In his book THE LOST MODE OF PRAYER, Gregg Braden tells of an experience
in which he accompanied a Native American shaman on a trip
to summon rain. They lumbered up seldom-traveled roads to a
sacred spot far from civilization. Gregg, thinking that his
friend would don some traditional regalia and perform a theatrical
rite was much surprised when his friend stood quietly for several
minutes and then said, something like “let’s go
get a burger.”
Braden, taken aback, asked his friend “aren’t you going
to pray for rain?” The shaman replied “I just did,
but I didn’t pray for rain, I prayed rain”. But, said
Braden, you didn’t do anything. His friend’s explanation
goes like this:
I was praying. I recognized the drought in my mind’s eye,
I felt the dust in my throat and nose when I breathed in the parched
air. Then I began to smell the rain in the distance, the thunder
began to roll and I could see the lightening over the mountains.
I could feel the damp heaviness begin to permeate the air. I felt
the first big drops of rain fall on my head, cool and wet. The
rain began to come down harder rolling across my face and wetting
my lips with the taste of rain mixed with dust and sweat. The dust
of the earthen path through my village began to kick up with the
force of the rain and turn to mud. I felt the mud squish through
my toes and I began to run through the streets into the corn-field.
The green stalks and leaves were soaked and I felt them cut my
chest as I ran. I stopped and gave thanks and felt the gratitude
for the gift of the rain. See, I was praying rain, not praying
for rain.
Gregg tells of the trip back down the mountain. It began to rain
so hard that they had to pull over. As the rain poured in buckets,
he asked his friend “how do you stop it, or at least slow
it down?” His friend just laughed and said "I don’t
know. They didn’t teach us that. "
There are two lessons in this story. The first is that prayer is
not conditional on ritual and show, but rather, it is powered by
the mind and the heart. The second is to be careful what you ask
for. The universe is quite literal.
So let’s all take a few minutes and pray rain.
 Sherry
Henderson, Editor
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