Prayer Meditation is a gentle, devotional method of merging with the living energy of existence. You become a conduit between sky and earth: receiving from above, offering to below. In that surrender, a natural trembling may arise—like a leaf in the breeze—signaling that life-force is moving through you. This merging is prayer; it changes you, and when you change, the whole of existence is felt anew.
Best done at night in a darkened room so you can sleep immediately afterward, it may also be practiced in the morning provided you rest for 15 minutes afterward; otherwise you may feel as if drunk or stupefied. The two stages are repeated seven times so each chakra can open and the pathway of energy is cleared. More rounds are welcome; fewer may leave you restless and unable to sleep.
Phase Instructions
Preparation: Setting and Timing
Choose a quiet, darkened room. Preferably practice at night and go to sleep immediately after. If you practice in the morning, commit to 15 minutes of rest afterward. Stand comfortably with the body relaxed and receptive, eyes softly open or closed, and let the breath be natural.
First Stage: Receive from the Sky
Raise both hands toward the sky, palms facing upward, head gently tilted up. Simply feel existence flowing into you. As the energy (prana) moves down your arms, a gentle tremor may appear—be like a leaf in the breeze, trembling. Allow it, even help it; let the whole body vibrate with the incoming current. Do not control; let whatever happens, happen. Continue for about 2–3 minutes, or until you feel completely filled.
Second Stage: Offer to the Earth
When you feel full, lean down to the earth and kiss it. In this bowing, let yourself be a vehicle through which the divine energy you received unites with the energy of the earth. Offer your fullness completely, without holding back.
Repetition and Completion
Repeat the two stages six more times (seven rounds in total) so each chakra can become unblocked. You may do more rounds if you wish, but doing fewer may leave you restless and disturb sleep. If practicing at night, end by going directly to sleep. If practicing in the morning, lie down or sit quietly for 15 minutes of rest to integrate the energy; otherwise you may feel as if drunk or in a stupor.
Core Benefits
- Merging with the living energy of existence
- Becoming a conduit between sky and earth
- Facilitating a natural trembling as life-force moves through you
- Feeling the whole of existence anew
- Clearing the pathway of energy
What Osho Said About This Technique
Mediation is the only true prayer. All else that goes on in the name of prayer is mind stuff. It is utterly useless. You can go on talking to God for lives together, but you will never be heard. Real prayer is not verbal. It has to be out of silence. Silence is simply silence, it does not belong to any religion. It certainly belongs to the religious heart. It is the very center of the religious heart but it is not part of any dogma, doctrine, church. A really religious person is free of all Christianity, Judaism, Jainism, Buddhism. Because "isms" as such are something in the mind. They are ideology, philosophy, thinking. And thinking is never silent, thinking is a always a turmoil. Silence means a thought-less stillness. When there is no thought in you, when nothing stirs, you are in prayer.Read the full discourse →
So one has to go on leaving the mind and moving into the unknown again and again. It is an eternal journey. So simply sit, wait for the unknown, and if something starts happening in your body energy, allow it. After a few days you will see tremendous happenings. You will not be able to believe what is happening. Don't get scared, don't be scared... allow it. You may feel jolts of energy, shocks of energy shaking your very foundation. You will feel a great trembling arising in you, a great shaking. And it will be coming from nowhere. You will see that you are not doing it. You will be able to see absolutely that you are not in your own control. Something has come and possessed you, something has descended upon you -- you are no more yourself. A greater self has come in contact.Read the full discourse →
This headache will disappear, and when the headache has gone, you will find your head light for the first time. Energy is moving perfectly, moving rightly. Mm ? nothing to be worried about! [Osho explains the meaning of archan.] It means prayer. Prayer has to be evolved in your being, mm? And prayer has a different, a little different quality than meditation. It is meditation plus -- plus love. Meditation has no love in it. The other is not involved in it. You can meditate all alone. In fact, you can meditate only when you are all alone. It is solitude, aloneness. It is the beauty of being alone. Prayer is the beauty of being together. It is the highest peak of love. So even if the devotee, one who prays, is alone, he is not alone. The god, the beloved, is there surrounding him. Prayer is an I-thou dialogue.Read the full discourse →
Meditation is an end and a beginning -- the end of the old and the birth of the new. You cannot even comprehend it because the old cannot comprehend the new, the old can only comprehend something which is old. It has limitations, it can move only within the boundary of the known, and the new is not within its boundary, the new is unknown. Hence only very courageous people can take the jump. Courage is needed because you have to die to the old, and the old is familiar. You are dropping that which is familiar for something which is absolutely unfamiliar. This is what courage is: dropping the known for the unknown. There are two steps to courage: the first is dropping the known for the unknown, and the second is dropping the knowable for the unknowable. By dropping the known for the unknown, meditation happens.Read the full discourse →
What is the difference between prayer and meditation?
Then the second layer of your being: love, heart. If a man is religious love becomes prayer. If the man is not religious then love becomes poetry, art, painting, music. Then the third layer, the deepest core, beyond which nothing exists, is being. Absolute silence; and absolute aloneness. There;s no difference now between religious and non.religious. At the centre everything becomes one. In that silence one is neither religious nor anti religious, because those are the terms of the reason. In that silence one's love is neither prayer nor art. Everything has become one. That silence IS meditation. When people come to me, if I see that they are in their heads then I help them to be related, to move, to fall in love, to become a little foolish, so that they come down from their heads, so that they get down from the throne of the ego a…Read the full discourse →
Common Questions
Best done at night in a darkened room, but it can also be practiced in the morning with 15 minutes of rest afterward.
You may feel as if drunk or stupefied.
The two stages should be repeated seven times so each chakra can open and the pathway of energy is cleared.
Yes, more rounds are welcome; fewer may leave you restless and unable to sleep.