OF SPIRITUAL CONSEQUENCE

What is of spiritual consequence?

You say your prayers as a child--Now I lay me down to sleep, etc., or, Our Father who art in heaven, etc.--but those are memorized "throwaways," mere recitations, robotics.  Then comes that occasion when you pray not because you have been told to do so, that it is good for you, but because you really want to, because you need to.  You speak to God directly, sincerely, as yourself.  This time, as it happens, you know you've actually been heard.

You establish a personal relationship with God, even though you are still a kid.  God becomes your special friend, just the two of you.  God is not a  parental figure but, as if He were your own age, your pal.  And it is not as though you are pretending or imagining God to be your own age, but God is your own age, you are startled to feel.  He is all ages, has been all ages for all of time.

Before long you no longer pray to God, though, or consider Him your personal friend.  This is because He has ceased to be other than you, someone or something outside yourself.  You know now, in fact, that He is your own consciousness, has been your own consciousness since before you were even you.  This is of spiritual consequence.