A Topic on Religion

Dr. John Thatamanil, a professor of theology.
On the topic of how Christians in particular have taken up questions about the meaning of religious diversity, Thatamanil has stated, “Perhaps the oldest way that Christians have struggled with questions about religious diversity is to ask, ‘Can persons find salvation outside of the church or can we be saved by other means outside of faith in Jesus Christ, or is salvation found in the Christian religions alone?’”

Thatamanil points out that contemporary conversation regarding faith often has the word “religion” in it.

“I think we can say with some confidence that neither Jesus nor any New Testament author, nor perhaps even any person in the first 1600 years of Christian tradition had any conception of religion that resembles our own,” he said.

“I think this imposing of the category of religion is distorting our conversation with other traditions,” Thatamanil continued. “It’s distorting our capacity to even recognize the internal diversity within our own tradition.

“The idea that you can only be one religion at a time, that each religion has only one religious aim – these ideas, I think, is open to interrogation.”
Thatamanil said, “I want to diagnose the problem that we won’t get very far in the conversation if we assume that the category of religion is valid for all of these religious traditions.”
Thatamanil asks, “Where are the boundaries between religions? Are religions the sort of things that have boundaries?  These are the kinds of questions we have to start asking ourselves, especially in an age when the old distinction between religion and politics, religion and economics are becoming highly fluid.”
“When we think of these more fluid categories I think we will find better options,” he added.
Over the last decades, an immense and still growing body of literature has demonstrated that our ideas about "religion" are relatively recent and Western in origin. Many of the traditions we think of now as religions only became religions rather recently. So, just what is "religion" and what are "the religions?" Most importantly, what does it mean to speak of some aspects of our lives as "religious" and others as "secular" and not religious? Do all cultures recognize this distinction between the religious and the secular? And how do our definitions and theories about religion/the religious shape (and perhaps distort) our efforts at interreligious dialogue? Is religion something that requires exclusive allegiance like marriage in a monogamous society? Can one learn from and be transformed by the resources of more than one religion? Is that kosher? In this lecture, we can argue that our ideas about religion, like our ideas about race, must be rethought from the ground up if we are to move into a richly pluralistic future.

Healing Prayer Techniques

Praying for others

Who are channels of healing? They are those people who let God’s life force flow through them and then pass it on to others. We are channels through which God expresses.

What are the steps in healing?

The healer needs to be in a calm state. Then he needs to increase his awareness of the subtle energy or life force in his/her own body. This can be done, by rubbing the hands together until a tingling sensation is felt in the finger tips.

By further concentration on the higher brain centre, the healer will feel this energy flowing up into the arms and eventually throughout his whole body. Then he realizes that he has become conduit for the healing energy to flow to those unto whom it is directed.

Some people may suggest that the initial rubbing of the hands by the healer simply creates static electricity. This may be so, but nevertheless this is after all simply, another word for energy.

We need to realize that the whole of creation is made of Spirit and matter, or energy.

What is the cause of pain or ailments?

Disease is generally considered a result of external material causes. Few people realize that it comes through the inaction of the Life Force within. In general terms ailments are often the result of energy blockages in the body.   All methods of healing are really indirect ways of rousing the life energy, which is the true and direct healer of all diseases.

Absolute, unquestioning faith in God is the greatest method of instantaneous healing.

For people in need of healing, one should be clear, that Healing energy or life force is always available, however not everyone is aware of it.

Ideally the healing practice ought to be preceded by meditation.

How to direct this energy to others:

This energy which flows into the medulla oblongata at the back of the head is to be directed through one’s will in absent healing, or through the  hands when people in need for healing are present, or by focusing on a situation or person in need for change or healing. Anyone can practice this technique. The key is faith, and persistence in the practice.

Does healing deplete the energy of the person conducting healing?

The answer is no. In fact the intense flow of cosmic healing energy flowing through the healer strengthens the healer as long as he realizes that he is simply a conduit for the energy and not the doer.

How do we know that this technique works?

We know directly when a person becomes well and indirectly when a person recognizes in him/herself a need for transformation through a change in attitude.

Healing needs to be done with belief and conviction in the healing power. In other words the person praying must believe. Why does this need to be said? Because everyone is at times possessed with some doubt. He questions whether the act of healing really works.

To help one to overcome doubt, it helps to affirm:

 Heavenly Father, thou art omnipresent, thou art in all thy children, thou art in ……If there is a group of people that need prayer read out their names, if the people are known, it helps to visualize them during the prayer interval.

Manifest Thy healing presence in his/ her/ their/ body, mind and soul.

This will allow pushing away any subtle sense of doubt that could weaken the healing process.

(Note: do not ever focus on the illness of a person, unless you are a long time healer and are intuitively given the message by Spirit to do so).

Faith of the healer

When we look at a saint, we recognize that he/she is one of perfect faith. He is a channel of God’s grace. He will know the person will be whole or healed, because he knows that he is established in union with the God. The best example we find in the scriptures by reading about the healings of Jesus.

Summary:

Whatever mode of treatment one adopts, the mind in large measure may still determine the outcome, positive or negative. Doubt, depression, pessimistic thoughts, lack of will, weaken the flow of healing life energies; the conscious direction of the mind's powers by positive thoughts, prayers, affirmations, visualization, will, cheerfulness, stimulates the natural healing processes of the body with the vital life force necessary to aid in restoring health.

By concentration and will power we can consciously increase the body’s supply of cosmic energy. That energy can be directed to any body part; or it can be released again into space through the sensitive the fingertips, to flow as a healing force to those in need, even if they are thousands of miles away.

With eyes closed, pray as follows:

“Heavenly Father, Thou art omnipresent; Thou art in all Thy children; manifest Thy healing presence in their bodies, minds and soul.” Keeping the eyes closed, briskly rub your hands together (palms facing) for ten to twenty seconds. (This motion and the one described in the next paragraph are especially effective as a means of gathering and feeling energy in the hands.) At the same time, concentrate deeply on the cosmic energy flowing into your body through the medulla oblongata (the medulla oblongata is the principal point of entry of life force into the body whose function is to receive and direct the incoming flow of cosmic energy) and going into the arms and hands. You will feel warmth and tingling in the arms and hands as that healing energy gathers there. Do not tense; keep the body relaxed at all times.

If you are using yogic practices, raise your hands outstretched in front of you to about the height of the forehead, and chant Aum. Simultaneously with the chanting of Aum, gradually lower your hands in front of you until they rest at your sides. As you do so, mentally feel that the healing vibrations are flowing out of your hands to those in need of healing.

With upraised hands send healing vibrations of peace and harmony to the entire world.