Osho prayer meditation - osho active meditations - osho satori center.

Your prayer is not a purely love affair; no, it is a business.
As a consequence, you pray when you are in trouble; when there is no trouble, you do not pray. When you are in some difficulty, you cannot cope with something, you pray because you need God's help. When there is no difficulty, you forget both God and prayer.

One day the ship was returning to its home country.

Suddenly the ocean went crazy ... a terrible wind, a ship on the brink of destruction. Everyone began to pray. One Sufi just sat there and didn't pray. People got angry with him and said:

You are a religious person, wearing a robe, the green robe of the Sufis. What kind of Sufi are you? You should have prayed first. We are not religious people, we are just business people, for us this prayer, like all our affairs, is nothing more than business. We offer God: "We will give you this, we will give you this, just save us." Why are you sitting in silence? Why don't you pray?

He said:

You have already said why: I am not a businessman. If he wants to end us all, good. If he wants to save us, fine. I am in complete agreement with him. Why should I pray? For what? Prayer means some disagreement, it means something is happening that you would not like. You want God to stand up for you, intervene, stop it, change circumstances. I don't have my own business. It's up to him to worry about saving or drowning. If he wants me to be saved, then this is his business, not mine. And if he wants me to die, that's his business. I did not ask for a birth; I appeared here unexpectedly. Can I ask for death? If birth is not under my control, then why can death be under my control?
Those people thought, "This man has gone mad."

They said:

We'll take care of you later. Just let us get to the shore somehow, and we will take care of you. You are not a Sufi, you are not a religious person; You're very dangerous man... But now is not the time to worry about you and argue with you.

And on board was the most influential, most famous person in the country, he went aboard with millions of diamonds and precious stones... He made a lot. He had a beautiful palace in the city - the most beautiful marble palace. Even the king was jealous of him. Even the king asked him many times:

Give me this palace - name any price, and I will pay.

But this madman said:

It's impossible. This palace is my pride.

When the ship had almost sunk, this man shouted, addressing God:

Listen, I'll give you this palace. Just save me.

And it so happened that the wind died down, the ocean calmed down, the ship was saved. They reached the coast.

Now this rich man was in great difficulty because of his words. Previously, he was angry with the Sufi - now the anger is gone. He said:

Perhaps you were right to remain silent. If I followed your example, I would not lose my palace. But I am a businessman, I will find a way out.

And he found a way out.

The next day, he put the palace up for auction. He notified all the nearby kingdoms, everyone who was interested. Many kings, queens, rich people came; everyone was interested. They were all puzzled to see a cat sitting just in front of the palace, chained to a marble column of the palace. The rich man came out and said:

This palace and this cat are up for auction at the same time. The price of a cat is a million dinars, and the price of a palace is one dollar: one million and one dollar.

People said:

For this cat - one million dollars? And for this palace - one dollar?
The businessman said:

Do not worry about it. If you are interested, then know that they are being sold together. For less, I disagree. If anyone is interested, this is my minimum price.

The king of this country said:

Yes, I will give you a price, but tell me, please, what is the secret of this cat and the palace?

And he said:

There is no secret - I'm just in trouble because of prayer; I told God I would give him a palace. And I am a businessman; if he is a businessman, then I am also a businessman. The cat is one million dollars - and I will keep this amount with me. And the palace - one dollar - and this amount will go to the fund of God.

Prayer is simply your attempt to convince God to act according to you. And this is absolutely your imagination. First of all, you don't know God. You don't know what he likes and what he doesn't like. You don't know if he exists or not. But pray. This is a bad setting, and it is happening all over the world.

I am against prayer because it is mainly a business. This is bribing God. It is the hope that you can reinforce his ego: "You are great, you are compassionate, you can do whatever you want." And all this is said because you need something. There is a reason behind all this - otherwise you would not be praying.

I am against prayer, I am for meditation.

Real prayer- thanks to God (Osho)

But real prayer cannot be a request; true prayer can only be gratitude to God.

A person turns to God with a request, and such a prayer is a means to an end, just a tool. For a person, the prayer itself is not important, he wants to get a result, therefore such a prayer cannot be called real.

Real prayer has no purpose, it is itself a goal - it is gratitude, thanksgiving to the Almighty for allowing us to be, to breathe in the aromas of flowers, to see all this variety of life forms. God allowed us to be aware, hear, taste, and have other perceptions. This is so wonderful that a real prayer-thanksgiving is born of its own accord, we thank God for all this, feeling that we practically cannot thank him in any way.

Osho says: “You only come to the temple to thank:“ No matter how much You give me, it is still too much. I will never deserve this! " Everything you have received is just a gift, and this gift is from Divine love. You didn't deserve it. " This is the Grace of God.

Real prayer can be compared to real love - it is not a means to achieve something, love is the goal itself. You do not love for something, not for the purpose of getting something as a result of your love. When you love (if this is true love, and not selfish love), this love is bliss, so what other goals can there be when there is bliss? What are the expectations? You simply love, exude the scent of love, as flowers exude an aroma - expecting nothing, wanting nothing in return. You radiate love - and that's enough.

Love and gratitude is the best prayer

Real prayer is love, you just enjoy it, you don't ask for anything else. When you understand that God is overflowing with love, gratitude arises in you. Out of his love, God gives you everything, and with a feeling of gratitude you go to the temple - just to offer a prayer of gratitude. Gratitude itself is already a prayer, it is a feedback from God, it is the highest point of happiness.

Selfishness is when you don't thank God for everything He gives you. Energy stagnates, you just receive, and you don’t give anything in return. A fetid swamp of egoism is formed, which is based on the idea of "living only for oneself." When you offer a prayer of gratitude to God, the energy begins to circulate again, and the swamp of selfishness is cleared by the waters of love and gratitude.

It is so wonderful to feel grateful to God that nothing can compare to this feeling. Osho says that prayer is the highest point of human happiness, and such prayer does not become a means to achieve any goal. The goal is gratitude, love for God, and when this goal is achieved, when you feel it, every moment becomes a real prayer - a feeling of gratitude. There is no ego (egoism) in this, since you will not forgive anything, you are grateful for what is already there, because you understand that there could be nothing at all.

When you are grateful for what is, are there any problems, is there anything else needed? All that remains is to thank and share the scent of love and gratitude, without expecting to receive something in return. And it happens spontaneously, by itself, without effort on your part, it's like a rose bloom in beautiful garden- she does not make any effort to this.

You exude this fragrance, share it, give it to others and to God - and there is no calculation, no deal, no expectation, no anxiety. This is gratitude at every moment (and for every moment) of being, this is love, real happiness. This is a harmonious flow of energy from soul to God and from God to soul. You are in constant prayer of gratitude, what could be better than this?

To develop love for God, and there is no happiness higher than this constant prayer-thanks.

Based on materials from Osho, the book "Mustard Seed"

Is there anything above the prayer of gratitude?

In addition to what Osho said, you can add a few words from other sources that state that gratitude to God is very high level, but not yet the limit. Because you can simply be grateful to the Lord, or you can thank Him, or at least try to do it. "But what can be done for the Almighty, who is Absolute and does not need anything?" - Osho's followers will ask.

And to answer this question, you need to consider the Vedic concept and study the Vaishnava scriptures which relate to bhakti yoga, where they are given, which help to express in practice their gratitude to God. After all, if we accept the fact that God has a personal aspect, then it is logical to assume that He, as the Supreme Personality, likes some of our actions and some do not. And by doing what He likes, we thereby rise to a level that is above the prayer of gratitude.

The Vedas assert that the supreme goal of the human form of life is also the revival of love for God; then a person's whole life becomes the highest prayer... Through bhakti yoga (devotional service) one attains the ultimate goal of life and returns to eternal happiness.

Discuss esotericism on the forum :

While doing this meditation, you can feel prayer as an energetic phenomenon, not as an appeal to God, but as a merger, an opening. This merging with energy is prayer. She changes you. New strength, new life begin to penetrate you.

It is best to do this meditation in dark time days, in dark room and go to bed immediately after. Morning will do, but then after meditation you will need to rest for 15 minutes. This rest is necessary, otherwise you will feel as if you are drunk, as if you are in a stupor.

Instructions

One stage with alternating two parts: 20 minutes

Get on your knees without sitting on your shins, eyes closed. Raise both hands to the sky, palms facing up, head thrown back. Just feel how being is pouring into you. As the prana energy flows down your hands, you will feel a slight tremor. Be like a leaf in the wind, tremble - allow yourself this, help it. Then let the whole body vibrate with energy and let whatever happens.

You feel oneness with the earth again. Earth and sky, up and down, yin and yang, masculine and feminine - you soar, you mix, you completely drop yourself. You are not. You become one, you merge. After two or three minutes, or as soon as you feel completely filled, bend down to the ground as if kissing or hugging it. You become simply a conduit for the divine energy to connect with the energy of the earth.

These two stages must be repeated six more times to unblock each chakra. There may be more repetitions, but not less, otherwise you will begin to feel anxiety and will not be able to fall asleep.

In the morning you will feel fresher and more alive than ever. New strength, new life will begin to penetrate you, and you will feel energized all day. A new vibration, a new song in your heart, and a new dance in your steps.

This merging with energy is prayer. She changes you. And when you change, your whole being changes, because it depends on your attitude. It is not that being has changed - it remains the same, but now you are flowing with it, there is no antagonism. There is no struggle, no enmity, you surrendered to him.

OSHO Mahamudra Meditation

This meditation is your encounter with the cosmos, with all of existence. It helps you merge with them, melt and release tension at the deepest level possible.

Meditation consists of two stages, which are not clearly timed. The format suggested here is a good place to start. You can do this meditation any time of the day or just before going to bed. If you decide to do it during the day, make sure you have some free time after meditation before you move on to your daily activities.

The meditation can be performed with music specially made for it. Music energetically supports the process.

Instructions

This meditation lasts 45 minutes and has two stages.

First stage: 30 minutes

Stand up, close your eyes, let the body be relaxed and receptive, in a state of expectation. Listen to it - and you suddenly feel that it wants to move.

When the body is relaxed and receptive, subtle energies beyond your control begin to set it in motion. Let your higher powers take over your body. Just let it happen. This is the latihan.

Second stage: 15 minutes

Get on your knees, eyes closed, raise both hands to the sky, palms up. Feel like you are a hollow bamboo or vessel. Your head is the neck open vessel and incredible energy pours down on her. There is nothing inside, only emptiness, the energy completely fills you. Let it penetrate as deeply as possible into body, mind and soul. Your body will begin to shake and shake like a leaf in a strong wind.

When you feel full, feel the energy pouring over the edge, bend over. Rest with your forehead on the ground. Now pour the energy into the ground. You take from heaven and return to earth. Be right in the middle, like a hollow bamboo that lets energy through.

Then raise your hands up again, fill up again, and empty yourself again. Do this at least seven times. Each time the energy penetrates into one chakra, one center of the body, and goes deeper. You can do more reps, but not less. This will be complete mahamudra.

Latihan is the first step towards mahamudra. It allows the body to vibrate, to be energy, to be non-material, non-material. It allows the body to melt and dissolve its boundaries.

You don't have to do anything, just be there, relaxed and natural, just waiting for something to happen. And if your body starts to move, you should allow it to do so. Collaborate with him. But this cooperation should not become too straightforward, turn into compulsion, it should remain only permission. Suddenly, your body starts to move, as if something captured you, as if a great energy descended on you from above, as if a cloud descended and enveloped you - and now you are at the mercy of this cloud, and it penetrates your body, and the body begins move. Your arms are raised up, you make light movements, you begin to dance smoothly, your gestures are soft, your body is captured.

This dance happens not only outside. Soon, as you tune in with it, you will feel the inner dance as well. It's not just your body that dances, internal energy also dances, they help each other. And then there is a pulsation, and you feel that you are pulsating with the universe, you have discovered the rhythm of the universe.

This can take anywhere from thirty to sixty minutes: start at thirty and work up to sixty at the end. The right time for you is somewhere in between. You will understand this: if the attunement is felt for about forty minutes, then this is your time. Then meditation should go beyond this framework: if attunement is felt for ten minutes, then twenty minutes will be enough; if fifteen minutes remain, then thirty will suffice. To truly cleanse yourself, double down, don't act at random.

Close with prayer. When you are completely cleansed and feel that the body has become fresh - a stream of energy has poured onto you, and the whole body feels whole, undivided, the material nature of the body is lost, you feel it rather as energy, as a movement, a process, something intangible, which means now you are ready. Then get down on your knees.

Raise both hands to the sky, close your eyes and feel yourself like an empty vessel, like a hollow bamboo: there is emptiness inside, you are like an earthen vessel. Your head is a hole in a vessel, and tremendous energy hits it, as if you are standing under a waterfall.

Let it penetrate as deeply as possible in order to reach the most distant corners of your body, mind and soul. And when you feel this - you are so filled, your whole body is shaking - go down, put your head on the ground and pour the energy into the ground. When you feel that energy overwhelms you, pour it into the ground. Take from the sky, give to the earth and be just a hollow bamboo between them.

This must be done seven times. Take from the sky and pour into the ground, kiss the ground and pour out - empty yourself completely. Pour out as totally as you filled, become completely empty. Then raise your hands again, refill, empty again. This must be done seven times, because each time the energy penetrates into one chakra, one center of the body, each time it moves deeper into you. And if you do this less than seven times, then after meditation you will feel uneasy, because the energy will hang somewhere in the middle.

No, it must penetrate all seven chakras of your body so that you become completely empty, just a conduit. Energy comes from the sky and goes into the earth, you are grounded, you simply conduct energy into the earth, like electricity. If you are dealing with electricity, grounding is necessary. Energy comes from the sky and goes into the earth, you become grounded: just a vessel, a hollow bamboo that conducts energy. Seven times. More is possible, but not less. And that will be the completed mahamudra.

If you do this every day, then soon - for about three months - you will feel that you are not. Just energy pulsing with the universe. There is no one, the ego is completely lost, the doer is not. There is the universe and you are - a wave pulsing in unison with the ocean - this is mahamudra. This is the ultimate orgasm, the most blissful state of consciousness of all possible.

Chapter 14

Heart meditations

Anything that has at least some value is never known by the head. Love, beauty, divinity - all this is cognized by the heart. The heart is a gate without a gate to reality. Move from head to heart. We are all suspended in our heads. This is our only problem. And she has only decision: go down from the head to the heart, and all problems will disappear. They are generated by the head. Suddenly everything becomes so clear and so transparent that you wonder how it was possible to continuously invent problems. The mysteries remain, but the problems disappear.

Riddles remain, but problems evaporate. And these riddles are beautiful. You don't need to solve them. They need to be lived.

At the convention communist party one of the delegates constantly shouted:
- Long live Brezhnev!
The chairman tried to calm him down with the words:
- Remember, earlier you shouted: "Long live Khrushchev!"
“That's right,” said the delegate. - And how, is he well?

Daily meditation

month: 3 day: 20

Day

Few in our world really are loving people... This is the cause of all misery. Everyone wants to love, everyone wants to be loved, but no one wants to comprehend the art of love. Love is a great art. You are endowed with potential from birth, but the potential must be realized. And the first condition for this is to become more attentive.
People are in ignorance, so they lack love. People want to love, but because of their ignorance, everything they do turns into its opposite. People kill their own love, kill the very possibility of love, and therefore they are unhappy. They blame fate for it, blame God - blame anyone but themselves. An attentive person will always blame only himself, because he is aware of his actions and sees the contradictions between desires and actions.
The main requirement is to be aware. The art of awareness becomes the art of love, the art of bliss. This is the whole religion.

Evening

Here and Now Meditation

TO DO NOTHING

It takes a lot of courage to do nothing. You don't need much courage to do something, because the mind is always doing something; it always wants to do something - in this world or in the next world, but the ego always wants to do something. If you do something, the ego feels great and rejoices; it is full of strength and health.

Doing nothing is the hardest thing in the world, and if you can do nothing, that's the best thing. The very idea that we should do something is fundamentally wrong. We should be, don't. When I suggest people do something, this is only to help them find out the futility of action, so that one day, exhausted, they collapsed to the ground and said: “That's it! We don't want to do anything. " Then the real work begins.

The real job is to just be. Because everything that you need has already been given, and everything that you can achieve has already been achieved - however, you do not know this yet ... You just need to be in a state of such silence so that you can fall inside yourself again and see , Who are you.

Osho what is prayer read

Eat well famous story about a peasant girl in love from Punjab. This girl once, in thought, walked across the field, where a religious man offered up his prayers. The law of religion does not allow crossing such a place. As the village girl walked back, the religious man told her:

How rude you acted, foolish girl, after all, it is a great sin to pass through the place where a person offers prayers to God!

The girl stopped and asked in great bewilderment:

What do you mean by prayers?

Prayers? he exclaimed. - Don't you know, silly girl, what prayers are? This is a conversation with God! To offer prayers is to think about God and talk to Him.

How strange! How could you see me if you thought about God and talk to Him? When I passed here, I thought about my beloved and talked to him inwardly. Therefore, I did not notice you at all.

Osho quotes

A selection of quotes from Walsh's books "Conversations with God" and statements by other interesting authors - about the soul, love, God, and our relationship with Him, if any.

There is a way to get rid of wars, fears, worries and worries forever. This is a spiritual way. All life problems have a spiritual origin and a spiritual solution.

The highest feeling is oneness with All That Is. This is a great return to the Truth that the soul longs for. This is the feeling of perfect love.

Each heart that sincerely asks: "What is it, the path to God?" - the path is shown. Everyone is given the truth that can be perceived by the heart. Come to Me by the path of your heart, but not by the path of your mind. You can never find Me in your mind.

What is important for the soul? The highest feeling of love you can imagine. This is the desire of the soul. This is its meaning and purpose. The soul needs feelings. Not knowledge, but feelings. She already has knowledge, but knowledge is concepts. Feelings are experiences. The soul wants to feel itself and, thus, to know itself through its own experience.

Very few of the value judgments that you accepted as your truth were based on your own experience. But you came here precisely for the sake of experience - and it was from your experience that you had to create yourself. You created yourself out of the experience of others.

Relationships constantly check what you are capable of, constantly urge you to create, express and experience on your own experience more and more higher features of yourself, your even more elevated worldview, your even more wonderful ideas about yourself. Nowhere can you do this so directly, effectively and so clearly as in a relationship. In fact, you can't do all of this outside of a relationship at all.

At critical moments in all human relationships, there is only one question: "How would love act now?"

Love is as natural a function as breathing.

True love is unity, the union of I and YOU in one whole, the absence of separation. Love is the desire to return to the One Whole, this is the desire to dissolve into the whole.

A man in love demands perfection from another, as if he owes him something. A woman, having fallen in love, demands perfection from a man, simply because she has fallen in love. A man, having fallen in love with a woman, also demands from her, as if she owes him something. This is self-centeredness.

True love can only give without asking for anything in return; it is shared unconditionally. Only greed asks and expects.

V true love there is not and cannot be disappointment, because there is no expectation in it. As for fake love, it can never be satisfied, since its expectations are endless - it is always not enough for it. Therefore, fake love is only disappointing, and real love is complete satisfaction.

True, Supreme love is deep spiritual experience, which has nothing to do with bodies and the opposite of the sexes.

Real prayer has no purpose, it is itself a goal - it is gratitude, thanksgiving to the Almighty for allowing us to be, to breathe in the aromas of flowers, to see all this variety of life forms.

You exude this fragrance, share it, give it to others and to God - and there is no calculation, no deal, no expectation, no anxiety. This is gratitude at every moment (and for every moment) of being, this is love, real happiness. It is a harmonious flow of energy from soul to God and from God to soul. You are in constant prayer of gratitude, what could be better than this?

Quotes from new conversations with God

God is in everyone's heart and speaks to us in a whisper of love.

When we stop hearing, He manifests Himself as the Voice of a Loving Conscience.

And when we no longer even hear our conscience, He is forced to shout into our mouthpiece of suffering.

For how else can He reach out to our hearts?

I will always protect you.

Will you call Allah, Buddha, Hosts, Christ or

Omnipresent Love, I will always come to your aid.

However, this help will be shown in different ways,

depending on who you call Me.

and their infinitely varied relationship of mutual love!

The energies of God, including individual souls,

differ from their Source

(otherwise their relationship could not have arisen)

and at the same time they are one with Him.

All events that take place take place in the Name of Love.

You are a tiny particle of this Love, and you exist,

to take our place in this gigantic plan,

in this grandiose plan of Her movement, Her life,

Its self-continuation. This Love is I myself.

And one day you will return to Me.

You are always a servant of Great Love.

The question was never - to serve or not to serve God,

but your eternal choice is how to serve.

I want you to wake up because

there is a thousand times greater happiness.

And one day you will find it. Your sleep is not eternal.

fulfilling your desires,

allowing you to use Him,

without disturbing your lifestyle,

that suits you quite well ...

But what if God is a living person?

These are just a few quotes from the new book The Voice of a Loving Conscience. To understand God more as a Personality, you can read new conversations with God, which in many ways reveal Him personal qualities... The book is no less interesting and engaging than Walsh's early books on the subject. She gives answers to many indeed important questions life, helping to orient in their desires and determine priorities. God is always ready to help us if we sincerely turn to him - no matter what religion we are in, or whether we go to church at all. The book "Voice of a loving conscience" published on the site "Conversations with God" is a new, fresh look at yourself, your inner world, on their desires and relationship with God. The book can be read online or downloaded in any format convenient for you. Cognitive reading!

Music of the soul

Rajneesh Bhagwan Shri

To the begining
Go to

Bhagwan Shri Rajneesh (Osho)

When you are in the early morning

see the sunrise, watch

in silence and within you

sunrise also begins - this is prayer.

When a bird soars in the sky

and you soar in the sky. And you forgot

that you are apart is prayer.

Wherever division disappears

When you become one

with existence, with the universal whole, -

Prayer is the experience of resurrection, it is rebirth, it is the birth of a new vision ... it is a new dimension, it is A New Look on things, this is a new way of life. Not something that you do; but something that you become. This state of being has nothing to do with the words that you utter in a temple, a mosque, or a church. It is a silent dialogue with existence.

This is attunement with the universal, with the whole ... to come into harmony with the whole is prayer. This experience is great and limitless, and no precision is possible in it. He is indefinable; any definition is disproportionately small. Any definition conveys some part, but only a part. Much remains unsaid.

The experience of prayer is so pervasive that it contains contradictions. Therefore, someone can say: "Prayer is silence" - and he will be right, absolutely right. Someone else may say: “Prayer is a dialogue” - and also be right, because prayer is a dialogue in silence. At first glance, "dialogue" and "silence" contradict each other. They speak in dialogue, listen in silence. They talk in dialogue, they just stay in silence: there is nothing to say.

What can you say? You can bow down. You can celebrate. And yet, your bow, your service, your celebration, your gratitude ... all these are still attempts to express. You try to express yourself without words, because words are so small, and your heart wants to express itself so fully. So this is a dialogue, albeit in silence. In a sense, it is a conversation in which you and the whole of existence participate - an existence that becomes your beloved, that becomes your “You”. And yet in prayer there is neither "I" nor "You" - one and the other disappears. Both merge into one, unite into one whole, an organic whole. Like a dewdrop in the ocean, you disappear. Nothing separates you and existence. What kind of dialogue can there be?

Both definitions are correct. Those who call prayer a dialogue - like Christians, like Jews, like Hindus - are right. But they speak only of a fraction of the greatest experience called prayer. Buddhists say there is no dialogue. Jainism says that there is no dialogue, because there is neither "I" nor "You." Only absolute silence. They are also right - but it is also true that it is definitely very difficult to approach prayer.

Unlike science, religion cannot be defined. If you ask science, everything is accurate in science. You ask: "What is water?" And science says: "H 2 0". So simple! Exhaustively simple. "Н 2 0" - and that says it all, because water belongs to the objective world. The object is amenable to analysis.

Prayer refers to the world of subjectivity. It is not an analytic object. As a matter of fact, prayer cannot be shown to anyone. If someone insists: “I don’t see any prayer in you,” you will not be able to show him your prayer, you will not even be able to prove its existence. Prayer is like love — more like love than the H2O of water. Love is just as indefinable.

Always remember: there are things that are under you, and there are things that are above you. In those things that are under you, accuracy is possible. But in those things that are above you, you cannot be precise. They are bigger than you. If prayer exists, prayer does not exist in you - on the contrary: you exist in prayer. Prayer is above you. You simply vibrate in this immense dimension, in this super-abundance.

Sense is a subtle phenomenon. It is like the scent of a flower. You cannot catch it, touch it with your hands, but it exists - can you catch it or not, can you put its safe or not. It still exists!

If we take this question further ... then what is poetry? Just a bunch of words in a specific order? No. It is something that happens when words are in a certain order - but more than a certain word order. This is not grammar, this is not language - it is something transcendental; something brought to life by words. Words give a reason for poetry to happen.

And it’s the same in music. Instruments, notes, sounds serve to bring about silence - which is music. Music is between two sounds, poetry is between two words; everything that is alive and meaningful is between the lines ... Never in the lines themselves - always between the lines; you need to learn to read in between, in gaps, in pauses.

But still something can be said about prayer ... - although nothing can be said for sure, so I cannot fulfill your desire. The very nature of prayer prevents this, and it would be blasphemous to go against its nature.

So, the first thing I can say about prayer is a feeling of immeasurable gratitude, gratitude. You have the opportunity to be here in this world, in all its beauty, with all its trees and rivers, mountains and stars. In this amazing beauty you live, you pulsate with life. You didn't deserve this opportunity. You received it as a gift. Prayer gives thanks for this gift of life. Just breathing is such a joy. just open your eyes - and see the green leaves. - or the chirping of birds, or the sounds of running water, or the silence of the night in its velvet darkness ... Or sunset, or dawn ... we did not deserve this! We received all this as a gift, but did not even express gratitude.

Whether God exists or not, we owe gratitude. People think, "If God exists, we will thank him." I tell you exactly the opposite: "You will find God if you begin to thank." There is no other way. You will find God if you become grateful, because God only happens in this dimension of gratitude. You don't look with your ears and you don't listen with your eyes: your eyes can only see, your ears can only hear - just like that, only gratitude can find God, only gratitude can feel God.

And second, prayer is a way of life. It is not a specific set of activities performed as some kind of morning ritual. If prayer is performed as a ritual, it loses all meaning. If prayer is performed as a ritual, it will not bring you religiosity - it will make you a Hindu, it will make you a Muslim, but it will not bring religiosity. Let prayer be something completely informal: something from the very heart ... not a ritual, but hastily performed in the morning, because "it is necessary"; because you were taught that way; because you are doing your duty. Not completing the ritual makes you feel a little guilty; having performed the ritual, you do not receive a drop of joy from it. When the ritual is not perfect, only a sense of guilt is produced. To avoid feeling guilty, you perform a ritual. This is not a prayer.

Prayer is a way of life.

What I mean? The man of prayer is in prayer twenty-four hours a day. He sleeps in prayer; his dream itself is a kind of prayer. In a dream, he is so relaxed, as if sleeping in the arms of the universe. Falling asleep, he sleeps in divinity. When he wakes up, he wakes up in divinity. He opens his eyes, and gratitude, infinite gratitude, enters first into his heart and into his being. He eats divinity, he drinks divinity. He steps into divinity. He breathes in divinity, he breathes in divinity. Throughout his twenty-four hours, prayer continues unceasingly. Like background music at the edge of the ear, prayer is played continuously. Whatever he does, it doesn't matter: the prayer goes on.

I am not saying that you repeat "Rama, Rama, Rama" or "Alla, Alla, Alla." Repetition will do nothing. If you start chanting "Ram, Ram, Ram," it will disrupt the normal course of life. Driving - you will not be able to drive normally, because the mind will be split. You cannot fully invest yourself in any work. So there is no need to repeat anything. Words and repetition have nothing to do with it; prayer is a kind of feeling, a kind of presence. You can imagine a mother sleeping: at night she sleeps, her child sleeps next to her ... maybe in the rainy season, when there are clouds and thunder in the sky. Thunderclaps won't wake her. But as soon as the child moves a little in a dream, cries, and she immediately wakes up. The thunder could not wake her up, but the child ... Even in her sleep, some part of her being remembers the child. So is prayer.

Music of the soul

When you see the sunrise in the early morning, you watch in silence and the sunrise begins within you too, that is prayer. When a bird is soaring in the sky and you are soaring in the sky. And you forgot that you are apart - that is prayer.

Wherever division disappears, prayer arises. When you become one with existence, with the universal whole, that is prayer.

Prayer - The Song of Silence

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What is prayer? What is its exact definition?

Prayer is the experience of resurrection, it is rebirth, it is the birth of a new vision ... it is a new dimension, it is a new way of looking at things, it is a new way of life. Not something that you do; but something like you become... This state of being has nothing to do with the words that you utter in a temple, a mosque, or a church. It is a silent dialogue with existence.

This is attunement with the universal, with the whole ... to come into harmony with the whole is prayer. This experience is great and limitless, and no accuracy in it is impossible. He is indefinable; any definition is disproportionately small. Any definition conveys some part, but only a part. Much remains unsaid.

Both definitions are correct. Those who call prayer a dialogue - like Christians, like Jews, like Hindus - are right. But they speak only of a fraction of the greatest experience called prayer.

Prayer should remain vague, elusive, without clear lines. Prayer must remain incomprehensible. You see it only in passing, like a fleeting glimpse, but you cannot catch it entirely, touch it with your hands. It does not boil down to a simple definition.

Unlike science, religion cannot be defined. If you ask science, everything is accurate in science. You ask: “What is water?” And science says: “H2O”. So simple! Exhaustively simple. “H2O” - and that says it all, because water belongs to the objective world. The object is amenable to analysis.

Prayer refers to the world of subjectivity. It is not an analytic object. As a matter of fact, prayer cannot be shown to anyone. If someone insists: “I don’t see any prayer in you,” you will not be able to show him your prayer, you will not even be able to prove its existence. Prayer is like love - more like love than H2O of water. Love is just as indefinable.

But we have been taught, especially in this age of science, to be precise in everything. And this stubborn pursuit of precision destroyed much that was beautiful and valuable in life. If something doesn't lend itself precise definition, the mind tries to deny its existence.

Divinity cannot be precisely defined, and the mind says, "So divinity cannot exist." Love cannot be precisely defined; then the mind says: "Love has only dreamed of us, no more." Beauty cannot be precisely defined; then the mind says, “We just invented the beauty. There is nothing in it but our fantasies. " But what then remains? Does this mean that there is no more beauty in the world, no love, no good? So the world has lost all meaning? No, the world itself has remained the same and has not lost its meaning; it is only your maddened desire for precision that makes it meaningless.

Sense is a subtle phenomenon. It is like the scent of a flower. You cannot catch it, touch it with your hands, but it exists - can you catch it or not, can you put its safe or not. It still exists!

How do you define music? If you begin to define it, it will be destroyed. Then there will be only an organized set of sounds, no more ... A certain kind of noise, organized in such a way that it no longer seems like noise. Soothing noise, pleasant to the ear. Is that all? Is there really nothing else in music? No, there is more to music than notes; something more than a complete collection of notes.

And it’s the same in music. Instruments, notes, sounds serve to bring about silence - which is music. Music is between two sounds, poetry is between two words; everything that is alive and meaningful is between the lines ... Never in the lines themselves - always between lines; you need to learn to read in between, in gaps, in pauses.

Prayer is a way of life.

You live everyday life, you perform ordinary actions, you work, but deep inside, in the holy of holies of your being, you keep an unceasing bow to existence - prayer continues, gratitude continues. Sometimes, at some moment of silence, prayer will come to the surface; at ordinary times it continues internally, latently.

In prayer live; in prayer do not require… In prayer you entrust yourself to the silence and uncertainty of existence.

We are so small; existence is so immense ... we were here only for a few moments; existence has always been and always will be. We are just small waves in this vast ocean. We can ask, but we have no right to demand. We can ask because we are not alien to existence; we are not outsiders in it. We are akin to him. We are involved in it. Existence has populated its universe with us. By the will of existence, we exist. We can ask. But the request does not contain a note of the demand. We are grateful if the request is fulfilled. We are grateful if the request is not fulfilled. Remember this. This is the beauty of prayer.

If the request is fulfilled, we are grateful - obviously. If the request is not fulfilled, we are still grateful. Why are we grateful even when the request is not fulfilled? Because a person who knows what prayer is, who lives by prayer, also knows that sometimes we ask for something that is not good for us. Existence knows better. If the request is useful to us, it will be fulfilled. If the request is not helpful, it will not be fulfilled.

The little girl's favorite doll fell and shattered. Sobbing over the fragments, the girl said to her brother:

- I will pray to God that he will collect the fragments and make the doll intact.

- And you think God will answer your prayer?

- Will answer. You will see.

Two hours later, the brother returned and asked his sister:

- Well, how? Has God already answered?

“I answered,” she said, and pointed to the shards. - He said no.

This is prayer. You have the right to ask, but you have no right to demand. No means no. Ultimately, it is God who makes the decision. The requirement implies that you have already decided everything. Requirement means: you want existence to fulfill your will. Request means only: “I put my desire at your feet, but your will is on everything - your will be done; Thy kingdom come ... ”These last words of Jesus on the cross - that's what prayer is!

Osterhus says: "No one can pray without words, because no one exists outside of language, and everything is a dialogue." Buddha says that prayer is silence. And both are right. Osterhus is right - in a sense this is true: no one can pray without words, because no one exists outside of language. Language is almost the same for us as the ocean is for fish. Language is our ocean.

So Osterhus is right. And he fully understands the importance of language, because he is a poet. Only a poet fully understands the importance of language - not a linguist, not a grammar. The grammar knows only the body of the tongue; the poet knows his heart, his soul, his spirit, his invisible dimension. Osterhus is right: no one exists outside of language, and everything is a dialogue.

Yes, prayer is a kind of dialogue. The part speaks to the whole. The part refers to the whole. And you will need to learn this dialogue.

It has never happened to you that you suddenly wanted to speak to trees. - although you know perfectly well that they will not answer you? Have you ever said hello to a rose blooming on a branch? Maybe you didn’t say anything out loud, because it would look so ridiculous - but didn’t you have such a desire? Haven't you wanted to talk to the stars sometimes? If not, you have lost the ability to feel. You have ever touched a stone - with love, with tenderness. feeling its surface. Have you ever wanted to say something to all the invisible that surrounds you? This is prayer, this is dialogue.

But you have to pluck up the courage. Yes, it will take real courage - only then can prayer happen. It’s very easy to go to church and pray, because it’s the way people do it. Nobody calls you crazy. On the contrary, you will be considered a highly religious person, a worthy person, a good Christian - or a Catholic or a Hindu. You will only receive universal respect. But if you start talking to trees ... Just think: you can talk in church with a crucifix, that is, with a piece of dead wood, but you cannot talk to a tree, with a living tree! But if you can't talk to a living tree, how can you talk to a crucifix?

Start talking to existence, to nature. Be a little crazy. Free yourself someday from the prison of your so-called sane mind. It just leads to madness, this so-called sane mind. Thousands of people go crazy every day. Every day thousands of people around the world commit suicide. And millions continue to live a gray and colorless life - and not for any reason, but for one and only one: they do not know prayer. They have not learned to talk to existence. They failed to pour out their heart. Do you know why in modern world has psychoanalysis become so important? Because people have forgotten how to pray.

The psychoanalyst is now supplanting the priest, and for one and only reason: before, people poured out their hearts to nature, but now they do not find whom to pour out their hearts to. They go to a psychoanalyst, they pay money. The psychoanalyst listens - they pour out their hearts. This is completely pointless. You can just as well sit in your garden. Moreover, as psychoanalysts, the trees are much better: they listen so attentively, so sensitively. Talk to the stones. You can say anything to them, they will not be offended by anything. You will be able to pour out your heart - and all your load, all your tension will subside.

In the past, human life was so free from heaviness, so free from tension. And the reason is that everyone knew how to enter into prayer. Prayer happened naturally. Man went out to the mountains and rivers, to the sun and to the moon, and he talked to them ... all these are the faces of God. - manifestations of the divine. Trembling with life, pulsating in this moment, now.

So when I tell you to start talking to trees, I am giving you the first lesson in prayer. Churches are man-made. Avoid everything that is created by man, because everything created by man carries within it all of human neurosis. Isn't it better to turn to something created by God? If you want to feel God, turn to what was created by God - go where you will find his seal.

Churches were created by man - both temples and mosques. In them you will find only a person, a person with his own politics. In them you will find only a man, a man with all his stupidity. Trees are not that stupid; the stars are not that stupid. Go to them, open your heart to them - enter into a dialogue with nature. And one day a miracle will happen when suddenly you see that the tree has responded. Then you will know what prayer is; then you will understand Osterhus, who says that prayer is a dialogue. Yes, one day the tree responds - you just need to wait, you just need to have enough patience. You just need to convince the tree that yes, you are really talking to him or her, talking to him or her - that's all. This will take a little time.

The man treated the trees so cruelly that they became withdrawn and distrustful. Let the tree understand, let the tree feel that you are not crazy, that there is no violence in you, that there is no aggressiveness - that you have come to him with love, with the greatest love.

So, prayer should begin with a dialogue - but with whom? I propose a dialogue with nature. Even an atheist can enter into such a dialogue. I do not bring God into it. First, enter into a dialogue with nature - this is the basics of prayer. And then, along with nature, little by little, begin to move into silence. Sitting next to blooming rose, go with her into silence without thought and word: you and the rose, together without words, and between you - only the pulse of silence ... waves of silence.

In dialogue, you cognize the divine in the manifested world, in natural world; in silence you cognize the divine as unmanifest. Buddha is also right: he is talking about the very pinnacle of prayer. But this peak becomes achievable only if you start with what is closest to you. The path to the highest begins with the closest.

The ancient Jews had a special word - maranatha... It means: "Come, Lord, come!" This is the prayer: “I am ready. My heart is open to you! I'm waiting. Come, Lord, come! " -… waiting with the greatest patience, opening wide all your doors and windows, so that his wind blows freely in you, so that his sun penetrates into the holy of holies of your being and fills you with light: “Come, Lord, come!”

The Jews had another word, Hosanna- which means: “Come and deliver us! Come and deliver us from our ignorance! Come and deliver us from our limitations. Come and deliver us from our limits, free us from this prison in which we have imprisoned ourselves. Come and give us freedom! Come and deliver - come and free us! "

The very name of Christ, "Jesus", means: "He who sets free." Originally his name was Yeshua - or Jesus. His name means "He who came to deliver." The Hebrew words "Hosanna" and "Yeshua" are related to each other as a question and an answer, as hope and fulfillment, as prayer and response, as an answer to prayer.

If you are absorbed in prayer, hot and passionate, the answer comes. Jesus was the answer to many prayers. Buddha became the answer to many prayers, like Mahavira and Muhammad and Nanak. These are the answers! Take them as answers to those many who have prayed. The master appears when the disciple is ready - nothing else. If the student truly prepared his heart, opened himself, became vulnerable, threw off his armor - instantly the master appears. The disciple is the question; the master is the answer.

Prayer as a bridge between a question and an answer, between a disciple and a master, between a seeker and a sought-after, between the closest, the nearest and the most distant, highest, between desire and fulfillment.

Prayer is born out of our love, in the experience of love - just like when we address each other ... Maybe you had to feel how different the same word can be? We speak with the same words, but the quality changes. When the word “you” is addressed to a person who is indifferent to you, there is no prayer in this word ... But when you say “you” to a woman or a man whom you love, the word is the same, but the quality has changed. When you say the same word “you” to a beloved woman, it contains prayer, it contains love. The word trembles with life, pulsates, flows. When you say "you" to the first person you meet in the marketplace, this word is lifeless.

Prayer gradually arose out of the experience of love. When one person loves another, he is filled with the greatest joy - and those who are intelligent enough, those who are sufficiently aware, once it became clear: "If love for one person brings so much joy, how much joy will love for all that exists!" Love paved the way for prayer.

When people love, they pray to each other. See what their eyes are when they look at each other. This sacred look. It may not last longer than a moment, but at that moment a flame burns. At this moment, the messenger of the transcendent appears. When people love, they pray to each other. So one lover says to another "you" - in this word there is respect, and trust, and desperate thirst. So someone says to you "you" - and in this word there is hope, and awe, and awe, and strength; and a request or kindness is heard in the voice.

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