English

Discover the transformative practice that helped shape the early recovery movement. In this session, we explore the history and technique of “Two-Way Prayer,” a method used by the founders of the 12 Steps to foster direct communion with a Higher Power. You will learn how to turn your inner struggles into a dialogue, using the "Four Absolutes"—Honesty, Purity, Unselfishness, and Love—to distinguish the voice of wisdom from the noise of the ego. Photo: Unsplash - Ricardo Gomez Angel. Music purchased on Epidemic Sound. Music purchased on Epidemic Sound.

Two Way Prayer: Discover The Loving Voice Within

Hi and thank you for joining me. Today I want to talk about two-way prayer. I'm going to give a little bit of a preamble and then I'll provide an example or a guided example of the prayer after I'm done the preamble. When I think about it, I think I've been doing two-way prayer myself for quite some time. It's very similar to listening prayer that I've been trained in and have trained others to do as well. I was recently reintroduced to this prayer on a podcast and that caused me to do some more research about the prayer. In my research I found that two-way prayer was an integral part of the early 12-step program and I have some experience myself in recovery, so this intrigued me a little bit. In my research I found that the 12 steps grew out of the Oxford group in the 1930s and one of the group's core practices was two-way prayer. Eventually this prayer made its way to Bill W. who you may have heard of. He's famous for helping the AA program begin and spread throughout the world. He did this along with Dr. Bob who is also one of the founders of AA and 12 steps. They both reportedly practiced two-way prayer. As we'll hopefully come to understand, two-way prayer is a practice of union with the God of your understanding. As you open yourself up to your higher power, you will experience oneness and communion. The veil or in some cases sort of an imagined wall of separation will be removed and you'll experience love in one way or another. This experience of communion and communication is evidence of love. Shortly after hearing about two-way prayer in the podcast that I mentioned earlier, I thought I'd give it a try and this is what happened. I provide this just as an example and it might give you a little bit of guidance and understanding in how to do the prayer. My actual prayer at the time or a question that I presented to God, the God of my understanding, shows that I might have been a little bit paranoid at the time but here we go anyways. I'll be open and vulnerable and tell you about my prayer and what happened in this prayer. For some inexplicable reason, I'm sure if I did a little more therapy I could discover why this is there, but I kind of have this paranoid feeling every once in a while that I feel and I feel judged especially in social situations. So I was feeling that on this day and the statement and question that I asked the God of my understanding was I feel a little bit paranoid and judged by people and I asked, is there something wrong with me? Please help. As I waited for an answer to emerge, this is what surfaced. No, there's nothing wrong with you. It's part of the human condition. You do it too. Might seem a tiny bit harsh but just let me explain. It was kind of revelatory and what was going on in my body wasn't like I wasn't feeling condemned. I do judge others of course and when I heard this I kind of chuckled and I thought it gave me some clarity. I thought, yeah, I am a little paranoid and I do judge others too. I'm not sure where the saying came from. It might be a Buddhist saying but there's the saying just like me. I don't want to go into it too much more because that's not the point of this reflection but I'll just say that the people that came to my mind had moments of being loving and kind and they had moments of being impatient and judgy just like me. All right, let's move into practicing the prayer. I just want to note that it's helpful when you're doing this prayer to maybe have a journal and have a pen or some paper so you can write down the thoughts that come to mind. It's also helpful to have a passage like a spiritual passage that you read from before doing this prayer and we're going to forgo that today but you might read a passage from a sacred book or a recovery book or something that's just, yeah, that is sacred to you. Well, let my earlier reflection be that reading today if you know what I mean, if that makes sense. So to start with, find a comfortable position, relax your shoulders and relax the area around your chest and heart. Be still for a moment and take a few conscious breaths. So maybe as I was speaking earlier or maybe right now, you could bring to mind a struggle or a question that you might be having about your life. What is something that you're finding difficult right now? These aren't things to be avoided. In meditation, we don't go around, we don't try to escape. We face reality as it is. So what's something that you're finding difficult right now and that you'd be willing to let go of? Or even have the desire to ask your higher power about? When you have something in mind, simply ask your higher power, what's going on or what do you have to say to me about this? There's a wonderful practice being sort of promoted and talked about by Elizabeth Gilbert, who wrote Eat, Pray, Love. And she uses the word love. And I really like this. I've been doing this at times too. You can say, to love, what do you have to say to me about blank? In my case, it was love, what do you have to say to me about being judged and my feelings around it? Go ahead and say something like that now to your higher power or to love or whatever word you choose to use for the divine or your higher self. If at any point you're not ready to move on with this meditation, just hit the pause button and keep writing if that's what you're doing. If you're drawing a blank, that's okay too. And at the same time, I want to invite you to ask again, what might a loving God say to you in response to the request that you're presenting? Stay open and be open as long as you can. Write down anything that comes to mind. Don't judge or edit. Again, if you're in the flow, hit the pause button. And if you're ready to move on with me, let's move on. If you were able to write some things down or some thoughts came to mind, you can write them down. Probably made contact with your higher power. Just take a moment to feel that. What does that contact feel like? Let's rest here for a moment. Rest in that feeling, that awareness. That's it. We can end in gratitude and just say thanks. Thank you for what's been revealed. Thank you for being with us, in us, loving us, manifesting through us. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I just want to provide you with a few more instructions for when you practice this in the future. If thoughts come to mind that you don't think are from God, write them down anyway. Just free write. One teacher on this prayer suggested that those kinds of thoughts you don't think are from your loving higher power, put brackets around them and just continue to do the practice. Over time, you'll become more comfortable with what you think is God and isn't God. You'll actually be able to distinguish between what you imagine to be your higher power's voice or not your higher power's voice at all. Of course, it's unlikely that you're hearing any sort of audible voice. This is the voice that you are hearing in your heart and in your mind. Another good test to know if this is the voice of your higher power is to ask yourself, is what was surfacing, was it pure and was it loving? Or was it selfish and condemning? Of course, if it was selfish and condemning, it's unlikely that it was your higher power. And I thought Bill W. had a good thought on this when asked, do you know if it's really, how do you know if you're really hearing God's voice? He said that he didn't know. And in the end, to him, it didn't really matter. He said, if it's the best part of me, that's the part of me that I want to listen to. All right. As they say in recovery, I hope that you would simply just take what you like and leave the rest from what I just said. And let's actually take a cleansing breath together as we close. Take a deep breath in and at the top, hold it for a few seconds. And then let it all the way out through your mouth. May this teaching help you to grow in your love and understanding of yourself and others and the God of your understanding. Peace.