The Only Little Prayer You Need

The Only Little Prayer You Need Plot Summary

Introduction

There I was, sitting in my car, gripping the steering wheel with white knuckles. The rattling sound from the dashboard seemed to mock me as I spiraled into frustration about the repair that clearly hadn't fixed the problem. My mind raced with blame - for the body shop, for my husband who had been driving during the accident, for myself. In that moment of pure aggravation, something unexpected happened. A simple six-word prayer formed in my mind, and what followed changed not just my day, but my entire understanding of how fear operates in our lives. Fear permeates our existence in ways we rarely notice. It hides in our irritations, our worries about the future, our judgments of others, and our endless need for control. Like a constant background noise, it drowns out the peace that resides within us. This book explores a revolutionary approach to addressing this universal human challenge - not by fighting our fears or trying to overcome them through sheer willpower, but through a simple prayer that invites divine healing of the fear-based thoughts that drive our suffering. Through stories, insights, and practical applications, you'll discover how asking for help from a higher power can transform not only your inner landscape but also the world around you.

Chapter 1: The Day the Rattles Disappeared: A Story of Transformation

It was an ordinary January day when something extraordinary happened. After weeks of dealing with a damaged car door from a minor accident, I was finally picking up my Honda CR-V from the body shop. The repair looked good at first glance, but as I drove away following my husband Bob, I noticed rattles in the dashboard and vibrations with every bump in the road. My mood, already fragile from a mistake I'd made at work earlier that week, plummeted into a dark spiral of blame and frustration. As I followed Bob to return the rental car, my thoughts grew increasingly toxic. I blamed him for driving during the accident, I blamed the mechanic for the poor repair job, and I blamed myself for weeks of inconvenience and expense. By the time we arrived at the dealership, I was exhausted - not just from those minutes of negative thinking, but from years of it. While Bob went inside to handle the paperwork, I sat alone in the car, genuinely wanting to do something different but feeling powerless to change my own mind. In that moment of surrender, a prayer spontaneously formed: "Please heal my fear-based thoughts." Six simple words. I had never said this prayer before; it just appeared. At the time, it didn't seem remarkable - when we're in pain, we naturally turn to a higher power with whatever words come from the heart. But what happened next took it to another level entirely. When Bob returned to the car, I was still in a bad mood. "There are big rattles in the dash," I complained, "and I heard wind coming through the driver's window." Bob jotted notes for the body shop manager and asked if there was anything else. As we pulled onto the interstate, he listened for the rattles I'd described. We hit several bumps, but there was nothing - no rattle, no vibration. The entire drive home, not a single sound emerged from the dashboard. The problems had simply disappeared. This seemingly mundane event contained a profound spiritual lesson: when my thoughts were healed, the rattles that had manifested from those thoughts were no longer needed. A change in my internal perception had literally shifted my external environment. What I realized in that moment spread through me like warmth - despite years of spiritual study, I had never understood this principle so clearly before. When our thoughts are healed, we no longer need the lesson, and the circumstances or issues that were teaching us may cease to exist.

Chapter 2: Understanding Fear: The Root of Our Struggles

According to A Course in Miracles, our minds have two distinct aspects. One is the ego, which unlike our traditional definition of excessive self-importance, operates more like a demanding two-year-old running on fear. The other represents our higher Self, which remembers our divine nature as children of God - quiet, respectful, and communicating through gentle whispers of love. We live in a world that constantly feeds our egos with fear-based messages, from terrorism and natural disasters to endless judgments about our appearance, performance, possessions, and worth. This fear permeates our existence far deeper than we realize. Imagine your essence as a flame that never goes out, burning inside a lantern. Fear is like dirt covering that lantern, making its walls increasingly opaque until you can no longer see the light inside. You might forget the flame exists or feel it has no impact because you can't access it. At that point, fear rules your existence, blocking your connection to your true nature. To better understand fear and love, picture two trees. The "Fear Tree" has branches yielding hurt, anger, meanness, violence, and its biggest fruit - judgment. The "Love Tree" produces kindness, compassion, caring, creativity, joy, playfulness, peace, acceptance, and forgiveness. The insidious nature of fear is that it creeps into every corner of our lives, often unnoticed, becoming a constant cover of darkness that prevents us from fully experiencing our inner light. Most of us don't realize how many of our thoughts are rooted in fear. Even boastfulness, which might seem unrelated, traces back to fear - you feel insecure about your worth, feel you must prove yourself, and so you brag about accomplishments. In truth, you're afraid people won't like you or that you don't matter. This applies to countless emotions we experience daily: irritation, conformity, jealousy, guilt, shame, and even excessive worry about loved ones. Judgment is particularly powerful, making us think we're separate from others and from God. When we judge someone else, our ego is trying to make itself feel better by comparing and coming out on top. But this never works - it makes us feel more separate and alone, disconnecting us from our essence and dimming our inner light. The prayer helps us remember that we can make a better choice every minute of every day, shifting from the hell of fear to the heaven of love.

Chapter 3: The Power of Six Words: How the Prayer Works

"Please heal my fear-based thoughts." These six words represent a radical departure from how we typically pray. Most of our prayers ask for something or someone in our external environment to change: "Please help me get this job," "Please heal my mother's illness," or "Please help me find the money to pay my mortgage." With those prayers, we might feel temporary relief if the specific request is granted, but our ego - the part that feeds on fear - will simply seek out new worries to keep us awake at night. The power of this little prayer lies in its revolutionary approach. Instead of asking for any change in the world around you, you're asking for yourself to be rearranged, knowing that your world will shift as a result. When you ask to be in right alignment with love, everything becomes possible. Your life starts to change around you because it's now governed by love rather than fear. The metaphorical mud is wiped clean from your lantern, allowing your inner light to shine without obstruction. Consider the difference in these approaches: Instead of asking for your marriage to be healed, ask for your fear-based thoughts about your marriage and spouse to be healed. Rather than praying for your financial situation to improve, ask for your fear-based thoughts about money to be healed. The cause of your fear is in your mind, not in the external world, so when you heal that cause, the effect is to change your external reality. One woman described her experience with the prayer this way: "The first time I used it, all of a sudden, the fear was gone. I thought, wow, that was simple. It just went away. As I kept doing it, I noticed it created a space... allowed me to have better understanding of what the fear might be. After doing this for two or three weeks, the next time a fear came up, it didn't run away with me because I'd experienced this relief and space. It had a general healing effect." This prayer acknowledges that we cannot solve our problems with the same mind that created them. Without the help of the Holy Spirit or whatever higher power you connect with, you're like a lamp trying to turn itself on without being plugged in. It will fidget and struggle, getting increasingly frustrated until it's convinced that light is no longer possible. But connect it to its power source, and frustration immediately disappears. This is why the prayer is so transformative - it taps into the one thing our egos can never access: divine healing power.

Chapter 4: Recognizing Fear-Based Thoughts in Daily Life

In the days following my experience with the car rattles, I committed to saying the prayer every time I detected a fear-based thought. I ended up saying it all day long. Though I'd thought I was quite aware of my thoughts, I discovered just how pervasive fear really was in my mind. These thoughts took endless forms and never stopped: "I just sneezed. Am I catching a cold? I don't have time to catch a cold." "My car oil light came on. How long has it been since I changed the oil? What if it's low and I've damaged the engine?" "Why do I always have to be the one who unloads the dishwasher?" These seemingly benign thoughts - everyday frustrations, dissatisfactions, and blame - are what we all live with constantly, often without awareness. Other thoughts speak to deeper fears: "Will I ever find a partner in life? How can I find someone to love me when I'm not lovable?" "Life is a constant struggle, and I don't see any way out." "We're on the brink financially. What if we lose everything?" When we become aware of our thoughts, we can ask that they be healed. That's why paying attention is so crucial. To tune into your thoughts when you're not used to it, start by taking a minute to listen to the chatter in your mind. Notice the thoughts that make your mind seem like a pinball machine - bouncing over and over again. Try journaling for five or ten minutes, recording everything that passes through your mind. Go for a walk alone and tune in, or turn off the radio while driving to notice what you think about. Check in at key times: What are your first thoughts in the morning and last ones at night? What are you thinking as you leave home or arrive? What floats through your mind when you're alone versus with others? If you're not sure whether a thought is fear-based, ask yourself: Does this thought make me feel light and free, or does it make me feel heavy and tired? With this simple test, most fear-based thoughts reveal themselves. You can also pay attention to your body - perhaps you're not aware of the thought itself, but you do notice the gnawing fear in your stomach. That's a clear sign of fear at work. The impact of these thoughts extends beyond our minds. When we're in a state of unconscious upset and a bigger issue arises, we lack the emotional reserves to deal with it effectively. Fear-based thinking has us convinced that the world is dangerous, that joy invites punishment, and that we must remain vigilant against threats. By asking for these thoughts to be healed, we create a clean slate - a new space within our minds. In that moment, we change our entire future because we're no longer defined by the lingering fear of the past.

Chapter 5: From Personal to Universal: Healing Our Collective Fear

At a women's spirituality workshop, we explored the question, "Are you as happy as you want to be?" Several participants balked at the word "happy" because it seemed frivolous or superficial, preferring terms like "contented," "peaceful," or "joyful." But when we discussed what these words really mean, we found common ground: freedom, forgiveness, fulfillment. Happiness isn't necessarily skipping for joy, but having peace of mind - knowing you're safe, taken care of, and able to trust what surrounds you. This inner peace is a universal desire because it reflects who we are at our core as children of God. Can this simple prayer truly help with pressing large-scale problems like oppression, violence, poverty, prejudice, and environmental destruction? Let me ask this: If this prayer can't change them, what can? The challenges we face today are the same ones we've faced for generations, all stemming from deeply ingrained patterns of anger, blame, guilt, and judgment. To build a better world, we must power our thoughts, words, and actions with love rather than fear. Imagine anyone experiencing domestic violence using this prayer and being healed of feelings of unworthiness expressed as victimhood. Imagine perpetrators being healed of their unworthiness expressed as dominance. Picture people who have lost homes in natural disasters finding greater inner strength to rebuild, or those in areas lacking employment discovering new opportunities. Envision people engaged in long-standing conflicts being healed of resentment, clearing paths toward forgiveness. A Course in Miracles teaches that there's no hierarchy of miracles - the energy of fear is the same whether it affects one person or one billion. The shame, guilt, anger, and worry we feel individually is the same as those emotions on a global scale. We can't think our way out of them, though every moment offers a fresh opportunity to choose love. The healing must come from a different place - not from our minds but from our connection to the divine. As you consistently use this prayer, you create peace in your own mind that emanates outward, transforming your relationships, your work, and touching everyone around you. You essentially create a ring of peace that accompanies you everywhere. Now imagine if thousands or millions of people created such rings. At some point - the tipping point - we could create a world governed more by love than fear. This is how the prayer becomes revolutionary, healing not just individuals but potentially the entire world.

Chapter 6: Real-Life Applications: Stories of Healing and Hope

Shelley attended a workshop about the prayer the day before being laid off from her corporate job. For months, her boss had tried to intimidate her into quitting to avoid paying severance. Simultaneously, Shelley and her husband discovered severe structural problems with their house, forcing them toward a short sale or foreclosure. She also has Graves disease, an autoimmune disorder that saps her energy, and recently learned her mother would be moving in with them due to unexpected changes in her own living situation. It might appear that Shelley's problems multiplied after learning the prayer, yet her husband noticed she smiles more than ever. "I'm calmer than I've ever been," she explains. "I use the prayer hourly, even minute to minute. In the past, I felt scared all the time, making rash decisions based on fear. But when the fear is healed and you experience peace, you make better decisions." Her inner peace has affected her family too: "I'm projecting more calm to my household." This illustrates the prayer's true miracle - changing our minds so we can live peacefully regardless of external circumstances. Another story involves a friend in Texas writing a book she plans to sell online, launching a business for retirement. Though an award-winning journalist unafraid of difficult situations, when she received an email about a perfect training opportunity in New York, her ego generated countless objections: the cost, the travel, the uncertainty. All seemed logical reasons to stay home, yet something in her wanted to say yes. This is the ego's trap - sometimes sounding not like a tantruming child but like a sensible accountant, listing reasons to stay small that friends and family would echo. True joy rarely comes from following a backup plan. It emerges from doing what scares you, which often nourishes your higher Self. You can try to talk yourself out of fear, or you can ask the Holy Spirit to heal your fear-based thoughts and start living joyfully today. Love relationships may harbor more fear than any other area. One woman described how childhood stories of unrequited love programmed her to expect heartbreak: "Love meant loss, sacrifice, and pain - all forms of fear. When a man showed up in my life, I'd assume he would leave, then sabotage the relationship to prove it." Meeting Bob changed everything. After three months of dating this caring, reliable man, she tried her usual sabotage during an outing. Afterward, crying, she admitted, "I'm just afraid one of us will destroy this relationship." Bob responded, "I don't see a lack of willingness on either of our parts to make this work." Facing forgiveness and understanding, fear was outmatched that day, and a new definition of love took its place. Bill, whose wife Gail was diagnosed with lung cancer, found the prayer helped manage his fear during her treatment. "I repeat the prayer in rhythm to my walking instead of fussing about what's going on with Gail. All those fears melt away." The prayer helps at night when worry wakes him: "It helps me get that stuff out of my head." He appreciates how the wording diminishes fear's power: "Fears don't seem as real because they are just thoughts." Meanwhile, Gail practices staying present: "The real f-word in our world is 'fear.' If we stay in the now, there isn't so much to be afraid of."

Chapter 7: Practicing the Prayer: Techniques for Lasting Change

Your experience with the prayer will be unique. When you begin, you might see instant changes or none at all. There's no schedule or blueprint - just start noticing your thoughts, say the prayer, and observe what happens. Commit to using it regularly for at least two weeks before evaluating your experience, and consider these potential developments. You may initially feel excited about the prayer, then experience a crash in enthusiasm. This happens because the prayer speaks to your higher Self, which sees its value, but then your ego loudly resists. It will try to make you forget the prayer, ridicule it, claim it isn't working, manufacture crises, or create overwhelming angst just when things seemed to be improving. Your ego fears that your relationships will change, your financial situation will improve, or you'll fulfill your life purpose. Most of all, it's afraid you'll be truly happy. If you find yourself resisting, use the prayer anyway. Post it on your mirror, dashboard, or bedside. No matter what obstacles arise, continue asking for your fear-based thoughts to be healed. As you practice, you'll become more aware of fear messages from both outside and inside you. You may be surprised at the fear-based diet you've been consuming through news, headlines, and gossip. You'll see that mind chatter is largely fear, and how addicted you've been to it. Though fear-based thoughts may initially seem relentless, like trying to sweep the ocean with a broom, they will gradually subside with continued practice. The prayer creates a cumulative effect. Not only will you experience more peace, but your tolerance for fear-based thoughts may diminish. Over time, peace of mind will become your only goal - a radical shift from the external pursuits our society promotes. You'll see more beauty in the world as you're freed from the ego's fixation on what's wrong. You'll open to the divine, experiencing greater simplicity and serendipity as life situations work out effortlessly, affirming that without fear blocking the way, you're free to experience the natural flow of abundance and ease. You'll also relinquish control, setting yourself free from the exhausting effort to manage everything around you. As A Course in Miracles says, "You believe that without the ego, all would be chaos. Yet I assure you that without the ego, all would be love." Surrender to divine energy directing your life brings peace and delight as you witness how perfectly things orchestrate when you step aside. Your purpose will become clearer as layers of fear - What will others think? Am I worthy? Is it too late? - dissolve through healing. Perhaps most significantly, you'll experience more love in your life. When you ask for fear-based thoughts to be healed, you remove barriers to love. You'll trade perfectionism (from the ego) for perfection (from God). You'll focus less on where fear originated and more on healing it. And you'll become more honest and vulnerable, standing in grace and peace, knowing it's safe to simply be yourself.

Summary

The prayer "Please heal my fear-based thoughts" represents a profound shift in how we approach life's challenges. Rather than asking for our external world to change, we invite divine healing of the thoughts that create our perception of that world. This simple yet revolutionary approach acknowledges that fear - in its many disguises of worry, judgment, anger, and control - keeps us imprisoned in suffering. When we surrender these thoughts to a higher power, we open ourselves to experiencing the peace that is our natural inheritance. The stories throughout this book demonstrate how this prayer works in real life - from disappearing car rattles to transforming relationships, from navigating serious illness to finding calm amid job loss and financial uncertainty. These experiences remind us that our essence is like a flame burning inside a lantern. Fear is the dirt that accumulates on that lantern, obscuring our light. When we ask for our fear-based thoughts to be healed, we clean the lantern, allowing our true nature to shine through unobstructed. The miracle isn't that our problems disappear, but that we experience them differently - with grace, forgiveness, and trust instead of anxiety, resentment, and control. As we create this inner peace, it naturally extends outward, potentially transforming not just our personal lives but our collective world. In this way, six simple words become a powerful catalyst for both individual healing and global change.

About Author

Loading...

Dalai Lama XIV

Jetsun Jamphel Ngawang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso (born Lhamo Döndrub), the 14th Dalai Lama, is a practicing member of the Gelug School of Tibetan Buddhism and is influential as a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, the world's most famous Buddhist monk, and the leader of the exiled Tibetan government in India.Tenzin Gyatso was the fifth of sixteen children born to a farming family. He was proclaimed the tulku (an Enlightened lama who has consciously decided to take rebirth) of the 13th Dalai Lama at the age of two.On 17 November 1950, at the age of 15, he was enthroned as Tibet's ruler. Thus he became Tibet's most important political ruler just one month after the People's Republic of China's invasion of Tibet on 7 October 1950. In 1954, he went to Beijing to attempt peace talks with Mao Zedong and other leaders of the PRC. These talks ultimately failed.After a failed uprising and the collapse of the Tibetan resistance movement in 1959, the Dalai Lama left for India, where he was active in establishing the Central Tibetan Administration (the Tibetan Government in Exile) and in seeking to preserve Tibetan culture and education among the thousands of refugees who accompanied him.Tenzin Gyatso is a charismatic figure and noted public speaker. This Dalai Lama is the first to travel to the West. There, he has helped to spread Buddhism and to promote the concepts of universal responsibility, secular ethics, and religious harmony.He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, honorary Canadian citizenship in 2006, and the United States Congressional Gold Medal on 17 October 2007.

Read more

Related Books by Dalai Lama XIV

Loading...

The Art of Happiness

Dalai Lama XIV

A Handbook for Living

★★★★½4.5

Loading...

The Book of Joy

Dalai Lama XIV

Lasting Happiness in a Changing World

★★★★☆4.4