unbelievable that man needs faith—faith, which is beyond belief.”
What is faith? Faith is trust or confidence in something based on spiritual understanding rather than proof.
I have learned that faith is better than seeking proof, primarily because we cannot find proof until we have walked the journey and experienced it for ourselves. As Bernadette also wrote, “Complete understanding can only come at the end of the journey.” That’s because complete understanding comes from direct experience.
Every phase of the journey that still lies ahead is not understandable and not provable from the perspective of where we are now. This is why we need faith. We need faith that there is truth or higher seeing beyond our current way of seeing in order to motivate us to continue the journey. Without faith in something beyond our current knowing, our journey may stall.
A hiker keeps up the hike because there is still something to see that hasn’t been seen yet. It’s as the old song goes:
The bear went over the mountain,
the bear went over the mountain,
the bear went over the mountain,
to see what he could see.
Faith is trusting there is something to see that hasn’t been seen yet.
The second point I’d like to contemplate from today’s selection is this: “because to ask for it implies that the mind has been made ready…”
It is wonderful to ask. In my Buddha at the Gas Pump interview, Rick Archer commented that when I asked for something, I received it. It’s true. All along my spiritual journey, as I became ready for a particular phase of the journey, I found myself asking for it, and then that phase of the journey would begin. Of course, I didn’t always know what to ask for. I just knew I was ready for whatever was next. For example, just before The Teachings of Inner Ramana came, I asked for something that would take me to the next step. Just before a massive phase of purification started, I asked for something that would take me higher into love. In fact, the entire spiritual journey began when I asked for truth regardless of what it is.
Asking is grand! I like to begin each day’s contemplation by asking to see whatever is most helpful for me to see now. I begin each meditation by putting the meditation in the hands of Ramana and asking that it be whatever is most helpful for me now.
When we ask from a state of readiness, Grace responds. It is as NTI Revelation says:
You will never be asked to take a single step alone, but you must always be willing to take the lead by deciding the purpose and calling it out to Us.
Anger must come from judgment. Judgment is the weapon I would use against myself, to keep the miracle away from me.
Today’s workbook lesson demonstrates asking when it says, “Straighten my mind, my Father.”
Of course, the words themselves are never the prayer. The prayer that moves Grace is the heartfelt readiness and faith that is at the foundation of the prayer. Until one sees for herself how hurtful judgment is, genuinely tires of the judging mind, and has faith that it is possible to be free of judgment, she will not ask with the dynamism that moves mountains. (Ref: Mark 11:23)
How do we prepare ourselves for a sincere prayer?
We simply be where we are on this journey now to the best of our ability and pay attention to everything. As we do that, we are naturally prepared for our next step. When we are ready for our next step, we will feel it, and we will ask for it sincerely.
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