08.26.08
God as a Cosmic Concierge
I love it! I have been getting ready to write a serious post on intercessory prayer - of course I am planning to write it from the viewpoint of what I am calling a Mystic on this site. Earlier today however, I ran across a blog post from one of my favorite Mystics ever - Rabbi Rami Shapiro - who writes a column for Spirituality and Health Magazine. His blog post really sets up the idea for the post I will write in the next few days so here are the highlights.
Apparently a reader sent Rabbi Rami a question entitled “Why Pray?” and the gist of the question was if we cannot change God’s mind through prayer, why should we pray? In his response, Rabbi Rami makes a distinction between the type of prayer a non-Mystic might make - let’s say a “Faithful” person for the purposes of this blog and the type of prayer a that might be typical of a “Mystic.”
He said: Prayer designed to get God to do what we want is narcissistic and reflects an idea of God as Cosmic Conseirge. (sic - on the spelling of concierge. I was a French major and am a former teacher so I simply cannot allow that spelling error to go unnoticed - sorry Rabbi Rami) But doesn’t that just say it all? The Cosmic Concierge! From personal experience and from my studies I believe the type of prayer typical of our Faithful group is just that - expecting God to act as our own personal “cosmic concierge” dispensing personal favors just because we ask!
Ok, so what was Rabbi Rami’s answer to why we should pray? (or to the way a Mystic might pray) Here it is: I pray not to change anything but to accept and engage everything. I pray for the courage to align myself with godliness– compassion, justice, and humility to use the prophet Micah’s definition– that I might meet whatever life/God/Tao brings with open heart, open mind, and open hands.
There it is - the way a Mystic would pray. He is sort of saying he prays to align himself with God’s will - whoever or whatever God is. Wanna’ know what Rabbi Rami thinks God is? His explanation gives us an excellent view of how a Mystic might describe him. But I am not going to quote that here. Why not cut over to Rabbi Rami’s blog and read the whole post? It is quite a treat!
http://www.spirituality-health.com/spirit/content/why-pray
Concierge said,
December 16, 2008 at 1:40 am
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