One Word Prayers: Part 3: Borderless

Prayers are meant to open us up to the world around us, and the world within. They are intentional mental, emotional and even physical actions, exercises, designed to help us tune into, and tune to, the deeper reality, (Deeper Reality)  just as all the members and instruments of an orchestra tune to the A 440 note prior to a rehearsal or performance.

It’s useful and good, at least occasionally to get on the same page, or the same note, with the deeper reality (Deeper Reality). The names for the deeper reality are endless but include Love, Truth, God, What Is Going On  (WIGO) , Presence, the Buddha Mind, Christ Consciousness, Flow, Harmony, the Big Kahuna.

“With names,” Lao Tzu suggested, “one should know where to stop.”

We pray to get a better view  – – or even a brief glimpse of – – the bigger picture,  (Bigger Picture) which, come to find out, is our home (Home).

As I’ve noted in previous posts/essays about one word prayers, I’m such a slacker, such a newbie at this prayer biz, that  a while back I realized I needed to simplify, simplify, simplify, as Henry David  Thoreau might say (and in fact, did say.) It doesn’t get much simpler than “one word prayers.”

Many folks are much more advanced than I in the prayer business, prayer practice, and might argue with me about the  efficacy and even legitimacy of one word prayers. But I’m an old guy, and am no longer very bothered about being out of fashion. I’m much more interested, engaged, with what actually works to make my life, and the lives of those around me, more fun, more peaceable, more interesting, easy and real.

For me, at least in this season of my life, one word prayers help me relax, remember what’s real, what’s true; one word prayers help me tune in to my deeper interests, my deeper reality, my deeper urges. So I have been collecting “one word prayers,” like some guys collect baseball cards, or antique automobiles.

The latest addition to my collection is “borderless.” I’ve been using it a lot in the last couple of days. Let me explain.

Although we tend to forget it, or ignore it  98% – 99% of the time, the reality (deeper?) that we experience every day actually has no edges to it, no borders, no ending place.

Take space, for example. Starting with the living room, or whatever room you happen to be in. The borders you see are all artificial, or at least quite temporary. The walls of the house might seem like borders, and the space on the inside may be temporarily warmer and easier to occupy than the space on the outside, but the border itself is an artificial construct.  In a hundred years, or surely a thousand years, that border will no longer be there. But the Deeper Reality of the space will still be hanging out (so to speak.)

The earth rotates around the sun, and this orbit takes up a lot of space. But the sun is just a small little star on the edge of a vast Milky Way galaxy (to offer a more spacious and peaceable image of the deeper reality – – Deeper Reality.) And come to find out, our very, very spacious  galaxy which itself is unfathomably large, constitutes only one in an estimated 100 billion galaxies. And we don’t know what lies beyond our estimates.

So driving down the street on the way to the hardware store, I see a guy walking his dog. Borderless, I say to myself seeing the guy and his dog.

Here’s a guy who, inwardly (deeply) unconsciously knows there are no edges here, no borders to this experience of his, decides the best response to this borderless circumstance  that he can do right now, right here is to walk his dog, Bowser, on a six block loop, and take some plastic bags in his back pocket for when Bowser needs to do his business.  When, seeing him and his dog, I say to myself, borderless, I am able somehow to love him and his life and his dog just a little bit more. My one word prayer briefly puts him into the wider context, in the easy and natural fashion. Seeing him, with my one word prayer, I also see the Deeper Reality.

Or, driving further along, I see a guy and his lady, hand in hand, conversing, heads tilted toward each other. The prayer, Borderless, arises. This is this couple’s response to being borderless here amongst these countless galaxies – – to simply be with each other, share with each other, this moment’s tangible urgency, be it where to eat or cousin Sally’s seemingly unshakable meth addiction. Seeing these two as borderless, and seeing their secret conversation as borderless, be that conversation about cousin Sally or Tico’s Tacos,  but somehow helps ease my mind, let’s meet glimpse the larger picture, for them and for myself.

Thus the efficacy of a good one word prayer.

I’ve found that Borderless is a wonderful one word prayer to apply—on occasion–  to both strangers on the street, or my immediate family and friends  and to my own unexplainable presence here on this planet. Here we all are, together, Borderless, though we consistently pretend otherwise.

There is never a moment throughout the day – – any day – – when we have a border that holds. We are all, in every moment, every circumstance, borderless beings. We most often pretend the borders, the boundaries  between us are real. I find it useful to sometimes stop and remind myself of the Deeper Reality, not only the borderless space we inhabit, but also the borderless consciousness that we experience.

I’m learning to treat myself and others as if we were all  borderless. Somehow, seeing no borders makes things, and relationships, and worldviews softer.  Thankfully, I’ve discovered that that Deeper Reality easily support  such a view, and my small efforts.

I’ve discovered that this one word prayer – – Borderless – – helps remind me, and tunes me in to  the deeper reality (Deeper Reality) quite quickly. Isn’t that what prayer is supposed to be about?

I’ve found it to be a handy little prayer. I would be interested in hearing your comments.