Prayer

Father, you know, remembrance of God should be continuous and not interrupted—unceasing prayer. The Bible says that it should be unceasing. So, Father, what is prayer?

Prayer is... you can say it verbally, or you can say it mentally. In fact, if there is only emptiness, that is the best. But if you're going to use the mind, then remember to use it to remember the name of God. So, mental prayer then drops into our heart, where even the chanting, the prayer, comes from the heart to the heart. Then our prayers become a communion with God. Then our prayer deepens into a simple love, and to just hold this love for God in our heart is to not have stopped praying. This is also a continuing of the prayer.

Then you may feel like there is just a presence. You're not able to say how you're being with that presence; it's just that the presence is so apparent and palpable. And the world, even if it is appearing, seems to just be like a gentle cloud—it's coming and going like that. You have not stopped your prayer. And then you may have an insight of yourself which is beyond being and not being, beyond all the guests. You meet yourself as the Nirguna reality, the Nirguna Self, Nirguna Brahman, Nirguna God—whatever you want to call it. And from there, what to even say? So even this is prayer. For you to remain in the unborn, to remain open and empty, is also prayer.

So everything... like we said, if we look at the most gross, if you start with the body, to prostrate the body is to pray. Then with the breath, I've explained how we can use it as an anchor for your prayer. Even the mind you can use to remember the name of God; if you're going to use it at all, then use it to pray. Once it has dropped into your heart, then it takes a life of its own. Then you are not going to say, 'Oh, now sapa should come, then ajapa should come.' You can't control any of that. It's the Satguru presence within itself which guides all of this to happen.

Then our life can become an unceasing prayer because we may be in the midst of a lot of activity and things may be happening, you see, but you can remain in the presence. You can remain in the love for the presence. If the presence seems too subtle, then you can remain anchored in that love. It all depends on the kind of activity. Most activities actually will have enough room to chant while the activity can still go on. But if it seems like, 'No, no, it is too difficult, it seems like juggling,' then anchor yourself in the love in your heart and let that activity unfold. If something seems even beyond that, just the pure primordial state—stay there. And if you've gone beyond all of that and your true nature as awareness is apparent to you, then you're completely open and empty. Then pure perception can continue, but you've not left the prayer.