I’d like to introduce you to a series of 8 posts, walking us through an English translation of the Aramaic Lord’s Prayer. Here’s why I’m writing this series, and why I think this series is worth your time:

We so easily get lost in the drama of this world and of our ego. Jesus here is teaching us how to live instead from our inherent place within the Goodness of Reality.

After doing the inner work Jesus teaches here, we can gradually grow into being able to go out and be the Presence in the midst of the drama, and thereby transform it.

This is a life long process which takes place over many lifetimes for most of us. Perhaps you are currently in a lifetime where you desire to both see this transformation within you, and do the inner work Jesus teaches here. If so, please keep in mind the Divine is infinitely patient with you. To allow yourself to take in even a slight portion of that Divine patience, will serve you well.

We’ll take it petition by petition, as the Church has called them.

But the prayer that Jesus taught is far richer and more expansive than the one you may have learned from the Christian Church. As Dr. Neil Douglas Klotz (Aramaic scholar and source of much of the translation reviewed here) says, “There’s nothing wrong with the English Lord’s Prayer. It’s just limited.”

As I wrote previously (Posts 2 and 13), what Jesus offers us here is really a summary of the essence of his teachings. It is my hope that you will see that Jesus is offering a guide for us on our journey. A journey of energetically remembering what already is.  A re-membering (in our consciousness) of ultimate reality. Ultimate truth.

He’s guiding us home to a spiritual energy. To a vibration already humming within our soul. It is here the soul is already home and greets our consciousness and says to it,  “Welcome Home!” It’s the only home the soul knows. This is its only true reality.

But as we live the day to day of this life, we all know we leave this reality in our consciousness. We leave it for an alternate reality often of our own making. Please, let’s not beat ourselves up here. We’re here to do just that, as crazy as that may sound. We leave and get lost in another land. But it is the leaving that makes the coming home sweeter. And when the coming home is sweet, more and more of what we think, say, do, can come from our home within.

What Jesus is teaching here is much more than just a prayer to rattle off. It is a masterful summary of the inner work that brings us home.

As with anything (spiritual practices included), the ego can quickly get involved. And label it as something to achieve. It would be so easy to get caught up in thinking that what Jesus is teaching here is all about achieving a goal. Yet another attempt to get somewhere spiritually. Somewhere we are not currently.

Nothing could be further from the truth! There is nowhere to go because we are already there! 

As Meister Eckhart (German mystic, 1260-1328) so succinctly put it, The spiritual journey is “not about addition, but subtraction”. We need less, not more, because we already have everything we need within the soul.

So what Jesus is talking about here is an uncovering. A letting go of what we have created that covers up Truth within. A letting go of what distracts us from our primary purpose(s), so that the Divine Truth already within the soul, can breathe, rise up, and live beautifully.

Now we could say here, “isn’t letting go a kind of trying to get somewhere? A trying to accomplish something?” Hmmm.  Letting go. Everyone talks about it. It sounds wonderful doesn’t it? Many of us would like to scream, “I would love to let go of my s#*t! But how? As we all know, it’s often not easy. But it also doesn’t have to be as hard as we make it out to be.

It is here that I so appreciate the writing of Peter Russell in his wonderful book, “Letting Go Of Nothing”. He writes, “the difficulty stems from treating letting go as another thing to do. To let go, we cease the doing of holding on. Imagine you are holding a small rock in the air. Holding on takes effort. To let go, we relax our muscles and release our grip. It works similarly with the mind. In our holding on to some attitude, belief, expectation, or judgement, we need to allow our minds to relax (around it).”

Letting go is NOT doing! Ha! I think I can do that. No. Wait. What?

I mentioned the words “inner work”. A lot of us turn away when we hear that word “work”. We may sigh and think, “More work? What are you, nuts? I’ve got enough of that already. Just look at my list!”

Again, Jesus is teaching us to return to and remember what already is. He’s teaching us about a letting go and a falling into. Let the gravity of grace do its thing.

It is so important that we enter into the wisdom offered in the Aramaic Lord’s Prayer, standing on this foundation of pure grace. 

So, in the spirit of this pure grace, relax. Relax as we begin this journey of letting Jesus guide us on the journey home. Along the way, our soul will remind us that it already knows the truth of everything Jesus is showing us. It knows home when it’s touched by it.

In Part 8 I will include a summary translation of the Aramaic Lord’s Prayer for your use in your personal practice and mediation. Let’s now meet in the next Post. Part One.

Pastor Tim Tengblad

I welcome your story, comments, or questions. timtengblad@comcast.net