SadhanaOriental meditation and christian prayer
Other ways of praying
【16】 Intensive Journal (Praying by writing)
There are various intermediary methods (helpful methods) for prayer. One of them is writing using pen and paper.
Here is a method called Intensive Journal, a program developed by Ira Progoff(1). It takes full four days to complete the course.
First, you enter complete silence.
And you observe the true life you have lived.
You observe your life from following angles (themes):
○Steppingstones in life
○Life history
○Intersections in life
○Dialogue with persons
○Dialogue with body
○Dialogue with works
○Dialogue with society
○Dream
○Inner wisdom
○Liberation and alienation
○Personal mantra
○Peaks, depths, and explorations
○Myself open up to future
Following a facilitator’s guidance, program participants focus on writing. For each of the above angles (themes), 40 to 80 minutes are assigned as needed.
And for each angle (theme), more detailed process has been provided.
For “dialogue with persons,” for example, you will (after five-minute preparation to calm down):
(1)
Create a list of persons who appeared in the records from exercises so far. (10 min.)
(2)Choose one person calmly and intuitively, and write down the name of the person. (5 min.)
(3)Write sentences about how the person relates to you. Follow guidance and write down past and future relationships. (10 min.)
(4)Read what you have written, and examine how you feel. (5 min.)
(5)Write down turning points in life of the person. (5 min.)
(6)Close your eyes, focus on your sensations, think of the person, and call his/her name. If you have twilight imagery, write it down. (5 min.)
(7)Imagine as if the person is in front of you, and talk with the person about his/her life. Record the dialogue as the heart takes you. (20 min.)
(8)While you are writing, examine how you feel and what you experienced after the dialogue. (5 min.)
(9)Examine what emotion comes to you and how you are directed after reading what you have written. (5 min.)
In this process, you eliminate your will as much as possible, trying to write down based on how you feel. You observe your life in silence through meditation and contemplation from the above angles and write it down wht you find out. Without adding your judgment and decisions, just observe and accept. Then, the conscious mind and unconscious mind are connected and the fact emerges more clearly.
By observing your own life, look at yourself, and dialogue with yourself, you can find treasure you have received from God in your life. It also helps you realize where your life is heading for, which gives you power from God, and helps you realize who you are.
(1) Ira Progoff (1921 – 1998) was a Jungian psychologist in the U.S. Studying depth psychology, his major interest was to apply Jungian ideas to the lives of ordinary people.