Non Dual Teachers and Prayer, David Hoffmeister ACIM

Among the many non dual teachers around the world, there are none who speak quite like David Hoffmeister. Here is an transcript from a recent talk David gave called “Let Go and Let God."

You can't go wrong with “Thy Will be done.” We were talking to Maria about all these things that were unfolding, about possibly buying a property down here and everything clicking in, the donation and everything, but still ... we haven't heard back. But the prayer is always: “Thy Will be done.” So we can rest content in that.

It's so peaceful, it's so simple, it's so relaxing. And it's not a prayer for outcomes of the world. It's a prayer for our state of mind, and it's a prayer to know God's grace and God's love, to know our Will in Heaven.

But I feel like if any of you have studied any non dual teachers, or any Eastern philosophies, like the Buddha for example... you know the Buddha talked about emptying the mind. There's a great focus on that. And even with Advaita Vedanta, Ramana Maharshi... a lot of fantastic non-dual pathways are saying: empty your mind, empty your mind of the contents of consciousness.

There's not really like some kind of positive goal that's in the world with these pathways. You don’t see Buddhists that shave their heads who've got their orange robes on thinking "Ah! I'm almost there!" as if some outcome in the world will make them happy.

And I think A Course in Miracles is really pretty much the same way. That's why we say: "Thy Will be done, God's Will be done." I would say it's not only the safest prayer, but it's just the only prayer. It's the only prayer there is, ultimately.

But we have to gain confidence in it. We have to gain trust in it. We have to feel the miraculous experiences of that state of mind, maybe first just glimmers of that state of mind in order to go, "Mmmm ... Thy Will be done, God's Will be done."

This is not what most non dual teachers teach, and so this is where I would say the Course takes us beyond traditional non-duality. It seems to be dualistic in its language, but only for the purpose of leading us to where we've always been; the awareness that we already have everything, we already are everything, and we have always been. I think we can all feel deep resonance with that.

For more information about David Hoffmeister and non-dual teachings, visit his NonDual Teachers