Untargeted Prayers

What I think of as the inherently western way of prayer that is practiced especially by monoteistic religions has always seemed somewhat backwards to me. Most "western" religions, especially the three big ones (Christianity, Muslim and Judaism) have for a very long time had a system of targeted, specific prayers: even more specifically, asking prayers. Most prayers have been targeted at something that the person praying wants to gain or wishes to give thanks for.

The three religions that I mentioned are not the only ones that do or have done this: old mediterranean religions had an even more specific system of doing these kind of prayers: each specific aspect of day-to-day life and affairs had a specific deity that the prayers (and offerings) were targeted at. Simply by calling upon a given deity you had targeted a specific aspect of life. Every prayer was a plea of sorts: if one asked for something, one was asking for enbetterment of the situation at hand, and if one was giving thanks for something "given", it was at the same time an unvocalized plea of stasis or further gain.

What I have now taken to calling the western faith system works rather backwards to me: you ask for right about everything, and when something good happens, you give thanks. If something bad happens, you do penance to make sure you won't be prosecuted by a celestial punitive force further. The three big religions of today all underline free will and personal choice, and yet everything that happens is immediately related to the system of faith and belief. Nothing happens without a celestial hand taking part in the proceedings.

As something of an agnostic myself, I find the system of targeted pleas to an unseen entity in hope of forgiveness or gain odd. It struck me as odd even when I was a kid, when the evening prayers were specific pleas of something, even if it was only "pray my soul to keep". This brings me to the namesake of today's rambling: untargeted prayers.

In some eastern belief systems, especially in Buddhism, there is no celestial entity from whom to ask much anything. Instead, the prayer system is untargeted: the prayers are targeted more at the inner self and maybe the universe: a meditative way of giving form and focus to the self that might have been previously missing. Here one could argue that there is such a prayer in Christianity as well: the ever-classic plea for world please, or for grace and goodness for others. This isn't the same, however, because the prayer is still targeted. While the plea is universal, it is asked from a single, specific entity.

The point I think I'm trying to make is that a system where all the thoughts and collective prayers focus on asking something from an entity gives the need for action away from the individual. When you pray for something better from a god, you can stop trying to enbetter the situtation yourself. If you hope and believe that someone else might do something instead of you if you just ask hard enough, you don't need to try to do anything personally. This is the only real problem I have with religious piety: if you simply believe that god will do something instead of you, you don't need to do it yourself.