Prayer

Beloved master, oscar wilde once said: "when the gods want to punish us, they answer our prayers." would you please comment?

Devageet, Oscar Wilde is right. It often happens that what psychologists cannot explain about the human mind, the creative artist, the poet, can easily explore to the depths which are beyond logic, beyond reason, beyond scientific research. Oscar Wilde's statement is of tremendous value. When he says, "When the Gods want to punish us, they answer our prayers," he is saying something about our unconsciousness. We are not aware what we are doing, we are not aware what we are asking, we are not aware what we are praying for. Our consciousness is so superficial and our unconsciousness is so deep that it is bound to be that, if our prayers are fulfilled, it will not be a reward, it will be a punishment; because we had asked for something in our sleep and we will repent that we asked for it. For example, you are all aware of the…

Question: First question: Osho, isn’t prayer nothing but repentance? Naresh! Prayer and repentance have no connection at all—not even a distant one. Repentance is a process of the ego; the ego busy adorning itself, trying to plaster over the mistakes and slips that have happened. Repentance is past-oriented, while prayer is the name of plunging totally into the present moment. Prayer has neither a past nor a future. Prayer is neither repentance nor a plan. Prayer is not a demand—this should be granted, that should be granted; nor is it a confession that I did this wrong, I did that wrong. Remembering one’s mistakes and asking forgiveness for them—that too is ego. And by pleading for pardon for one’s mistakes, who has ever become free of them? The more you beg forgiveness, the more you repeat the mistakes.

And you have also asked whether prayer is only for oneself?

Prayer happens only when you are not; how then can it be for yourself? Buddha has said: the meditation, the prayer that is for oneself becomes false, goes wrong, gets distorted, turns poisonous. Prayer is always for the whole. That is exactly where the mistake happens. When you go to the temple, you ask for something for yourself—that is the very slip. There was a famous Zen fakir, Nan-in. A man used to come to him; Nan-in taught him prayer. In Buddhist prayer an essential part is this: first let your feeling be overwhelmed, and then say, “Whatever joy has come to me in this prayer, may it spread across the entire earth, may it reach all who suffer. Let it not remain with me; let it flow to all.” This is an indispensable part of Buddhist prayer. Because Buddha said: if meditation does not flower into total compassion, it…

Is there any place for prayer in religion if there is no god?

In an authentic religion, meditation has a place, but not prayer. Prayer is extrovert, meditation is introvert. Meditation makes you a buddha, prayer simply makes you a beggar. And prayer is fiction-oriented, meditation is truth-oriented. Meditation is Zen, and prayer is nothing but part and parcel of the fiction called God. Avoid prayers, they are taking you away from your own existential reality. Go deeper into meditation. That is the only religiousness possible. The sutras: <q>OUR BELOVED MASTER, WHEN SEKITO RECEIVED THE PRECEPTS, HIS MASTER, SEIGEN, ASKED HIM, "NOW YOU HAVE RECEIVED THE PRECEPTS, YOU WANT TO LEARN THE VINAYA, DON'T YOU?"</q> Vinaya is one of the scriptures of Gautam Buddha. The whole name is vinaya pitak. Seigen asked Sekito, "You are initiated into sannyas, do you now want to learn the scriptures called VINAYA?" The word vinaya means humbleness. It is one of the series of discourses of Buddha.…