Surrender · “Let Go to Receive”
Aspiration, Not Petition
To replace begging/petitionary prayer with pure aspiration — a wordless upward yearning of the self toward the higher, asking for nothing personal — and to let that reaching become a sustained orientation rather than a request.
Aspiration, Not Petition: Catch the urge to beg or petition and set it down. In its place, let a wordless yearning rise upward — a longing to become nobler, “to arise and pass on to higher things,” held in humility, not strain. Treat it as “almost a command of the man to himself” to rise, directed at your own self, asking for nothing. Let consciousness feel itself widen. Then carry the same non-grasping, upward orientation into the day — for “it is a way of life.”
What it is
De Purucker sharply distinguished true prayer from begging. Petitionary prayer he called “mere supplication, mere petitioning, a mere begging for benefits” — “getting down on bended knee and addressing a petition to a god outside of himself.” Real prayer he defined instead as aspiration: “the rich, deep, spiritual humility of the human self envisioning the ineffably grand,” “a yearning to become like the heavenly Father,” and “almost a command of the man to himself to arise and pass on to higher things, upwards towards the divine.” As a practice this is a release-and-reach discipline: you deliberately let go of asking for any personal benefit and instead rest in a wordless upward yearning toward the higher — a longing to become, not a request to receive.
De Purucker is clear it is a posture of living, not a recited formula: “Prayer of this kind is not merely an attitude of mind. It is a way of life.” It operationalises the reaching toward the deeper/higher Self (The Inner Creates the Outer), the pairing of one’s own upward effort with what is given from above (The Inner Creates the Outer — effort and grace), and the present-moment turning in which the reaching actually happens (The Inner Creates the Outer).
The Method
Reconstructed faithfully from “Prayer and Aspiration” and Golden Precepts (short quotes only):
- Notice and drop the petition. Catch the impulse to “beg for benefits” or petition “a god outside of himself,” and deliberately set the asking down. The first move of the practice is release: you are not going to request anything personal.
- Turn the longing upward. In place of the request, let a wordless yearning rise — “a yearning to become like the heavenly Father,” to “arise and pass on to higher things, upwards towards the divine.” The object is to become nobler, not to obtain a thing.
- Make it a command to yourself, not a plea to another. De Purucker frames real prayer as “almost a command of the man to himself” to rise — the energy is directed inward and upward at one’s own self, summoning it higher, rather than outward at a deity who might grant favours.
- Hold it in humility, not striving. The attitude is “the rich, deep, spiritual humility of the human self envisioning the ineffably grand” — an awed reaching, not a tense effort to extract a result. Let the yearning be warm and open-handed.
- Let consciousness widen. He describes the fruit as expansion: consciousness “grows ever larger, until finally some day we shall. encompass the universe.” Rest in the sense of the self opening outward/upward rather than contracting around a want.
- Live it, don’t just sit it. “It is a way of life.” Carry the same non-petitionary, upward orientation into ordinary conduct — meeting the day from aspiration rather than from grasping — so the brief turnings and the daily living reinforce each other. (Sourcing note: lines above are attributed quotation and paraphrase, not full reproduction.)
Source & Lineage
Gottfried de Purucker (1874-1942), leader of the Point Loma Theosophical Society from 1929, gave this teaching in “Prayer and Aspiration” (Wind of the Spirit, 1944) and throughout Golden Precepts of Esotericism (1931).
It restates a long contemplative critique of petitionary prayer — found in Neoplatonism, in apophatic Christian mysticism, and in the Theosophical insistence on the indwelling divine — recasting prayer as self-summoning aspiration toward the higher Self rather than supplication to an external god.
The Traditions' versions
The move — stop asking, and instead reach/yearn upward, releasing the personal want — recurs widely; de Purucker’s stamp is defining prayer itself as aspiration that petitions for nothing and is “almost a command of the man to himself”:
- Judge: daily discipline of aspiration — the Point Loma morning lift toward the higher nature.
- Boehme: gelassenheit, dying to self-will — releasing the grasping personal will to be open to the divine.
- Bailey: occult meditation / invocation — aspiration and invocation rather than petition.
- Hamblin: entering the silence — turning from asking to a receptive inner attunement.
- Blavatsky: concentration on the higher Self — the concentrative Theosophical reach toward the higher nature.
Common refinements
Smuggling the petition back in. “Make me successful” is still begging. Keep the yearning on becoming nobler, not on obtaining outcomes.
- Straining for the “ineffably grand.” It is held in humility, not effort; relax the reaching rather than forcing a lofty feeling.
- Treating needs as shameful. De Purucker is reforming prayer, not forbidding you to meet real needs by real means; take practical action separately and without guilt.
- Making it only a sitting. “It is a way of life”; if the upward orientation evaporates the moment you stand up, it hasn’t taken. Carry it into conduct.
- Expecting external results from it. The practice changes your state and aim, not (demonstrably) the world’s response; don’t judge it by whether wishes are granted.