by ~ Michael Sutton

I have done some research on the subject of Prayer, its components (Thought, Feeling, and Emotion) and the difference between Emotions and Feelings.

 I cannot possibly convey all that I find in this one article as it would be much too long.  However, I can refer you to Gregg Braden's book 'The Isaiah Effect', and ‘The Life and Teaching of the Masters of the Far East’ by Baird T. Spalding.

 Of the three components of prayer (a.k.a. manifesting that which you desire in the physical realm), emotion and feeling are the two most confusing. It would be easy to think that emotion and feeling are one and the same. Finding a difference may seem like splitting hairs or a matter of semantics. To complicate matters further, in the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, the word feeling is defined as "an emotional state or disposition." Whereas emotion is defined as "a strong feeling." While these definitions may serve the purposes of today's world, the ancients recognized a distinction between them.

To change the conditions of our outer world, we are invited to actually become the conditions of our desire from within. For instance, to bring peace to those whom we love in this world, we must first become that very peace. The authors of the Dead Sea Scrolls even offer insights into the technology that allows this healing quality of peace: it must occur in our thoughts, feelings, and bodies (emotions). The Essene elders made clear distinctions among emotion, thought, and feeling.

Here is an explanation of each of the three components of the technology of prayer.

Emotion - may be considered the source of power that drives us forward toward our goals in life.  It is through the energy of our emotions that we fuel our thoughts to make them real. It is in the presence of thought that our emotion is given direction, breathing life into the image of our thoughts. Ancient traditions suggest we are capable of two primary emotions. Love is one. Love's opposite is the second, often described as fear. The quality of emotion determines how it is expressed. Sometimes flowing, at other times lodged within the tissues of our body, emotion is closely aligned with desire, the force that drives our imagination to resolution.

Thought - may be considered the guidance system that directs our emotion. It is the image or idea created by our thought that determines where our emotion and attention are directed. Thought is closely associated with imagination. In itself, thought has little energy; it is only a possibility with little energy. In the absence of emotion, there is no power to make our thoughts real. It is our gift of thought in the absence of emotion that allows us to model and simulate the possibilities of life harmlessly, to create possible future options in imagination only without creating fear or chaos in our lives. It is only in our love or fear for the objects of our thoughts that we breathe life into the creations of our imagination.

Feeling - may exist only in the presence of thought and emotion for it represents the union of the two. When we feel, we are experiencing the desire of our emotion merged with the imagination of our thoughts. Feeling is the key to prayer. To have a feeling, by definition, we must first have both an underlying thought and an emotion.

In Gregg Braden's travels to Tibet, he was able to hold a private audience with the abbot of a monastery seldom visited.  Instead of asking the typical questions most people asked that particular abbot throughout the years, Gregg asked him what was happening within the monks and nuns as he witnessed the outward expression of their prayers. The abbot responded with a single word: feeling. Carrying his answer one step further, the abbot then said that feeling was more than just a factor in prayer. He emphasized that feeling is the prayer!

From these three brief and possibly oversimplified definitions, it becomes apparent why it is impossible to "think away" frightening and painful experiences. For instance, pain is a feeling, the product of our thought fueled by our love or fear for what our mind believes has occurred. With this formula in mind, the Essene masters invite us to heal the memories of our most painful experiences by changing the emotion of the experience itself.

The Gospel Q is an ancient basis for the modern axiom "energy follows attention" which comes to light when reading a parable from said Gospel that states: "Whoever tries to protect his life will lose it." These deceptively brief words explain why we sometimes attract into our lives those experiences that we least choose to have.  In this example, as we prepare and defend ourselves against each possibility and every situation where we could lose our lives, the model suggests that we are actually drawing attention to the very experience that we are choosing to avoid. In the not wanting, we create the conditions that allow it to be.

When we don't want something - an emotion based in fear - our fear actually fuels what we claim not to want. The laws of the universe, which the technology of prayer adheres to, invites us to empower our choices by focusing upon the positive experiences that we choose, rather than by preparing for the negative things that we don't want. Creation simply allows us the consequence of our feeling.

Now, in an attempt to bring this article to a conclusion, the question can be asked 'How do I pray'? Well, you may read in Conversations With God that we should never pray a prayer of supplication but rather a prayer of gratitude. What does this mean? This implies that that which you seek to manifest already exists. Thus, your prayer is one of gratitude.  Through our new understandings of time and choice points, quantum physics allows for the possibility of apparent miracles as outcomes that already exist. That is, the key is to shift our perspective of life by feeling that the 'miracle' has already happened (even before you pray) and our prayers have thus been answered. The secret is that when we ask for something, we acknowledge what we do not have. Continuing to ask only gives power to what has never come to pass.

We must first have the feelings of what we wish to experience. This is how we plant the seeds of a new way. From that point forward, our prayer becomes a prayer of thanks. Our prayer becomes a prayer of thanks for the opportunity to choose which creation we experience. Through our thanks, we honor all possibilities and bring the ones we choose into this world.

Neville described bringing our dreams alive through the use of feeling by inviting us to "make our future dream a present fact by assuming the feeling of our desire fulfilled." Once we have created the image of our desire in our mind and felt the feeling of our desire fulfilled within our heart, then it has already happened! Though the intent of our prayer may not have appeared in full view of our immediate senses, we assume that it is so. The key is to acknowledge that when we feel, the effect of our feelings has occurred somewhere, upon some level of our existence.

At this moment in time, you are all aware that we are on the precipice of possible war. Terrorist activities proliferating. Personalities clashing. Egos bruised. We hear White House rhetoric stating that war is right around the corner with the next misstep. Ground rules are such that any hiccup can be used as cause for invasion. An all-around lack of a peaceful situation, right? So, how can it be avoided? What do we as individuals do?  

We Pray Peace. Do not Pray for Peace, but rather Pray Peace. If you Pray for Peace, you are acknowledging that it is non existent. However, by Praying Peace, then you acknowledge that it already exists and you thank (prayer of gratitude) the Universal God for providing peace. In your praying, you must employ the three components of the technology of prayer described above. That is, feel the peace. Let your emotion of Love power your thoughts to take you to the point wherein you are imagining the peace around you and every individual in every land throughout the Earth. You must employ all three components. Again, feel the peace and imagine it within and without you.

Practice the above methodology with all of your desires and you will employ a Universal Law that works!