Great Spirit Prayer Deep Dive 2024

Great Spirit Prayer Summary

The provided text is an excerpt from a handout by a licensed therapist, Raj Mehta, discussing the "Great Spirit Prayer" common to some Indigenous cultures in North America. Mehta explains that the prayer is often used in place of more traditional prayers like the "Our Father" in Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous meetings on reservations. He emphasizes that the prayer is a message of recognizing a higher power, acknowledging personal struggles, and seeking guidance and strength. The prayer itself is a simple and poetic request for wisdom, beauty, and respect for nature, concluding with a plea for personal growth and a peaceful transition at the end of life.

Briefing Doc: Exploring the Great Spirit Prayer
This briefing doc examines the Great Spirit Prayer, drawing from a handout by Raj Mehta, a licensed master’s level therapist.
Key Themes:
• Adaptability and Universality: The prayer transcends specific religious doctrines, emphasizing a universal "power greater than you." This power can be interpreted as "Jesus, Budha, Muhammed, whatever you like," emphasizing personal connection over rigid dogma. Even gravity, a fundamental force, illustrates a power beyond individual control.
• Self-Reflection and Accountability: The prayer emphasizes taking responsibility for one's actions and acknowledging internal struggles. As Mehta recounts from his conversation with Les Armstrong, "Who got you arrested, who got you over-weight, who got you in that bad relationship, who told you—you couldn’t do it? You did. And you better watch your greatest enemy yourself.”
• Connection to Nature and Wisdom: The prayer highlights the beauty and teachings found in nature, urging individuals to observe and learn from the world around them.
• Strength for Internal Struggle: Strength is sought not for dominance over others, but to overcome internal battles. The prayer states, "I seek strength, not to be greater than my brother, but to fight my greatest enemy—Myself."
• Living a Worthy Life: The prayer emphasizes living with integrity and honor, symbolized by "clean hands and straight eyes," so that one can face the end of life without shame.
The Great Spirit:
• The handout explains that the Great Spirit is "an omnipresent supreme life force" often understood as a "supreme being or god" in many indigenous cultures across Canada and the United States.
• Importantly, interpretations of the Great Spirit vary between cultures.
Quotes:
• On the Great Spirit: "The Great Spirit is an omnipresent supreme life force generally conceptualized as a supreme being or god."
• On adaptability: "if you don’t like Great Spirit, you can cross that out and put in Jesus, Budha, Muhammed, whatever you like. It’s prayer reaching out and saying there is a power greater than you."