“In prayer, I speak and God listens.
In meditation, God speaks and I listen.”
– Sri Chinmoy
No-one appreciates a one-way conversation. If we like to be listened to, then we must also pay others the respect of listening.
When we pray to God, we hope and expect God will listen to our prayer: otherwise, prayer would be pointless.
But what if God is also praying to us? Who will answer God’s prayer?
God’s needs and prayers are actually far more pressing than our own: God needs the transformation and perfection of the entire creation. And for this supreme task, God needs instruments here on earth – you and me. So, God prays to us, constantly.
Any meaningful relationship has mutual benefits and obligations. When someone does something for me, naturally I will be more inclined to return the favour. So, when we take the time and effort to listen to God’s prayers to us, we also gain more confidence that our own prayers to God will be heeded.
We can speak to God in any language: English, Bengali or Slovakian. God speaks to us always in the one universal language: silence. Prayer is our audience with God: meditation is God’s audience with us. Meditation – listening to God’s prayer to us in silence, God’s silence – is a study, a discipline, a practise, a struggle, a battle, an art, a gift, a science, a skill, a journey, a discovery, a game, a therapy, a treasury, a qualification, an education, a passion, a romance, an adventure, a revelation – an ever-blossoming creation.
We are God’s arms and legs, eyes, ears and beating heart in this world. God’s need for us encompasses and subsumes our need for God. Through merely giving God our attention, we gain everything God has and God is.