It is serving as medicine to ailing body
Prayer is only alternative left to everybody
No restriction on visiting any holy place
So long it serves purpose and offers solace

It has unique way of offering calm
Peace prevails without any particular harm
It has tremendous impact on rage and fury
Relieves of any tension and no addition of worry

What generally do we offer in our prayers?
Do we go there as sellers or buyers?
Is that only our purpose for getting relief?
Does that not strengthen or faith and belief/

We know that we have many compulsions
So many thought bombs explode with fusions
It has its own chain action and reaction
Then where do they go for simple perfection?

It is wise to surrender to almighty for direction
Honest words and prayers offered for recitation
Service to poor and down trodden with good faith
Will escape you unhurt form anybody’s wrath?

Nothing wrong in it if that provides mental peace?
Helps in building character to live in harmony at ease
What else one can expect or gain form sincere prayers/
Gives enough satisfaction when we look back to yesteryears

It is open way for freedom and salvation
Easiest path for betterment and self elevation
Positive approach and expulsion of negative thoughts
Easy circulation of pure blood without any clots

You are at east with complete surrender
You may not feel guilty or offender
Things may come naturally to you
As the prayers are deemed to be true

There is tremendous force behind anything you offer
You may have disbelief and many thing s to differ
You may not see eye to eye for guilty conscious
Still there may be on going struggle in mind continuous

When you bow your head, half of your guilt melts away
Heart and mind continues to search and finds the way
There is miraculous process to help to over come crisis
There is no explanation to this or any special thesis

For age old we have tried to live under tension
Prayers have always found favor and mention
What more is expected or desired from person?
Holistic approach without any mention with reason

You may have to go long away with struggle
Life is like boiling pot with all the bubbles
You may have many ups and down
Try to do away with guilt and own

What I have been describing is our personal perspective, that which has been produced by the influences from our society and family, our growing and becoming, the insights and realizations, the fears and frights, and the group activities that capture our beliefs. The first 31 years of my life were a valid description of my history based on what I just described. At that time I had a startling awareness, a glimpse into experience that my prior conditioning could not support or explain. A tiny hole appeared in what I had held to be absolute. Being a curious type, I asked questions. The answers slowly but surely illustrated that I was rigid but not necessarily right in some of my preconceptions. To many of the questions that were raised during that period of my life I held to my previous answers as valid. However, many other questions poked more holes in my rigidity as I discovered I was not always right, even when I fervently believed I was right. I learned not to be afraid to question. The world as I knew it would not totally fall apart just because I asked a question. I could remain healthy and still in charge of my personal world. If I could have that kind of releasing experience, anyone could, if they truly wanted to. They just have to be willing to trust themselves.

As an astrologer and a metaphysician I have learned the value of being open to all the experience provided by the universe, employing discernment for what belongs to and with me, recognizing that I am a growing, changing, work in progress and that it is okay. Does that mean I am always open? No, but I have learned to be more open. I have learned that I am not always as smart as I think I am and that the universe has more answers than I have questions. To question one’s existence and personal place within that existence is natural. It should not be frightening, should not be termed a crime and can actually be fun. One by one I have examined many of my own points of rigidity and have learned to relax more and trust myself in my choices. Needless to say I have changed over the years and that has not pleased those around me in all instances. That is okay as well, it is my mind, my beliefs and my life.

What about fate and free will? The conditioning of our society (USA) is that we have free will. That is not necessarily true of other societies. As I studied metaphysics I learned that we have far more ability to direct our individual lives than we realize. That has added to my recognition of free will. I do feel that our free will is dependent on our awareness at any moment and that it is not ultimate for every person. If you are not aware of possibility, it is difficult to move awareness to probability.

As I have studied astrology and learned about the cycles and the timing of events in people’s lives, I have discovered there is a pattern at work, which as pattern could be considered fated. As I have experienced a long life, I have seen the concept of fate and/or destiny at work in my life and the lives of many others. Just how do you reconcile these two points of view? I believe there is room for both.

We don’t arrive on earth with an instruction manual or at least one that is identified as such (your astrology chart does help). We seem to come in with a reasonably clean slate and our experiences write on that slate as we become. What if we arrived on Earth purposefully? What if we have life to grow and become… for a purpose? If there is purpose to our existence does that not lend itself to a more fated concept? Yet, what we do with ourselves and our life is continually based in free will choices, Can you see both viewpoints operating simultaneously? Is it not possible that my life has purpose but that I get to make choices in whether or not I serve that purpose? Choice implies just that. I may have come with intent but I may choose not to serve that intent and that is my choice. The two terms are not mutually exclusive.

This is where I have come to in my thinking. Yes, there is a lot more to my thinking on this subject, but this does illustrate this one point. Reason this pair of words through your own mind to see where you personally see life. Is it fated? Is there free will? Or…is there room for both?

Our next conundrum is evolution or creationism. I am not going to get into a protracted religious discussion because to me it is not just about religion. Let us start with the big bang theory, the current favorite in the scientific community. Everything we see and that which is still invisible to us – everything – came into existence from a singularity – all at one time. It came from an indescribable nothingness and spread in every direction, but not uniformly. There are thick areas and empty areas of the cosmos. The thick areas are filled with galaxies, nebula, solar systems, and all sorts of cosmic material… and us. We are not sure if there is anything in the empty areas, they only look empty to us.

Religion believes that a deity spoke or acted in some way and everything came from nothingness, the act of creation itself. Are you seeing any similarity between the two theories because theories are what each are? If I say the cosmos exploded into being or the Creator created, the big bang concept fits both theories. I don’t see an argument here.

Belief in a creator or deity is a personal perspective. Belief in no such possibility is a personal perspective as well. Science is an intellectual frame of mind. Religion is an emotional frame of mind. Both intellect and emotion are valuable facets to human beings, probably equal in value. If you live and experience both intellectually and emotionally you will have a reasonably balanced set of experiences. If you exclude one and live totally in the other you are experiencing only half of the possibilities to life and it does not matter which is experienced and which is excluded. Both are valuable, exclusion simply halves your possibilities and this is a common practice. To practice such exclusion is a personal choice and preference, but that is all it is.

Science looks around at life and the relics of the history of our world in particular and the cosmos in general. Based on those relics and related research, science reaches conclusions as to the age of the universe, our planet and humanity. Science includes the concept of evolution based on natural selection, Based on this understanding and the archeological evidence, this is an intellectual approach.

People of a book, those that believe in a specific holy book, story or legend, or holy figure follow that book, story, legend, or holy figure as a way of life. Their conclusions come from a community of belief that naturally filters through their emotions, which are quite powerful. Who is to say which is right and which is wrong? Both have value, both are strongly felt and held, it is truly a matter of personal preference. Unfortunately these two seem to be mutually exclusive.

I have been around a long time. In my long and busy life experience I have never found a spot where the creative principle that formed this cosmos (whatever it is) left a message carved in stone and signed to dissolve any doubt. I have room in my consciousness for both evolution and deity. I am not limited. I like feeling my emotions and I enjoy the exercise of my intellect. I prefer to experience all of life that is possible to me, emotional and intellectual, scientific and inspiring, evolutionary and creative. I prefer to live a life that is not just rigid or with selected parts based on conclusions that are really not my own. This is my personal perspective and you have a personal perspective of your own. Enjoy your journey.