Dee

Dee

 

Dee speaking about Prayer, Zen Buddhism and her origins in Christianity

 

What does prayer mean to you?

I have a scientific approach to what prayer or devotion is for me when you pray you are connecting to a higher frequency of energy and you want to achieve something that is special for you … perhaps because you want to feel gratitude, perhaps because you want to express a need. It is connecting yourself to a higher level.
I think this is a personal practice.

That’s what prayer means to me – the action, not what’s written, not what information that passes through a human being to another human being. For me prayer is the action of actually trying to become a better person and then you spend time and energy praying.

What does that look like? (How do you pray?)

For me praying through the words of Zen Buddhism, because that is what I choose to follow – Buddhism – particularly the Japanese version which is Zen. For me prayer is the action of Zen which is just the posture. You can’t actually express this by words, but it’s just posture – understanding in order to feel comfortable you have to be able to empty your brain and that’s praying. If you want to feel gratitude first of all you have to empty your brain and then you can actually open your heart and say “Thank you!” I feel gratitude – that’s praying.

Where do you pray?

I don’t really care what the environment is around me. For me it’s the same to do it at home, to do it in the playground, to do it in nature. It’s the same, it’s just the experience that you’re having, you don’t actually have to be in a temple. That interaction between human beings and what human beings build as a building – it’s not actually the path to the prayer. So praying is the action and the personal experience. If you want to connect yourself with the universe because you are looking for a new car or a better job instead of going to a temple and sitting down, that is what you do.

Tool for prayer?

I will say that you should not need anything to pray, not even a tool however how to get to this point because I think human beings nowadays are just exposed to too much information and that’s the problem. Particularly here in Australia – we have access to everything and this is a multicultural society that which has different versions and different tools available. So it is true that for me when I read a book about Zen Buddhism, I can focus, enjoy the technique sitting with my legs crossed and when I read about it I feel there is information that is helping me to improve my breathing, to improve my posture – and those techniques – those tools are good. However, if I keep on reading and only counting on tools the essence of the prayer is lost. The essence is to understand you are looking for emptiness, you’re trying to empty your brain because you need to have an empty notebook in order to write in the notebook. If it’s full with words there’s not a space for a new story. So you need to clear that and somehow you need to train or think of your brain as a notebook and empty your brain. That’s what prayer means to me.

Do I need a tool? No and Yes because your life is full with tools. It’s not just one tool – it’s the relationship with everything – the connection with your ancestors is always a tool.

If you think are thinking about is the prayer good for my life or not? Think about your ancestors, what would they say? At the end that’s always helpful if we want to improve our life. If you are praying it’s because we want to get better and we have to find a way to take into account the information of our ancestors; that’s always a tool. And of course you need to use the tools of the people around you and if you find a group that meditates it’s so much better. It’s easier, it’s a tool to be surrounded by people because it’s almost easier to feel normal because we’re all stressed, we all have bad days, we have bad temper every now and then and when we are meditating in a group we have that interaction and ahh … it’s hard for everyone – it’s not only me. That applies to all religions – it’s so good to define yourself with another human being – that’s an important tool for a spiritual life.

That’s what I think is most important is to have a spiritual life and yes, to be good.

Has prayer changed for you over the years?

I was born and raised as a Christian. I went to a Catholic church, I went to a Catholic Primary School, also secondary school was Catholic and I lived with a family who was Methodist – this was an exchange program of the United States – my stepfather was the priest of the Methodist church. They had their concept of prayer. For them is was to avoid hell to make sure you were going to the sky. For me that’s not the reason why you are praying, that’s related to fear. I started to ask myself, “What is this“? What is actually the objective of praying? Later on I got in touch with the Buddhist religion and from that stance I’ve been trying to read as much as possible and I’ve noticed for them the approach to the word, Pray is more related to the experience of Emptiness. It’s not about fulfilling a good life and making sure you go to heaven. It’s about the present moment and I thought, “I want to pray every day”.

I also got explored religions in India, they have several. Perhaps during a period of 10 years I was curious. I got to a point that I had to just focus on something. Otherwise I would get lost. Because asking questions over and over again without actually accepting the answer or criticising other religions. Finding the scientific research is important for me. I always have respect for science, for me science is more important. The concept of what’s written by science is law for me and I have to find a religion that actually fits with that; fits with what it is the belief for me, the universe, what it is for me to be alive, the cells, the atoms, quantum mechanics. I mean I only have all of that in my brain