Simone Weil on Prayer taught by Christ

Pater aymohn ho en toyss ooranoyss,	Our father who art in heaven,
agiasthaytoh to onomasoo,	hallow be thy name,
elthetoh hay basileya soo,	thy kingdom come,
genaythaytoh to thelayma soo,	thy will be done,
hohss en ooranoh kai epi gayss	on earth as it is in heaven,
ton arton haymohn ton epioosion dos haymin saymeron	give us this day our daily bread
kai aphess haymin ta opheilaymata haymohn	and forgive us our trespasses
hohss kai haymeiss aphyemen toyss opheyletaiss haymohn	as we forgive those who trespass against us
kai may eisenenkayss haymass eyss peirasmon	and lead us not into temptation
alla rusai haymass apo too ponayroo	but deliver us from evil

Up until last september, I had not prayed even once in my life, at least in the litteral sense of the word. I had never addressed words to God aloud or mentally

The virtue of this practice is extraordinary and surprises me every time I do it, for, even though I live it every day, it goes beyond my expectation every time. Sometimes the first words already tear my thought outside my body and transport it to a place outside space from which there is neither perspective or point of view. Space opens up. The infinity of ordinary space is replaced by an infinity to second or third power. At the same time this infinity of infinities fills itself to the brim with silence, a silence that is not an absence of sound, and that is the object of a positive sensation, more positive than that of a sound. Noises, if there are any, only reach me after going through this silence.

Sometimes also, during this recitation or at other moments, Christ is present in person, but with a presence that is infinitely more real, more poignant, more clear and more full of love than the first time he took me.

I never would have taken it upon me to tell you all this if I wasn't leaving. And as I leave with more or less the thought of a probable death, it seems to me that I do not have the right to not speak of these things. For after all, in all of this, it's not about me. It's about God. I have nothing to do with it.

The words of the Pater are perfectly pure.  If you recite the Pater with no other intention than to pay the fullness of one's attention on the words themselves, you are completely sure to be delivered by this means from a part, as small as it may be, of the evil you hold inside you. In the same way if you look at the Holy Sacrement with no other thought than that Christ is there, and so on.

The only pure things down here are sacred objects and texts, the beauty of nature if you look at it for itself and not as a place for your reveries, and, to a lesser extent, human beings in whom God lives and works of art issued from divine inspiration.

That which is perfectly pure can not be anything else but God present down here. If it was something else than God, it would not be pure. If God was not present, we would never be saved. In the soul where there has been a contact with purity, all its horror of the evil that it carries inside it changes into love for divine purity. This is how Mary-Magdalene and the good thief were privileged by love

Simone Weil (from a letter in May1942)

Letter of the pious man

Now my son, may G-d place you among those that will hear and listen, and that listen and think, and that think and know and do, and not among the people who drown in error, who are drunk with the wine of foolishness, which the evil inclination has enslaved them, and ruled this world over them, and which the lusts have overpowered them, and swayed them towards the pleasures, and enticed them to the desires, and drawn them to coveting. And they, in their darkness are smitten, and swiftly move dazzled in their error, they hear but don't lend ear, they say but don't do . They sought the pleasures but fell in the frustrations, endeavored to reach the pleasing, but reached instead the hard suffering, their soul is tired, and their body is weary. Their minds are empty, and their understanding is shattered. They hoard gold to be lost and fleeting silver, which becomes an inheritance to their enemies or to their traitorous wives. They erect mansions and lie down in graves. They build and don't dwell, they amass and don't spend, each man among them buries his father and his son (i.e. someone older and someone younger than himself but does not put to heart the day of his own death ), yet still does not do religious deeds which endure forever. He forgets his end, but remembers his desires, what will you say of a middle piece, which lost both end pieces, and of a child whose parents abandoned him?

Look my son, at whose heart the Creator has broadened, and who G-d has helped him to rule over his thoughts, opened his eyes for what is good for him, showed him the straight path, and drew him close to it. People are assured of him, and he is assured of them, he is at peace with them, and saved from them. People serve their evil inclination, but he serves the G-d of heaven and earth, who grants life, who brings death, the Creator, who is gracious, and there is no god besides him.

Look at the difference between them (the men who serve their evil inclination ) and the men with pure interiors (who serve G-d) - their eyes are at rest (unlike the desirers whose eyes are always scanning to spot desirous things they enjoy and to afterwards strive to attain them ), their hearts are secure (they are not worried or pained by anything ), and in their solitude, they delight in remembering G-d, thank Him for His goodness in all their situations, who quickly grasp all forms of deep wisdom, who ripped off the veil from their eyes (the [inner] eyes of the intellect ) which prevents seeing the interior ways, and reached the true tranquility through their toil(to conquer their lusts ), their tranquility led them to delight, their desire does not distract them, nor does their long life make them procrastinate. They are zealous to prepare for the day of death, and from what is after it, they prepare, call to G-d, seek Him, hope to Him, and serve Him, They speak truth, converse righteousness, without fear of the Sultan, and without being ruled by the Satan. They are more precious (to G-d) than any man, and more guarded than any nation, their splendor and grandeur is greater than all of them, honored in the houses of G-d, and great in the eyes of men, nothing distracts them away from remembering G-d, and nothing prevents them from thanking Him, their tongue is habituated in praises and thanksgivings, and their hearts are full of purity and unity.

This world disguised itself but they recognized it, and they tread it and told of it, its deception was not hidden from their eyes, neither was its fraud concealed. This world adorned itself to them with beautiful garments (enticed them to pursue the enchantments of this world), but they considered it naked and empty, it deprived them (of livelihood to), but it was forced (to provide for them their basic need in its proper time since they trusted in G-d ), it tried to befriend them (with wealth), but they scolded it, it tried to sway them, but they distanced from it, they gazed at its evil deeds, and understood its disgraceful acts, and it has no dominion over them, and nothing with which to approach them. They are the choicest of G-d, the pure ones, and the treasured of the pious, possessors of discerning eyes, noble desires, favored deeds, who dug after G-d and became rich, did business with Him, and profited, purified their hearts and became pure, who equipped themselves with fear of G-d in the path of evil and were saved, they rode the wagon of piety and arrived, met with the eternal joy, and the delight which never erodes, were spared from the assembly of judgment, and were saved from the punishments .

And you, my son, choose the good for your soul, before the regret which will not avail, and the worry which will never end.
-->

Ibn Pakudah

Purity & impurity are one's own doing.

अत्तना हि [अत्तनाव (सी॰ स्या॰ पी॰)] कतं पापं, अत्तना संकिलिस्सति।

अत्तना अकतं पापं, अत्तनाव विसुज्झति।

सुद्धी असुद्धि पच्‍चत्तं, नाञ्‍ञो अञ्‍ञं [नाञ्‍ञमञ्‍ञो(सी॰)] विसोधये॥

Evil is done by oneself

by oneself is one defiled.

Evil is left undone by oneself

by oneself is one cleansed.

Purity & impurity are one's own doing.

No one purifies another.

No other purifies one.

Dhammpad 12.165

translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu. Access to Insight, 19 September 2010, http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/dhp/dhp.12.than.html.

Buddha

cling only to the imperishable

Yes, be man ; that is to
say, be nature, be spirit, be the image of
God, be what is greatest, most beautiful,
most lofty in all the spheres of being, be
infinite will and idea, a reproduction of the
great whole. And be everything while
being nothing, effacing thyself, letting God
enter into thee as the air enters an empty
space, reducing the ego to the mere vessel
which contains the divine essence.
Be humble, devout, silent, that so thou mayest
hear in the depths of thyself the subtle and
profound voice ; be spiritual and pure, that
so thou mayest have communion with the
pure spirit. Withdraw thyself often into
the sanctuary of thy inmost consciousness ;
become once more point and atom, that so
thou mayest free thyself from space, time,
matter, temptation, dispersion, — that thou
mayest escape thy very organs themselves
and thine own life. That is to say, die
often, and examine thyself in the presence
of this death, as a preparation for the last
death. He who can without shuddering
confront blindness, deafness, paralysis,
disease, betrayal, poverty ; he who can
without terror appear before the sovereign
justice, he alone can call himself prepared
for partial or total death. How far am I
from anything of the sort, how far is my
heart from any such stoicism ! But at
least we can try to detach ourselves from
all that can be taken away from us, to accept
everything as a loan and a gift, and to
cling only to the imperishable, — this at any
rate we can attempt.

Henri Amiel

Just as a silver smith

अनुपुब्बेन मेधावी,

थोकं थोकं खणे खणे।

कम्मारो रजतस्सेव,

निद्धमे मलमत्तनो॥

Just as a silver smith

step by step,

bit by bit,

moment to moment,

blows away

the impurities of molten silver —

so the wise man, his own.

 Dhammpad 18.239

"Malavagga: Impurities" (Dhp XVIII), translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu. Access to Insight, 19 September 2010, http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/dhp/dhp.18.than.html.

Buddha

A prayer and resolution

Life of my life, I shall ever try to keep my body pure,
knowing that thy living touch is upon all my limbs.
I shall ever try to keep all untruths out from my thoughts,
knowing that thou art that truth which has kindled the light of reason in my mind.
I shall ever try to drive all evils away from my heart and keep my love in flower,
knowing that thou hast thy seat in the inmost shrine of my heart.
And it shall be my endeavour to reveal thee in my actions,
knowing it is thy power gives me strength to act

Rabindranath

PURIFICATION

The question is substantially this: how far does purification dispel the two orders of passion — anger, desire and the like, with grief and its kin — and in what degree the disengagement from the body is possible.
Disengagement means simply that the soul withdraws to its own place.
It will hold itself above all passions and affections. Necessary pleasures and all the activity of the senses it will employ only for medicament and assuagement lest its work be impeded. Pain it may combat, but, failing the cure, it will bear meekly and ease it by refusing assent to it. All passionate action it will check: the suppression will be complete if that be possible, but at worst the Soul will never itself take fire but will keep the involuntary and uncontrolled outside its precincts and rare and weak at that. The Soul has nothing to dread, though no doubt the involuntary has some power here too: fear therefore must cease, except so far as it is purely monitory. What desire there may be can never be for the vile; even the food and drink necessary for restoration will lie outside of the Soul’s attention, and not less the sexual appetite: or if such desire there must be, it will turn upon the actual needs of the nature and be entirely under control; or if any uncontrolled motion takes place, it will reach no further than the imagination, be no more than a fleeting fancy.
The Soul itself will be inviolately free and will be working to set the irrational part of the nature above all attack, or if that may not be, then at least to preserve it from violent assault, so that any wound it takes may be slight and be healed at once by virtue of the Soul’s presence, just as a man living next door to a Sage would profit by the neighbourhood, either in becoming wise and good himself or, for sheer shame, never venturing any act which the nobler mind would disapprove.
There will be no battling in the Soul: the mere intervention of Reason is enough: the lower nature will stand in such awe of Reason that for any slightest movement it has made it will grieve, and censure its own weakness, in not having kept low and still in the presence of its lord.

Plotinus

Living Gold

Let us consider a soul, not one that has appropriated the unreasoned desires and impulses of the bodily life, or any other such emotion and experience, but one that has cast all this aside, and as far as possible has no commerce with the bodily. Such a soul demonstrates that all evil is accretion, alien, and that in the purged soul the noble things are immanent, wisdom and all else that is good, as its native store.
If this is the soul once it has returned to its self, how deny that it is the nature we have identified with all the divine and eternal? Wisdom and authentic virtue are divine, and could not be found in the chattel mean and mortal: what possesses these must be divine by its very capacity of the divine, the token of kinship and of identical substance.
Hence, too, any one of us that exhibits these qualities will differ but little as far as soul is concerned from the Supernals; he will be less than they only to the extent in which the soul is, in him, associated with body.
This is so true that, if every human being were at that stage, or if a great number lived by a soul of that degree, no one would be so incredulous as to doubt that the soul in man is immortal. It is because we see everywhere the spoiled souls of the great mass that it becomes difficult to recognize their divinity and immortality.
To know the nature of a thing we must observe it in its unalloyed state, since any addition obscures the reality. Clear, then look: or, rather, let a man first purify himself and then observe: he will not doubt his immortality when he sees himself thus entered into the pure, the Intellectual. For, what he sees is an Intellectual-Principle looking on nothing of sense, nothing of this mortality, but by its own eternity having intellection of the eternal: he will see all things in this Intellectual substance, himself having become an Intellectual Kosmos and all lightsome, illuminated by the truth streaming from The Good, which radiates truth upon all that stands within that realm of the divine.
Thus he will often feel the beauty of that word “Farewell: I am to you an immortal God,” for he has ascended to the Supreme, and is all one strain to enter into likeness with it.
If the purification puts the human into knowledge of the highest, then, too, the science latent within becomes manifest, the only authentic knowing. For it is not by running hither and thither outside of itself that the soul understands morality and right conduct: it learns them of its own nature, in its contact with itself, in its intellectual grasp of itself, seeing deeply impressed upon it the images of its primal state; what was one mass of rust from long neglect it has restored to purity.
Imagine living gold: it files away all that is earthy about it, all that kept it in self-ignorance preventing it from knowing itself as gold; seen now unalloyed it is at once filled with admiration of its worth and knows that it has no need of any other glory than its own, triumphant if only it be allowed to remain purely to itself.

Plotinus

Make your days holy

Be sure that you make your days very long. With each new day and each fresh moment, make sure that the time is longer, fuller and richer with added holiness. So it must be with every day that comes. You must continually extend the days by filling them with more holiness and more purity. This is the secret of a long life. When you start each day, at first the day is very short. The spiritual accomplishments you need to achieve this day weigh heavily upon you. It takes great determination not to be discouraged as you feel the weight of the devotions you have to undertake this day. But be courageous and don't lose heart. Make a start even if at first things

seem heavy and strained and difficult. If you are determined enough they will become easier and you will find that you can accomplish what you must in God's service. With every hour that

passes see to it that you enrich that hour and lengthen it with extra holiness. Do the same with every new day of your life. Let each day be filled with more holiness than the day before. Then you will be blessed with length of days. The root of this skill in living lies in cultivating true fear of Heaven.

Such fear is the foundation of a long life. It can bring you great wealth, the wealth of holiness. And through this wealth it is possible to attain profound understanding. There are certain paths of Torah, which possess a degree of profundity, which can only be attained, with the help of great wealth. This is the reason why so many of the greatest of the Tzaddikim were extraordinarily wealthy, such as Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, the compiler of the Mishnah, and Rav Ashi, the compiler of the Talmud. The source of this wealth is in `length of days,' which is attained through awe

R Nachman

Mind can be likened to water

Mind can be likened to water.

Even to look at a stream of pure water running in all its purity is the greatest joy one can have, and drinking the pure water is so too.

And so it is with the mind.

Contact with the pure-minded is the greatest joy.

Whether they speak with one or not; there emanates from them a purity, a natural purity, which is not man-made but belongs to the soul and gives one the greatest pleasure and joy.

Inayat Khan