Human deficiency can be filled through solidarity with others. A mutual aid system—where I fill what you lack and you fill my empty spaces—is the most rational system for sustaining society. This brings us to a recurring question: Why go to the trouble of seeking an invisible God? Isn’t prayer, the act of isolating oneself to whisper one’s desires, actually a self-righteous act that severs connection with others?
The Limits of Horizontal Solidarity and the “Inexhaustible Spring”
We live by filling each other’s needs, but frankly, human resources are finite. While I can provide energy to someone else, once my internal warehouse is empty, I lose the capacity to care for another’s deficiency. Horizontal solidarity, where people cling only to each other’s lack, can sometimes lead to “collective depletion.”
At this juncture, prayer becomes a channel for vertical energy replenishment. If receiving from others is an “exchange,” then seeking from God is a “recharge.” The logic is that one must first fill oneself to have the surplus to share with others. In other words, prayer is not a rejection of relationships with others; it is a preliminary process of drawing energy from the Source to give to them.
Self-Righteous Isolation or Healthy Individuation?
The criticism that praying alone in silence can appear self-righteous is valid. However, all healthy solidarity begins with the “individual who can stand alone.” When one becomes submerged in relationships without their own philosophy or standards, it ceases to be solidarity and becomes mere dependency.
In a religious context, prayer is a time to reflect one’s bloated ego before the absolute mirror of God. It is a process of “internal purification,” auditing whether one’s desires harm others or whether one’s deficiencies are exploiting them. Therefore, time spent in prayer is not a flight from society, but a “strategic retreat” to return to society in a healthier state.
Priorities of Connection: Self, Other, and Source
Ultimately, resolving deficiency is not a matter of “either-or.” Horizontal solidarity with others enriches life, while vertical communication with God supplies the inner strength to sustain that life.
Though I also maintain strict standards for my relationships and value independence, it is difficult to deny that there exists a void that human will alone cannot resolve. Rather than trying to forcibly fill that void with other finite beings—and potentially hurting them in the process—prayer may be the act of borrowing fundamental energy to first make oneself whole.
To the eyes of a non-believer, prayer is now read not as “self-righteous isolation,” but as a “time for self-objectification.” It is the process of organizing one’s own deficiencies and replenishing energy before reaching out a hand to others. If that is the essence of prayer, then it is the process of preparing to connect with others most fiercely in the quietest of places.
The Intellectual Property of Min Jin-sung
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