The Godward Prayer: When the Body Experiences and the Soul Allows
An invitation to awaken the soul, recognize the gifts of existence, and direct every human experience toward the Father.
Prayer Is Not About Asking. It Is About Remembering.
Most people approach prayer with a request. They ask for protection, forgiveness, prosperity, healing, or peace. Even prayers of gratitude often revolve around the things we have received and the hope that we will continue receiving them.
The Godward Prayer begins somewhere different.
It begins with the recognition of who is praying, what is being experienced, and toward whom everything must be directed.
In The Godward Way, prayer is not an attempt to change God’s will, escape suffering, or achieve emotional comfort. It is an exercise of kavanah, the deliberate direction of consciousness toward the Father.
It is a moment when the soul remembers its place in existence.
The body experiences. The mind interprets. Emotions arise. Desires awaken. But the soul need not become enslaved by any of them.
Instead, the soul recognizes these experiences, allows them to exist, and offers them toward the Creator.
This is the essence of Catch and Offer, the central practice of The Godward Way.
The Godward Prayer expresses this philosophy in simple words, making it accessible even to a child.
The Godward Prayer
My Father, the source and creator of our world.
Thank You for the gifts of this life!
And for all the unique experiences that only I can have.
I am a soul, a grand eye, a higher being. I see my thoughts, my feelings, and my desires,
And offer them all to You.
May my body serve my soul,
And never rule over it.
Keep my soul awake and free from illusion.
Let me not be a slave to fear, pleasure, or desire.
Do not lead me into temptation, but remind me that I am entirely Yours,
And You alone are the Highest.
For my body experiences,
My soul allows,
And all glory belongs to You.
Amen.
The prayer on its own, to keep or share: A Godward Prayer.
1. My Father: Recognizing the Highest
The prayer begins:
My Father, the source and creator of our world.
These words establish the direction of the entire prayer.
The Godward Way understands the Father as the ultimate source of existence, beyond the categories and representations that the human mind creates.
The Father is not an image to visualize, a sensation to produce, or an emotion to experience.
The moment we imagine God as an object of consciousness, we risk confusing our own mental creation with the Creator.
This is why prayer begins by recognizing the Father rather than attempting to perceive Him.
God is not the object of our attention. He is the ultimate direction of our intention.
The distinction is subtle but fundamental.
A child does not need to understand metaphysics to practice this. It is enough to know that there is One greater than everything, including oneself, toward whom the soul may turn.
2. Gratitude for the Gift of Individual Existence
Thank You for the gifts of this life! And for all the unique experiences that only I can have.
Gratitude in The Godward Way goes beyond appreciating pleasant experiences.
Life is not merely a collection of blessings to enjoy and difficulties to overcome. It is an extraordinary opportunity for the soul to experience existence through a unique human life.
No other person can experience the world exactly as you do.
Your hunger, excitement, sorrow, love, disappointment, curiosity, and desires emerge within your particular existence.
Even conflict, uncertainty, and suffering introduce experiences that may awaken dormant dimensions of consciousness.
The purpose is not to seek pain or reject pleasure. It is to recognize that neither is spiritually meaningless.
A soul does not need a perfectly peaceful world to turn toward God.
It needs to remain awake within the world it encounters.
Every experience is an opportunity for an offering.
This is why the prayer expresses gratitude not only for what life gives us, but for the very ability to experience life.
3. The Grand Eye: Awakening the Observing Soul
I am a soul, a grand eye, a higher being. I see my thoughts, my feelings, and my desires, and offer them all to You.
This is the heart of the prayer.
The Godward Way distinguishes the observing soul from the thoughts, sensations, and emotions that arise within human experience.
When anger appears, we can recognize it.
When desire awakens, we can become aware of it.
When fear arises, we can notice its presence.
The important question becomes: If I can observe my anger, must I become my anger?
The Godward Way answers no.
The Grand Eye, also called the Bigger Eye, is a contemplative name for the soul’s observing awareness. It is not a literal eye, an image inside the head, or a scientifically established separate neurological entity.
And it must never become another object of worship.
The practice is not to imagine a magnificent soul looking down upon the body. Such an image would itself be another thought.
Rather, the soul remains awake to experience while its intention stays directed toward the Father.
The two movements are simultaneous.
There is no need to observe an emotion, wait for it to disappear, and then remember God.
The soul catches while it offers.
Anger can remain present. Joy can intensify. Fear can tremble. Desire can burn.
None needs to become the center of consciousness.
This is the spiritual meaning of Catch and Offer.
4. The Body Is a Vessel, Not the Master
May my body serve my soul, and never rule over it.
The human body is extraordinary.
It hungers, heals, sleeps, moves, desires, protects itself, and seeks pleasure. Through its senses, the world becomes available to human experience.
But the body also possesses powerful impulses.
It demands comfort when discipline is needed. It seeks gratification when patience is required. It reacts to threats, sometimes before reflection has a chance to intervene.
The Godward Way does not condemn these impulses.
Hunger is not evil. Sexual desire is not inherently shameful. Fear is not a spiritual failure. Pleasure is not an enemy.
They are experiences arising through the body and mind.
The danger begins when these impulses become our masters.
A person who cannot resist every appetite may surrender the direction of life to bodily impulses.
The prayer therefore establishes a sacred order.
The body is cared for, nourished, protected, and respected. Yet the soul must retain the freedom to choose how to respond.
The body may say, “I want.”
The soul may answer, “I see.”
And with its intention directed toward the Father, the soul may choose what to allow.
The body is not an enemy to defeat. It is a vessel to govern.
5. Freedom From Illusion and Temptation
Keep my soul awake and free from illusion. Let me not be a slave to fear, pleasure, or desire.
The human mind is a remarkable creator of realities.
It constructs images, forms identities, interprets memories, anticipates futures, and assigns meanings to experiences.
These abilities are essential to human life.
Yet the same mind can construct convincing illusions.
It may convince us that wealth defines our worth, that pleasure guarantees fulfillment, that fear reveals absolute danger, or that our own spiritual achievements make us superior.
Even the idea of being an awakened soul can become a source of pride.
This is a particularly subtle danger.
A person may become so attached to the image of being spiritually advanced that the image itself becomes the new master.
The Godward Prayer asks for freedom from this confusion.
Freedom does not mean becoming emotionless or eliminating desire.
It means remaining conscious without surrendering one’s highest intention to what arises within consciousness.
Temptation, in this sense, is not simply the appearance of a desire.
It is the temptation to forget our direction and allow a passing experience, a mental illusion, or even our own spiritual self-image to become ultimate.
The soul must remain awake, even to its own illusions.
6. I Am Not the Highest
Do not lead me into temptation, but remind me that I am entirely Yours, and You alone are the Highest.
This is the moment when the prayer reaches its deepest theological meaning.
The Godward Way affirms the extraordinary dignity and potential of the individual soul.
Yet it also establishes an essential boundary.
The observing soul is not God.
Spiritual awareness does not make us the Creator.
The ability to direct our consciousness does not mean that we are the highest authority in existence.
This distinction separates The Godward Way from philosophies in which individual consciousness ultimately discovers itself to be identical with absolute divinity.
The Godward soul does not seek to become the Father.
It seeks to belong to Him.
Its individuality is not dissolved. Its experiences are not rejected. Its capacity for choice is not extinguished.
Instead, everything is deliberately directed toward the One who remains greater than the soul itself.
The deepest spiritual danger is therefore not only becoming enslaved by the body.
It is allowing the soul to become intoxicated with its own greatness.
The prayer protects against both.
The body must not rule the soul, and the soul must not mistake itself for God.
7. The Body Experiences. The Soul Allows.
For my body experiences, my soul allows, and all glory belongs to You.
These final words summarize the entire practice.
The body encounters the world.
It tastes sweetness, feels cold, experiences pain, senses affection, and reacts to uncertainty.
The soul allows these experiences to exist within awareness without becoming their servant.
To allow does not mean to surrender judgment, abandon responsibility, or obey every impulse. It means that experience can be consciously received without being mistaken for the self’s ultimate authority.
The soul remains free to choose its response.
And throughout this living experience, its intention remains directed toward the Father.
This is why The Godward Way does not demand a life without desire, disruption, or emotional intensity.
The goal is not to create a perfectly tranquil human being.
It is to cultivate a soul capable of remaining Godward in every condition.
Peace does not have to arrive before prayer begins.
Anger does not have to disappear.
Desire does not have to be extinguished.
The soul need only remember its direction.
And in that act of remembrance, even ordinary life becomes an offering.
A Prayer to Carry Throughout Life
The Godward Prayer is not intended only for religious gatherings or moments of solitude.
It can be spoken before eating, upon waking, before an important decision, during emotional conflict, or before going to sleep.
Parents can teach it to their children, not merely as words to memorize, but as a way of recognizing the difference between having feelings and being ruled by them.
A child who feels anger can learn to recognize it without becoming its prisoner.
A child who experiences joy can celebrate it without believing that pleasure is the highest good.
A child who accomplishes something wonderful can take pride in the achievement while remembering that the soul’s ultimate direction is greater than personal glory.
And an adult facing life’s uncertainties can return to the same simple prayer.
The words need not become elaborate. The experience need not be mystical. No special state of consciousness is required.
For prayer, in The Godward Way, is not measured by the intensity of an emotion or the beauty of a spiritual experience.
It is measured by the direction of intention.
Kavanah is the heart of prayer.
And perhaps the entire philosophy can be remembered in three simple lines:
My body experiences.
My soul allows.
All glory belongs to the Father.