Session 5 – Prayer, Meditation, and the Wisdom of Emptiness: The Path of Non-Attainment

In this contemplative session, Rev. Liz Harlow and Licensed Unity Teacher Daryn Wells explore the deeper metaphysical dimensions of prayer, meditation, and spiritual mastery. Opening with prayer and the lighting of the Christ candle, the conversation moves into an examination of sense consciousness, intuition, and the development of spiritual awareness through the teachings of Charles Fillmore and the Unity tradition.

Rev. Liz shares her observation that prayer fills the human energy field with divine substance, bringing greater mastery in refining thoughts and emotions in order to demonstrate truth. From that foundation, she reflects on Fillmore’s 1913 sermon, The Extension of the Senses, expanding the discussion into the relationship between prayer and meditation, identifying prayer as the experience of divine substance and meditation as the practice that leads us toward the realization of emptiness.

Drawing from the Heart Sutra and Buddhist wisdom traditions, Rev. Liz explores the paradox of spiritual realization: the attainment of non-attainment. By releasing attachment to phenomena, including spiritual gifts of sense consciousness such as intuition or telepathy, we become open vessels for divine idea so that the Christ presence expresses through us.

Together, they reflect on the unity between Christian mysticism and Buddhism, revealing how these teachings converge on a shared insight: the path of awakening requires both emptiness and divine substance, meditation and prayer, surrender and expression.

The episode also highlights the importance of persistence on the spiritual path through the teaching story of Rumi, reminding listeners that depth is not found by endlessly searching for new paths, but by remaining present long enough to reach the wellspring of truth within.

As the conversation unfolds, the hosts reflect on the Unity principles of prayer, meditation, and demonstration, including the process of spiritual transformation referred to as chemicalization. They emphasize that awakening is not about acquiring power or attaining status, but about releasing attachment so that the divine presence may express fully in and through life.

Through prayer, meditation, and conscious practice, we learn to empty ourselves of attachment and become vessels for the living Christ, the kingdom of heaven expressed here and now.