Alcuin: What do you think about praying, Flutterby? Is prayer a waste of time?
Flutterby: No, it's not. For a lot of people on your planet, perhaps for most, prayer can be a very useful spiritual exercise.
Alcuin: What is prayer?
Flutterby: Prayer is breathing.
Alcuin: Breathing?
Flutterby: Yes. Prayer is breathing.
Alcuin: What sort of breathing?
Flutterby: Slower than usual, deeper than usual, conscious breathing.
Alcuin: What? Really stretch the ribcage? Hold the breath for as long as possible?
Flutterby: No. Not that. No useful spiritual exercise involves pain, strain, endurance or unpleasantness. Just breathe a little slower than usual and a little deeper than usual. And maybe pause the breathing process for four or five seconds between each inhalation and exhalation. And while you do that, gently pay attention to the breathing process and enjoy it.
Alcuin: Enjoy it? Enjoy prayer?
Flutterby: Yes.
Alcuin: Prayer is boring.
Flutterby: If prayer is boring, it is not prayer at all.
Alcuin: Isn't it?
Flutterby: No. Breathing is not boring. Conscious breathing is deeply refreshing.
Alcuin: Eyes shut or eyes open?
Flutterby: You decide. Do what feels best for you. Maybe close your eyes and, while you're breathing, focus your attention on the ajna centre between the eyebrows.
Alcuin: The third eye?
Flutterby: Yes. The interdimensional eye.
Alcuin: Right. What about posture?
Flutterby: How do you mean?
Alcuin: Kneeling? Standing up? Sitting down? What is the best posture for breathing?
Flutterby: You decide. Try out a few different postures. See what works for you. See which position helps you to breathe with the greatest comfort and freedom. Sitting up straight with an absolutely vertical spine, or lying down with an absolutely horizontal spine helps a lot of people.
Alcuin: Why?
Flutterby: Because for a lot of people the human spiritual anatomy seems to function best that way.
Alcuin: The chakras and things?
Flutterby: Yes. The interdimensional portals and energy centres in the human spiritual anatomy seem to work well in those orientations.
Alcuin: Is anything which makes you breathe especially slowly or especially deeply a form of prayer?
Flutterby: You could say that. One of the reasons why lots of sex is good for you is that it makes you breathe more and it makes you breathe deeply and it makes you breathe better. And the same thing goes for exercise and laughing and singing.
Alcuin: What should we think about when we are prayer-breathing?
Flutterby: Think about as little as possible, I would say. Just enter the process peacefully and become the breathing itself.
Alcuin: Isn't that a bit passive?
Flutterby: You could say that, yes. But prayer is not what we say to God. Prayer is what God says to us.
Flutterby: No, it's not. For a lot of people on your planet, perhaps for most, prayer can be a very useful spiritual exercise.
Alcuin: What is prayer?
Flutterby: Prayer is breathing.
Alcuin: Breathing?
Flutterby: Yes. Prayer is breathing.
Alcuin: What sort of breathing?
Flutterby: Slower than usual, deeper than usual, conscious breathing.
Alcuin: What? Really stretch the ribcage? Hold the breath for as long as possible?
Flutterby: No. Not that. No useful spiritual exercise involves pain, strain, endurance or unpleasantness. Just breathe a little slower than usual and a little deeper than usual. And maybe pause the breathing process for four or five seconds between each inhalation and exhalation. And while you do that, gently pay attention to the breathing process and enjoy it.
Alcuin: Enjoy it? Enjoy prayer?
Flutterby: Yes.
Alcuin: Prayer is boring.
Flutterby: If prayer is boring, it is not prayer at all.
Alcuin: Isn't it?
Flutterby: No. Breathing is not boring. Conscious breathing is deeply refreshing.
Alcuin: Eyes shut or eyes open?
Flutterby: You decide. Do what feels best for you. Maybe close your eyes and, while you're breathing, focus your attention on the ajna centre between the eyebrows.
Alcuin: The third eye?
Flutterby: Yes. The interdimensional eye.
Alcuin: Right. What about posture?
Flutterby: How do you mean?
Alcuin: Kneeling? Standing up? Sitting down? What is the best posture for breathing?
Flutterby: You decide. Try out a few different postures. See what works for you. See which position helps you to breathe with the greatest comfort and freedom. Sitting up straight with an absolutely vertical spine, or lying down with an absolutely horizontal spine helps a lot of people.
Alcuin: Why?
Flutterby: Because for a lot of people the human spiritual anatomy seems to function best that way.
Alcuin: The chakras and things?
Flutterby: Yes. The interdimensional portals and energy centres in the human spiritual anatomy seem to work well in those orientations.
Alcuin: Is anything which makes you breathe especially slowly or especially deeply a form of prayer?
Flutterby: You could say that. One of the reasons why lots of sex is good for you is that it makes you breathe more and it makes you breathe deeply and it makes you breathe better. And the same thing goes for exercise and laughing and singing.
Alcuin: What should we think about when we are prayer-breathing?
Flutterby: Think about as little as possible, I would say. Just enter the process peacefully and become the breathing itself.
Alcuin: Isn't that a bit passive?
Flutterby: You could say that, yes. But prayer is not what we say to God. Prayer is what God says to us.
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