Prayer
Waiting allows the whole to take possession. You disappear, the
whole appears. Waiting is vacating for the truth to be. It is void,
voidness - empty of all that we have known, experienced, believed -
and then from nowhere, or everywhere, comes the feeling of being
lifted up. Gratitude arises naturally and spontaneously as when we
receive a loving gift. Thinking stops, thanking begins. This is
prayer. It has nothing to do with your silly ideas of God, and
prayer, and all that.
This is prayer : when you are waiting, waiting, waiting, empty. And
there is nothing to do, there is no way to do; you cannot get
occupied. When you are just silent, utterly silent - a kind of
absence - one is lifted up; the whole takes you. In that lifting up
arise gratitude and prayer.
This will help you to understand the miracle, or the puzzle, of a
Buddhist praying. Christians have been puzzled. Hindus have remained
confused about it - how a Buddhist can pray, because he does not
believe in God. How can a Buddhist pray? The Buddhist can pray, but
his prayer is not your so-called prayer. His prayer is a sheer
feeling of gratitude. It is not addressed to anybody. He does not
pray to God; he simply prays. What can he do? He is lifted up. The
whole has taken him, possessed him; the whole has come in him,
rushing from every side, from everywhere or from nowhere. He is no
more the same; all is light, all is freedom, and all is love. How
can you remain ungrateful? He does not bow down to anybody in
particular, he simply bows down. His bowing down is pure: it is a
gesture, unaddressed. He does not thank God, because there is no
God, but he thanks, he thanks the whole existence.