QA201 QUESTION: When I pray or want to ask for help, I sometimes have this misconception that something has to happen in order to prove to me that indeed I am heard or indeed this is happening.

ANSWER: This is a very, very important part of the whole process of meditation and activating the cosmic self. That space, that interim period, is between cause and effect: cause – the activation itself, the meditation, the saying the word, as I call it – and the effect it takes.

I have used this comparison many times, and I still think it is a very good analogy. The same process occurs when you plant a seed in the ground. You put the plant into the soil. If you, as a gardener, lack the faith that this plant will eventually bear fruit and you constantly open up the Earth and investigate – which is an analogy to your doubt and to your need to have an instant reply – you could not ever experience the reality of the creative process of planting the seed, of cultivating the seed, and of waiting for that period to take fruition.

That interval is usually called faith. Now, that interval is a necessity. Without that interval you cannot create. You cannot plant seeds in the material Earth, nor can you plant seeds in the spiritual soil – which you do by planting the seed of saying the word, of calling for the guidance, of stating in concise ways, and visualizing where you want to go inwardly, in what particular way you want to have the inner help and guidance. That is the planting.

The cultivating and the waiting must then come. And this can be done by facing your doubts, by realizing that these doubts are the impatience of the child who does not want to wait for the flower to come out of the Earth – for the bud and then the flower to open. You can think of this analogy and you will perhaps understand better the process of meditation and creation that your life is.

You constantly have to create your life. Now, you do this most of the time unconsciously by certain thoughts you have continuously going on. You may do this usually in very negative ways – when you have your negative thoughts going on and on and on in your mind. They are the planting of a seed, too – of weeds. Then when these weeds – and poison ivy – sprout out of the ground, you ask, “Why does this happen to me?”

You completely forget that certain thoughts you have cultivated have created this condition – again because cause and effect are not closely linked. Now, if you can embark on this process of seeing how your thoughts create, it is really a very exciting undertaking. For every event in your life – good, bad or indifferent – is the result of thoughts you have harbored and which you have planted into the fertile, creative soil of your life substance, that is infinitely at your disposal by every thought.

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