The Prayer Thread is a collection of teachings and practical prompts to help as we learn to pray in community. This text was originally delivered on April 29, 2026 as a short teaching at our online weekly prayer sit.
How do the roots of the seeds know to go down and the shoots of the seeds to grow up? How do the baby animals know when to emerge and become born? How do the human bodies, hearts, and minds know the pathway of development and traverse across recognizable phases and stages throughout life? How do the celestial bodies, like planets and moons, know what orbit to travel and how fast to move along?
Life, all of reality, is a field of interacting and interconnected forces. A single, foundational, permeating force must hold all the others in relation, in communion, with each other. Spiritual and religious traditions call this singular all-encompassing field, God, or Love. Prayer, through the intentional directing of energy, using attention and intention, is one of the powerful forces at play in these mysteries of Life.
Invisible, yet real, intentional, and therefore forceful, the hidden energies of prayer become manifest, participating in the divine dance of Love, through our words, our rituals, our actions, our longings, and intentions. Prayer is energy. Prayer is a real force at work in reality. Though not always visible, it manifests and finds expression in the physical world. Feelings like awe and agony are manifestations of energy. Insights like truth and annihilation are also energy manifest. Sensations such as peace and fear are manifestations of energy. Which forces will dominate? What qualities will mark our interactions among the many forces?
Holding the energy of prayer with our loving attention and intention emboldens us to take up our space and play our part in the larger force field of reality. May the energies of our prayers manifest healing and wholeness!
