PRAYER 1.
O Holy Parent
O holy parent,
assuming you exist,
and that if you do,
you are listening,
and that if you are
listening,
you are interested,
may we ask you, yet
again,
in full and stoic
recognition
of the infinite
unlikelihood
of ever receiving a
satisfactory answer,
the Eternal Question,
"Why are we
here?"
Ahuman.
Hymn 61
"God Said to Abraham"
God said to Abraham,
"Kill me a son."
Abe said, "Man,
you must be putting
me on."
God said, "No."
Abe said, "What?"
God said, "You
can do anything but,
next time you see me
coming,
you better run."
Abe said, "Where
you want this killing done?"
God said, "Out
on Highway
61."
Prayer 2.
20th Century Prayer
I am
a gift of
consciousness.
From whom I don't
know.
To whom I don't know.
But,
a gift nevertheless.
All the others are
like me,
gifts of
consciousness.
Like me,
they haven't a clue
about what's going
on.
But I admire them
as I admire me
for carrying on
in the face of the
impossibility
of ever finding out.
It is my purpose
to assume
responsibility
for my passage
through this reality,
to learn what I can,
to act where I can
on that learning,
and to deal with my
death
when it comes.
Should it ever
transpire
that I meet the
entity or entities
behind all this,
I shall demand
a very comprehensive
explanation...
Ahuman.
The Common
Understanding
is the fund of
knowledge
into which we are
born;
from which we spring
on our journeys
through
human consciousness.....
The beauty of the
Common Understanding
is that
it is assembled over
many centuries
by ultimately
selfless people...
In their journeys
through human consciousness
many people forget
the indefinable nature
of the task facing
them....
They forget that
they are here to learn
and to contribute...
In the course of
this forgetting
many of us become
petty and selfish...
But this only lasts
a short time
because people die
and in this
ultimately selfless act
they leave behind
what they have discovered
in their journey...
The sum total of all
these discoveries
that those of us
still journeying
can remember or
record
is the Common
Understanding....
The sum total
of these recorded or
remembered discoveries
becomes the best
answer
that we, through the
generations,
can provide
to the question
"Why are we
here....?"