A Modern Prayer Bead Practice (conclusion ... part 2)

Okay.  So we established last time that there is no "wrong" way to pray, and that even though I wrote a whole book about it -- Simply Pray: a modern spiritual practice to deepen your soul -- and have spent several weeks looking at this prayer bead practice in some detail, I don't assume that I know how you should do it.  You shouldn't assume that, either.  In one of my favorite of the stories about Giovanni di Pietro di Bernadone, otherwise known as Saint Francis of Assisi, while on his deathbed his friends asked what they were supposed to do once he'd gone.  It is remembered that he said to them -- and I imagine he said it with a compassionate and somewhat bemused smile -- "Friends, I have done what was mine to do, may Christ teach you what is yours to do."

All that said, though, I'm going to venture to say a few more words about this "modern spiritual practice to deepen your soul."

As with most spiritual practices, I'd recommend that you try to do it daily and, if possible, at the same time.  Most of the great spiritual teachers have suggested that it is important to make a habit out of your practice, and that you make it something you can depend on.  Doing it daily is one way of making your practice a habit, and doing it at the same time helps you to know that it will be there for you.  If it's something that you "get around to" when you can, it will be all too easy for it to become something that at the end of the day you regret not having done.  I once heard an experienced Catholic priest recommending to seminarians that they put on their calendar, "Appointment With God," just as they would put "Board meeting," or "pastoral visit with so-and-so."  "Make it an appointment," he said.  "Make a commitment to it.  Make it a priority."

How long should you make that appointment?  I find that it is possible to work my way through the entire bead cycle in about 15 minutes.  At that pace I'm not especially rushed, but I am able to easily fit that into my day.  You can take less time than that, of course, or a great deal more.  As an analogy, the acclaimed martial arts teacher Dr. Yang, Jwing-Ming says that it normally takes 18-20 minutes to run through the entire Yang Style Taijiquan form.  Some students, though, seek to slow it down, to go deep into the meditative aspects of the practice, and that for such students that same 18-20 minute set of movements can take a full hour to perform.  Conversely, there are those who want to bring out the martial aspects of taijiquan, and so they work to do the movements faster and faster (because, as he says, "In a fight, speed is important.  You cannot say to your enemy, 'Slow down, you're too fast.'").  For these students, the 18-20 minute set of movements, which some can expand outward to take an hour, can be done in about three minutes.

I'm not sure exactly what the "martial" aspects of this prayer bead practice might be, but I know that for some people, 15 minutes is more time than they have.  You could certainly consider stopping only for the briefest of times at those medium-size beads.  Just as you simply touch the small Breath Prayer beads and move you, you could touch the Listening bead, for instance, and say to yourself, "I would like to be open to listening for the voice of quiet stillness within me," and when you get to the Loving bead simply say, "I send out my love to all things in the cosmos."  I would imagine that you could move through this practice in that way in a couple of minutes.

Another way to shorten the time, if you need to, is to separate the practice into different sections.  So, for instance, when you first wake up you take out your beads, do what you do with the large Centering bead and the four Entering beads, and then do your Naming.  A little later in the day, when you can again set aside some time, begin with the five small Breath Prayer beads that follow the Naming, and do your Knowing.  Later, you can do the next five Breath Prayers and then spend a little time Listening.  Finally, just before bed, perhaps, you could do the last five Breath Prayers, your Loving, and then use the four small Departing to bring a close to both your practice and your day.

An even simpler form of this practice -- which I'd suggest doing in addition to some way of regularly engaging with the whole practice -- is to carry the beads in your pocket and when, at any point in the day, you're feeling particularly grateful and full of joy, put your hand into your pocket and finger the Naming bead.  Similarly, if you're stuck on a long line in the grocery store, let's say, and you find yourself beginning to get irritated, you could reach into your pocket and touch the Listening bead (or the Breath Prayer beads) as a way of helping yourself to relax.  You could also touch the Loving bead, if you're up for it, and send loving thoughts to those people who've brought 21 objects into the 15 Objects or Less line.

Two final thoughts:

I should have said this earlier, when writing about the Loving bead, but I will say now that it is important that you include yourself in your loving prayers.  Within the Christian tradition, Jesus is remembered as saying that we are to "love your neighbors as yourself."  And within the Buddhist traditions there are loving-kindness meditations which begin with ourselves, move on to others, and then embrace all sentient beings.

The last thing I'll say (for now!) about this practice is that I would absolutely LOVE to hear from you with your thoughts, questions, and experiences.  I have received pictures of people's beads from around the country, and it's thrilling to hear how others have interpreted these ideas.  (I once heard from a military chaplain who'd been serving in Afghanistan, and who found Simply Pray to be writing in an open and inclusive style which allowed him to share it with soldiers who did not fit comfortably into any of the more rigid religious identities.  He told me that one day one of these soldiers gave him a set of the prayer beads that he'd made by tying knots into some paracord.  Some time later, this chaplain was being introduced to a local Imam.  Since custom dictated the exchanging of gifts, the chaplain reached into his pocket an brought out the paracord prayer beads.  He was writing to tell me that somewhere in Afghanistan there was a Muslim holy man carrying a set of "my" beads.)

I've turned on the comments for this post, and you can also reach me via the "Make a Connection" form on the right side of the page.

As always,

Pax tecum,

RevWik