"There's a particular kind of heartbreak that happens when you realize some of your prayers are going nowhere. There's a painful silence that follows unanswered calls. Yet, despite the ache, I can still feel the pull to pray to the God outside of myself-that old reflex to place faith in something bigger, some invisible force in the sky, who, apparently, can make things happen magically here on Earth. But it doesn't always go that way, does it?"
"I prayed my cancer would go away. It didn't. I prayed the world would heal from climate change. It didn't. I prayed my business would make enough to live on. It didn't. I prayed my book would reach thousands. Still hasn't. I prayed for peace in the world. It's getting worse. So, I stopped. Stopped praying. Stopped hoping in that way where my heart is wide open and a little desperate. It didn't feel brave. It felt hollow."
"For a long time, I thought my discomfort came from out there. From God. From other people. From difficult situations. Blaming something outside myself gave me a sense of control-a story to hold onto. But no matter how convincing that story was, the ache inside remained. It took time, but eventually I saw it: the root of my suffering wasn't external at all. It was internal."
Repeated prayers for healing, financial stability, professional success, and global peace went unanswered, producing deep disappointment. The person stopped praying and ceased hoping in desperate ways, experiencing hollow silence. Silence revealed an internal shift: recognition that discomfort originated within rather than outside. Attachment to control, conditioned habits of grasping, fixing, judging, comparing, and pushing were identified as the source of suffering. Turning inward exposed ego-driven thought loops that caused misalignment between expectations and reality. Awareness of internal causes opened space for clearer perception and diminished reliance on external forces for change.
Read at Tiny Buddha
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