A Morning Revelation: How to Ask the Universe

The way to ask the universe is often not best done with words. Words seem too open to interpretation to me, too dependent on the perspective of both the listener and the speaker. Most of the time we aren’t even sure if we are saying what we mean let alone if what we are hearing is what is meant by the speaker. Words seem to fall short most of the time, either in describing what we mean or how we feel. Truly, how can one really describe the way they feel at the first sight of their newborn baby, or describe the moments of inspiration seen at the first glimpse of a sunrise? Sometimes it just seems better to speak in silence which may, of course, be the meaning of the old axiom “he who knows does not speak, he who speaks does not know”.

Now, we can speak a shared experience without words. When we watch the sun rise together we can speak “wow” without ever saying a word. Experience, it would seem, is a much better describer of things than our mouths or pens could ever hope to be. Why, then, do we ask the Universe for stuff with words?

It came to me while walking in mediation this morning when I was “asking” the universe for answers. I was reciting a prayer I read in Marianne Williamson’s “A Course in Weight Loss” when the answer was given to me. The prayer goes like this:

Dear God,Please remove the wall that I have built around me.I have built it so strong,dear God,that I cannot tear it down.I surrender to You every thought of separation,every feeling of fear,every unforgiving thought. Please, dear God,take this burden from me forever.Amen

It’s a great prayer, used to end the grip that fear has on me in its various forms (anger, jealousy, impulsive behavior) and it works for me. It dawned on me this time, however, that I was asking the wrong way. I was speaking the words. Whether from my lips or in my head, I was forming words to ask for something that no words could truly describe. I wanted freedom, and assistance, and health, and abundance but it seemed so shallow to simply “ask” for it in the manner I have been asking for over 4 decades now. So, how do you ask for something without using the words?

Well, in that miraculous moment, I understood that my methodology for asking had to be something much deeper. Rather than ask like this, “Dear God, please remove the wall that I have built around me” I begin hammering at the wall realizing completely that I am not doing it alone. Rather than ask like this, “please bring me abundance” I simply do what I enjoy. See, the Universe (or God) does not ever let you do what you can’t do alone, its mechanism is to always jump in to help whenever asked (and it knows when it is being asked). When you forgive others their trespasses, YOU are forgiven your own. You need not ask “God, forgive me my trespasses”, you simply need forgive others.

So today I asked the Universe for fitness. I did not open my mouth, I just walked. I asked the Universe for health, and I did not speak. I ate an apple. I asked the Universe for peace, and yet did not utter a prayer. I became peaceful and guess what? The Universe answered, not in words, but in every other way imaginable.

I guess that when we believe that God never talks to us, it is because we are waiting for words to come at us like orders from a drill instructor or for them to appear in the clouds as if written by a sky-writer. Yet, it would seem that in most cases we get what we ask for. A steady diet of McDonald’s will get us sick. A high intake of salt gives us high blood pressure. Overeating makes us fat. Anger makes us mad. We ask for everything we are given for the most part, with few exceptions. Yet, when we get what we ask for but don’t like the results we blame God. God listens to each and every one of our prayers, but it seems that God listens to the ones without words first. So, perhaps it is time to know rather than speak?