Debra Landwehr Engle - The only little prayer you need : the shortest route to a life of joy, abundance, and peace of mind

A delightful little book on healing our fear-based thoughts through prayer.

JON MUNDY, PHD, author of
Living A Course in Miracles
and publisher of Miracles magazine

Suppose there is a path to a better life that is really the most simple thing, the most direct route to immediate effects? And what if this cost you nothing, took little of your time, and had absolutely no risk of backfiring or hurting anybody else? You are about to find such a gift in this book, and you will soon discover that all of your fears grew out of nothing. In so doing you are also about to embark on a life where forgiveness becomes a tangible practice, and being fixated on fear becomes a thing of the past.

DR. LEE JAMPOLSKY, author of
Smile for No Good Reason and
How to Say Yes When Your Body Says No

Debra Engle's The Only Little Prayer You Need took my breath away as I sat reading it. Like Engle, I, too, have been a student of A Course in Miracles for thirty years. And also like her, it has taught me all the important spiritual tools I rely on every day. However, her little prayer provides a much-needed shortcut to peace-filled living that everyone, Course student or not, can use daily. Hourly, even minute by minute. Thank you, Debra. I needed to read your book today. I needed to shift my perception on a current situation and your book and prayer did just that for me.

KAREN CASEY, PHD, author of
Each Day a New Beginning

Copyright 2014 by Debra Landwehr Engle

Blessing 2014 Tenzin Gyatso, His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC. Reviewers may quote brief passages.

Cover design by Jim Warner

Interior by Kathryn Sky-Peck

Typeset in Truesdell

Hampton Roads Publishing Company, Inc.

Charlottesville, VA 22906

Distributed by Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC

www.redwheelweiser.com

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ISBN: 978-1-57174-718-1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available upon request.

Printed in the United States of America

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Honest concern for others is the key factor in improving our day-to-day lives. When you are warm-hearted, there is no room for anger, jealousy, or insecurity. A calm mind and self-confidence are the basis for happy and peaceful relations with each other. Healthy, happy families and a healthy, peaceful nation are dependent on warm-heartedness. Some scientists have observed that constant anger and fear eat away at our immune system, whereas a calm mind strengthens it.

We have to see how we can fundamentally change our education system so that we can train people to develop warm-heartedness early on in order to create a healthier society. I don't mean we need to change the whole systemjust improve it. We need to encourage an understanding that inner peace comes from relying on human values like love, compassion, tolerance, and honesty, and that peace in the world relies on individuals finding inner peace.

HIS HOLINESS, THE DALAI LAMA

I'm not the type of person who typically asks someone to pray. That's always seemed preachy, personal, and presumptuous. In fact, I've even bristled slightly at the word prayeralong with God, Jesus, and the Holy Spiritbecause those words have such particular meanings to each individual, and my understanding might be very different from my neighbor's.

But about thirty years ago, I started studying A Course in Miracles, which is described as spiritual psychotherapy. While this course includes Christian language, it's a path not to religion, but to peace of minda deep peace that resides inside each of us with help from a higher power.

Even though I've studied and taught the Course for years, I still learn more about its teachings every dayand sometimes not in the most comfortable ways. Following any spiritual path typically is like a maze. As we make forward progress, we're likely to take a lot of detours along the way. We don't get all the answers at once. And even when we do have an ah-ha moment, we may find ourselves in a new and tricky part of the maze that we've never seen before.

We're at a time on this planet when we need to make a leap forward, skipping over years of wandering so we can move more directly toward peaceboth within ourselves and within our world.

And that's why I'm writing this book. This story is about a seemingly small event in my life that took on miraculous significance because of the lessons that came with it.

I'm not a theologian; in fact, I've found most of my spiritual sustenance outside traditional religion. But I believe we're returning to a time when we remember and understand our individual connection to the divine. Each of us has a direct relationship with a higher power, and it's by calling on and developing that relationship that we can experience what might be called miraculous changes in our lives.

My husband, Bob, and I have had our share of tragedies and hurts in our lives. Both of us have gone through divorce. Bob lost his elder son to an illness no one could ever identify. We've both known times of financial struggle. And, in my capacity as co-founder of a spirituality and personal growth program, I've worked for years with women who are experiencing everything from the lifelong effects of early sexual abuse to the uncertainty of their primary relationship, their stage of life, or their children's futures due to mental health or drug abuse issues.

The way we deal with all of these challenges defines the quality of our life and our peace of mind. And with the help of the Course, I also know that trying to do it without help from a higher power is not going to get us where we want to go.

I believe that when you use the prayer in this book, you'll experience steady progress toward a life of greater internal peace. Much of the drama and chaos around you will subside. And what remains will have less impact on you, bouncing off of you because you're no longer a willing host.

As crazy as it sounds, I think this prayer is an answer to prayer. It's a path to a better life. And it's the simplest thing possible. Now all we have to do is actually use it.

So here I am, asking you to pray.

I t was January 11, 2013, and I felt like it had already been a long year. Earlier in the week, I'd made a significant mistake with a major client. And, even though everyone on my project team was gracious and understanding, I had a hard time forgiving myself for it. In fact, at three o'clock the next morning, I woke up panicked that I'd sent the wrong file to the same client. I felt like someone had shoved a lit torch down my throat.