Traditional Lord’s Prayer

Our Father, who art in heaven
Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come,
Thy will be done,
On Earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
And forgive us our trespasses
As we forgive those who trespass against us.
Lead us not into temptation
But deliver us from evil,
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever.
Amen.

Rupert Spira’s Rendition of The Lord's Prayer

Infinite, impersonal, intimate Being,
Who are the sole reality of all that exists
Let thy divine name, ‘I’, shine brightly in our hearts at all times
May we recognise our being as your being
May our lives be an outpouring of praise and thanksgiving,
expressing your peace, your joy and your love in all that we think and feel and do.
May we see you everywhere, shining in and as the world.
Grant us the remembrance of your fullness, from which our lives are derived and with which
they are sustained.
Forgive us those times when our actions betray the overlooking of your presence,
And help us to forgive those who do not yet know that their being is your being.
Keep our minds and hearts steady in the knowledge of your presence,
Lest the belief in separation veil the peace and love that you are.
For you alone are the reality of all that exists, the one who performs all actions, and the one
whom we love in everyone and everything, whether we know it or not.
Our only prayer, that you take us into yourself.

Teresa Buczinsky’s Rendition of The Lord's Prayer

A few months ago, a precious family member began taking steps toward recovery for alcohol and drug addiction, and I began attending Al-anon meetings as a support. The meetings always end with The Lord’s Prayer, which I would recite by heart, without much feeling. Because the non-dual teachings are so important in my life, I wondered if I could more easily resonate with this prayer if I translated it into more non-dual language.  This was remarkably easy to do, and over the past few months the non-dual version of The Lord’s Prayer has been so sustaining for me (I often find myself returning to it throughout the day) that I thought I should share it with the community:

Vast and most intimate Being, eternally here and now,
we ask of your holy I am,
let us know ourselves only as your Being,
honoring your manifestation in our bodies and the world
as fully as we honor their source in eternity.
Teach us to trust in your plentitude
rather than fixing our attention on security and self-preservation,
and forgive us for the damage we cause when caught up in delusions of separation
just as we forgive others when their ignorance causes us anguish.
Guide us more fully into your loving awareness,
And give us the courage to recognize when we are ignoring your reality,
For your Being is the source of infinite forms most beautiful and wondrous.
May our lives be expressions of gratitude.

Vickie Louden’s 'Mother's Prayer'

Essentially when asked about the roles of Father Son, Holy Ghost and Mother from a non dual perspective in a retreat, Rupert said that Father and Mother are the same, merely expressed through semantic and cultural norms.  While this is true from a certain perspective, from another it leaves out essential important distinctions. It obscures the fact that their inherently powerful love is at the heart of this manifest universe, and erases the rich vitality inherent in the sacred feminine. These understandings are far beyond semantic or gender differences. They are at the root of the early nondual teachings that were written by sages who themselves revered and loved the Goddess. Just as fire cannot be separated from flame, so God cannot be separated from Goddess. I wrote my offering to give space to the subtle differences of understanding that can grow when we understand the essential two that are not two, and love them both equally and unabashedly, as they themselves love each other.

Oh Mother
who shimmers as every particle
of this vast and intimate Universe,
beloved be all your names
and all your myriad forms.
Your great love is manifest
and your will tangibly visible 
both in every pulsation of life
and open silent space,
making heaven and earth
known in truth to be one,
revealing our misunderstanding 
as the only limit.
You give us this day and every day
whatever daily bread we eat,
inspiring both gratitude 
as well as compassion for all
who are as yet still hungry.
You lead us through 
both darkness and light
that we may learn
their essential nature
and in so learning
come to know 
the true beauty and glory
of your eternal and fleeting
undying power and welcoming love.
Oh Mother,
God’s own most Beloved
you are life itself
Divine Presence.