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Holy Man

Posted by Stefano on October 21, 2008 - 15:10
from the ABC set Poems

Once I met a holy man
He said, you seem troubled,
why do you not pray?
I replied, my life is a constant and eternal prayer.
What more can words add?
Does an omniscient God
require the Chinese whispers
of my fumbling and inadequate self-expression
when he can acquire the information
directly from the source?
The holy man responded
that my prayer would show God
that I cared and would demonstrate
the correct attitude.
I referred him to my first answer.
An omniscient God would already know
all there was to know about my caring
and my attitude.
The holy man said that wasn’t the way
things were done, and huffed himself away.
Now I practise my Chinese whispers
on a psychiatrist. I pray to him constantly
during each hour-long session.
He seems just as much at a loss as God.

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Comments

artisus | October 21, 2008 - 17:58

Is this the one? I believe we have no technical control over our prayers. The darn thing cannot be switched off. It's the beat of the heart which relaxes the brain. Some of us can listen even to mute mode while some others are deaf to maximum volume. When you kill a man, you stop him from praying..

Very thought-provoking poem. I think I also have a poem here, it's like a chain reaction.

jennifer | October 22, 2008 - 08:29

Only, artisus, if you do not believe in a heaven.

For surely prayer would continue there?

artisus | October 22, 2008 - 08:58

I believe that if there is a heaven, you won't have to pray, what for? You have immediate access to holy beings right? You talk, they explain, the only thing I can imagine is singing from joy, thanking etc. Unless of course there are people down here you care for, but even in this case it won't be a 'prayer' it will be a 'plea'.

FTSE100 | October 22, 2008 - 09:23

The worst thing I can imagine is that life just ends and you never get to find out what it was all about.

In equal last place is the possibility that God exists but simply doesn't care - he has an agenda of his own and we are just laboratory rats.

Also in equal last place is that God exists but is evil and enjoys human suffering. Come to think of it, my first possibility is beginning to look quite attractive...

Maybe heaven is just a donkey sanctuary in the sky?

One thing I'm fairly sure of is that God isn't religious. He'd never want to attend a church service. Maybe he'll provide a corner where praising can go on for people who like that kind of thing, but I feel it would be generally discouraged.

I hope there's some point in it all, that the lessons learned in this life can be carried forward to some greater (and more obvious) purpose. But hoping doesn't make it so.