Karma and Prayer

Prayer is an activity that spiritual aspirants from all traditions swear by. For many, it is a great comfort to think that they can speak to God and make their requests known. And it is an even greater comfort to think that God actually hears them and may just condescend to answer their prayers in an affirmative manner (that is, the way they would like to see things go).

Prayer might therefore be considered the backbone of all personal relationships with God. Even if God does not always answer, it is a thrill (and of course, an honor) for us to be able to converse with God, as if He were a close relative (perhaps like a father). And regardless of the results, it is enough for us to feel personally close to the Creator of the universe in this way.

Others gravitate toward prayer because it makes them feel useful. For these, the beauty of prayer is that a humble, otherwise undistinguished human being can move mountains (in the spiritual realm) from the comfort of their living room. With fervent prayer as their tool they can forge a new, more godly world order, even if they are unschooled, unprofessional, and in other areas of life quite powerless. Somebody who has been made to feel like a “nobody” in the world all their life can suddenly feel like a “somebody” through a vibrant prayerful relationship with God.

And so, many swear by an active prayer life as a means to fill a void in their otherwise unspectacular existence. And because the benefits of this kind of life to those doing the praying are palpable, it is not uncommon for them to take an attitude of detachment when it comes to having their prayers answered. They diminish the aspect of results and simply leave that to God. Of course, they would prefer that their prayers were answered, but at the same time they acknowledge that that aspect of their endeavor is out of their control. What is in their control is the choice to spend their time and energy praying, even if the only benefits they receive are those that benefit them personally.

This matter of prayer going unanswered is a curious one, however. And as such, it calls for a closer look. A few questions to ask ourselves are: How often is prayer actually answered? What is the approximate ratio of answered prayer to unanswered prayer? And what makes the instances of answered prayer effective, while other instances prove ineffective?

Though everyone would like to believe that their prayers are being, have been, or at least could be answered, the reality is that such instances are extremely rare. The ratio of answered prayer to unanswered prayer is probably something like one in ten thousand. Why is this? Is God to blame? Why doesn’t He answer us more often? What’s up with God anyway? On the one hand, He tells us to make our requests known, but on the other hand, those requests are rarely answered. It’s as if God ignores them. What gives?

Those who allow themselves to be perplexed by this disproportionate ratio often have, deep down, a negative opinion of God. The only way they can make sense of it is to deduce that God is, for some capricious reason, withholding from them. And when this is the case prayer after prayer and year after year it would indeed be difficult not to have feelings of resentment toward God. Of course, this is assuming two attributes about God that we have been taught to believe—attributes that may or may not be true. One of these attributes is that God is a

personal, human-like God and, as such, must have an auditory function. In other words, we simply assume that God hears our prayers, though we have no way of actually knowing that He does. And the other assumption we tend to make is that God is a sovereign God and can therefore act spontaneously without any constraining forces dictating otherwise. In other words, God can hear us out and then decide to answer in the affirmative, even if our situation is unique and unformulated. Or another way to look at it: God could surely answer our prayer if He wanted to. Unfortunately, both of these assumptions carry the potential for unlocking a Pandora’s box of negative emotions toward God, especially the assumption that God could answer us if He wanted to. For, if God hears us but chooses not to answer, then we tend to ask ourselves if there is something we have done to displease God. If God does not want to answer, He must not be happy with us or like us very much, etc. And deductions such as these lead to all kinds of pagan practices—practices such as trying to appease God, please God, impress God, and worship God in just the right manner.

But suppose that the fault does not lie with God at all. Suppose that these assumptions we have been taught to believe about God are false. Then the whole game changes. Suppose that God is not a personal, anthropomorphic God after all. And suppose that God is not as sovereign as we tend to believe. In other words, suppose God does not answer certain prayers because He is unable to.

Though Jesus appeared to relate to God as personal and human-like, this was not what he taught. Speaking to the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well, he said very plainly: “God is Spirit.” (John 4:24). Is Spirit personal? Can Spirit be human-like? No. And if God is not a person, how can we assume that He (It) has an auditory function akin to ours? Thus we find that this assumption about God being personal and human-like—an assumption that may not be true—greatly impacts our ability to relate to God. And remember, one of our most cherished ways of relating to God is through prayer. Thus this would definitely cause us to pray amiss, which is the number one reason that the New Testament gives for prayer going unanswered. (James 4:3). It also would reveal that our motives for praying are not pure—that we are praying not as an extension of God’s will but rather according to our own human desires.

But what about the second assumption? Did not Jesus teach that God is sovereign and omnipotent? What could possibly render God’s arm too short to answer prayer? What power in this universe can rival God? The answer is: God’s own creation.

God created this universe as a universe of law. Down to the tiniest detail, it is law that governs universal life. And once this law was set in place, it became immutable. To violate it brought legal ramifications that could not be altered, even by God Himself. But I hear you ask: So God’s law is greater than God? Is the creation greater than the Creator? That would imply that the creation became like a Frankenstein monster that rose up in defiance of the One who made it. Could not God override the law, if He chose to? The answer is: yes He could but He chooses not too. Never? Very very rarely.

What then is the law that prohibits God from answering prayer? To answer this question we must once again recall what the true purpose is for us human beings being alive on this plane. Are we here to live once and then die? Are we here to have families, reproduce, and proliferate as a species? Are we here to have careers, get rich, and prosper? Are we here to have fun, carouse, and gratify our senses? No, of course not. We are here to give expression to the evolution of consciousness. That is who God created us to be. And that is the only purpose of human life, as we know it.

The evolution of consciousness is governed by God’s law. Therefore it is absolute and immutable. But evolution is a process—one that often takes a long time (from our viewpoint anyway). Therefore God instituted other laws to aid and abet in this process. Since consciousness evolution does not usually happen in one lifetime, God created the law of reincarnation, in order to give man all the time he needs to evolve. And since man tends to be both clueless and easily distracted on this evolutionary journey, God created karma.

Yes, karma is a law. It was instituted in the beginning for the purpose of overseeing each individual’s evolutionary unfoldment. Thus we each have karma at work in our lives, prodding us forward on the evolutionary path. But it is not our physical bodies that karma is concerned with; it is our endowment of spiritual consciousness. And the evolutionary process that karma oversees is the passage from the Adamic state of consciousness (into which we all awoke in Adam) into the Christ state that Jesus embodied. This is what karma does, and since it works as a law it does so with an inviolable tenacity.

How does karma work to take us from Adam to Christ? It brings to us the life experiences that spark and support spiritual growth. It also suggests to us various practices that we can embrace to help us progress—practices such as study, discipleship under one who is more enlightened than us, meditation, community interaction, etc. In all that karma does, it suggests, rather than demands or forces. This leaves us the faculty of freewill—a faculty that lends us the illusion that we are in control of our destiny, not karma. In other words, karma will proactively suggest to us the experiences and practices that we would benefit most from (in terms of spiritual growth), but we are the ones that have the final say as to whether or not to follow those suggestions. Often times karma will arrange our circumstances in such a way that it brings a certain experience so near that all we have to do is to reach out and grab it. But just as often we use our freewill to resist karma’s lead. Why? Because we tend to get very sidetracked and distracted by unspiritual impulses and enterprises. In other words, we resist our karma’s prodding because we are caught up in some worldly endeavor that casts spiritual life in a negative light. And the ultimate expression of resistance is to simply deny that we have such a faculty as karma. This denial acts like a blanket policy that nixes each and every karmic suggestion that enters our consciousness before it can even be presented. And of course, when this is our position in any given lifetime that lifetime produces very little progress toward the goal of consciousness evolution.

Not all of karma’s suggestions lead to instant glory and imminent fulfillment. Sometimes karma puts before us experiences that are painful and cause us to suffer. Why is this? Because karma is a master at what it does. It knows the human psyche inside and out. It knows every facet of consciousness evolution. It knows every step of the journey that we must take in order to become the Christ. It knows how to get our attention and derail our resistance. And so, sometimes we find ourselves in difficult circumstances that we would swear came from the devil instead of God’s created hand. But, in truth, these trials come to us on account of our own tendencies toward resistance. For, this is karma at work, breaking down our resistance. In other words, suffering is the fire that karma must use in order to get us heading in the right direction again.

Prayer is often used to try to escape suffering. Prayer hates suffering. And so,

most of our prayers are expressive of our humanistic wish to alleviate suffering—in our own lives, in the lives of our loved ones, even in the lives of those we do not personally know. And as we pray our prayers of humanistic uplifting we believe with all our hearts that we are helping others. Unfortunately, when we do this we are often praying against karma.

What happens when we pray against karma? The answer is: nothing. Our prayers cannot be answered because karma is an ironclad law of the creation. And God does not step in and overrule karma because God put karma in place in the beginning. God knows that karma works to our ultimate benefit and deliverance, even if it is a cause of suffering to us (or others) in our (or their) present state of evolutionary unfoldment. And so, many of our prayers end up butting heads with our karma. And this is a contest that we cannot win. Why? Because karma is law, and our prayers are really just wishes. Rather than us reversing karma’s directive through our prayers, our prayers go unanswered. And this is to our ultimate benefit.

Of course, prayer has benefits too, and that is why it is so universally practiced. But its benefits are expressed more through the comfort of communion than through attaining a particular result. We cannot alleviate the suffering that karma prescribes but we ennoble ourselves when we feel compassion for those who are suffering and are moved to lift up our hearts in the wish to help them. In other words, prayer is not what we think it is. And almost all of us misunderstand the role and nature of karma. But as Jesus always said: it is the knowledge of the truth that brings the greatest benefits of all. For, when we know the truth about karma we will no longer work to undermine its agenda. But this does not necessarily mean that we must cease to pray. Rather it means that we can begin to pray aright.

Jesus clearly endorsed prayer as a beneficial pursuit. But when asked by his disciples how to pray, he answered them with a list of suggested prayers, none of which involved countering karma’s work. (Luke 11:1-13). He did not say a word about interfering with karmic processes or trying to escape suffering. His exemplary prayer was first and foremost an act of worship, in which he prayed for God’s name to be glorified and His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. Then he suggested that we pray for our livelihood and provision, the forgiveness of our sins, and divine protection from temptation, distraction, and all the counter-spiritual energies that assail us on this plane. All of these God is pleased to grant us, and therefore our prayers along these lines will, in fact, be consistently answered in the affirmative. But to pray against karma is not only futile; it can, as we have now seen, cause confusion in our minds and a wedge of mistrust between us and God.