About Prayer (24)

Once upon a time there was a forest where the birds sang by day and the insects by night. Trees flourished, flowers bloomed, and all manner of creatures roamed about in freedom

And all who entered there were led to Solitude, which is the home of God, who dwells in Nature's silence and Nature's beauty.

But then the Age of Unconsciousness arrived, when it became possible for people to construct buildings a thousand feet high and to destroy rivers and forests and mountains in a month. So houses of worship were built from the wood of the forest trees and from the stone under the forest soil. Pinnacle, spire, and minaret pointed toward the sky; the air was filled with the sound of bells, with prayer and chant and exhortation.

And God was suddenly without a home.


God hides things by putting them before our eyes!
Hark! Listen to the song of the bird, the wind in the trees, the ocean's roar; look at a tree, a falling leaf, a flower as if for the first time.
You might suddenly make contact with Reality, with that Paradise from which we, having fallen from childhood, are excluded by our knowledge.
Says the Indian mystic Saraha: "Know the taste of this flavor which is the absence of Knowledge."

Anthony de Mello

About Prayer (22)

When the Master invited the Governor to practice meditation and the Governor said he was too busy, this is the reply he got: " You put me in mind of a man walking blindfolded into the jungle - and being to busy to take the blindfold off."

When the Governor pleaded lack to time, the Master said, "It is a mistake to think that meditation cannot be practiced for lack of time. The real reason is agitation of the mind."

Anthony de Mello

About Prayer (21)

A monk was walking in the monastery grounds one day when he heard a bird sing.

He listened, spellbound. It seemed to him that never before had he heard, really heard, the song of a bird.

When the singing stopped he returned to the monastery and discovered, to his dismay, that he was a stranger to his fellow monks, and they to him.

It was only gradually that they and he discovered that he was returning after centuries. Because his listening was total, time had stopped and he had slipped into eternity.


Prayer is made perfect when the timeless is discovered.
The timeless is discovered through clarity of perception.
Perception is made clear when it is disengaged from preconceptions and from all consideration of personal loss or gain.
Then the miraculous is seen and the heart is filled with wonder.

Anthony de Mello