(I recommend both this book and "My Grandfather's Blessings")
"But prayer is not a way to get what we want to happen, like the remote control that comes with the television set. I think that prayer may be less about asking for things we are attached to than it is about relinquishing our attachments in some way. It takes us beyond fear, which is an attachment, and beyond hope, which is another form of attachment. It can help us remember the nature of the world and the nature of life, not on an intellectual level but in a deep and experiential way. When we pray, we don't change the world, we change ourselves. We change our consciousness. We move from an individual, isolated making-things-happen kind of consciousness to a connection on the deepest possible level with the largest possible reality. And then the question "How did you become well?" becomes more a question about mystery than about efficacy. A very different kind of question."
"When we pray, we stop trying to control life and remember that we belong to life. It is an opportunity to experience humility and recognize grace."
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