Fairacres Publications 172 The cultivation of an inner life of prayer has always formed an essential part of the Christian way. Many long for silence and stillness, yet the words ‘contemplative prayer’ can seem to denote some specialist method of prayer. Sandy Ryrie, using the more accessible phrase ‘prayer of silence’, draws on Church tradition and on his own experience to describe this wordless way of praying.

“The Prayer of Silence” has several aims: 1. to teach basic relaxation and concentration methods based on bodily awareness; 2. to develop an awareness of the Divine Presence; 3. to overcome emotional and personality blocks to develop a sense of personal wholeness; 4. to develop an awareness of what the author, drawing on a near death experience in 1966, calls “the Watcher” aspect of consciousness that speeds the development of spiritual perception of inner “Love, Peace and Joy,” 5. to transform the ego from attachment to material and emotional limits to a spiritual Ego that is one with the “Atman” or “Spirit,” and to extend that spiritual awareness to the world and other people; 6. to be able to deal with the conflicts and potential arising from the memory of past lives; 7. to be able to find a “Spiritual Guide” in the inner person; 8. to be able to deal with the inevitable “dry periods” in spiritual practice; 9. to experience “Nirvana,” where all lower attachments are blown out; and 10. to achieve Divine Union, where the Ego and God are One, where “Atman experiences itself as one with Brahman,” where one can say with Jesus, “I and the Father are One.” There is also a very good chapter on “mantras,” so the student can learn about their nature and use, although the Prayer of Silence uses a different, more direct form of focus to achieve concentration and inner awareness. Dr. MacDonald has also remembered and worked with many of his own past lives, so he is a reliable guide to others who are going through that process. The author is a master teacher and the book presents its material in a steadily more complex form, laying the necessary foundations before proceeding to the higher levels of learning. There is a combination of theory and practical exercises so the learner can develop meditation skills gradually but with confidence, building from one stage to the next to achieve mastery of the subject. The writing is clear and concise and easy to understand. In order to explain the often difficult ideas associated with meditation and spiritual growth, Dr. MacDonald draws on the language, ideas and practice of Christian, Hindu, Jewish, and Buddhist traditions to clarify ideas from different angles. He also draws on relevant scientific studies of human consciousness to help make the ideas and aims of this Prayer of Silence clear to the reader.