于是一个女冠说，请给我们谈祈祷。

他回答说：

你们总在悲痛或需要的时候祈祷，我愿你们也在完满的欢乐中和丰富的日子里祈祷。

因为祈祷不就是你们的自我在活的以太中的开展么？

假若向太空倾吐出你们心中的黑夜是个安慰，那么倾吐出你们心中的晓光也是个欢乐。

假若在你的灵魂命令你祈祷的时候，你只会哭泣，她也要从你的哭泣中反复地鼓励你，直到你笑悦为止。

在你祈祷的时候，你超凡高举，在空中你遇到了那些和你在同一时辰祈祷的人，那些除了祈祷时辰之外你不会遇到的人。

那么，让你那冥冥的殿宇的朝拜，只算个欢乐和甜柔的聚会罢。

因为假如你进入殿宇，除了请求之外，没有别的目的，你将不能接受。

假如你进入殿宇，只为要卑屈自己，你也并不被提高。

甚至于你进入殿宇，只为他人求福，你也不被嘉纳。

只要你进到了那冥冥的殿宇，这就够了。

我不能教给你们怎样用言语祈祷。

除了它通过你的嘴唇所说的它自己的言语之外，上帝不会垂听你的言语。

而且我也不能传授给你那大海、丛林和群山的祈祷。

但是你们生长在群山、丛林和大海之中的人，能在你们心中默会它们的祈祷。

假如你在夜的肃默中倾听，你会听见它们在严静中说：

“我们自己的‘高我’的上帝，您的意志就是我们的意志。

“您的愿望就是我们的愿望。

“您的神力将您赐给我们的黑夜转为白日。

“我们不能向您祈求什么，因为在我们动念之前，您已知道了我们的需要。

“我给您的是我们的需要。在您把自己多赐予我们的时候，您把一切都赐予我们了。”

23

on prayer

then a priestess said, "speak to us of prayer."

and he answered, saying:

you pray in your distress and in your need; would that you might pray also in the fullness of your joy and in your days of abundance.

for what is prayer but the expansion of yourself into the living ether?

and if it is for your comfort to pour your darkness into space, it is also for your delight to pour forth the dawning of your heart.

and if you cannot but weep when your soul summons you to prayer, she should spur you again and yet again, though weeping, until you shall come laughing.

when you pray you rise to meet in the air those who are praying at that very hour, and whom save in prayer you may not meet.

therefore let your visit to that temple invisible be for naught but ecstasy and sweet communion.

for if you should enter the temple for no other purpose than asking you shall not receive.

and if you should enter into it to humble yourself you shall not be lifted:

or even if you should enter into it to beg for the good of others you shall not be heard.

it is enough that you enter the temple invisible.

i cannot teach you how to pray in words.

god listens not to your words save when he himself utters them through your lips.

and i cannot teach you the prayer of the seas and the forests and the mountains.

but you who are born of the mountains and the forests and the seas can find their prayer in your heart,

and if you but listen in the stillness of the night you shall hear them saying in silence,

"our god, who art our winged self, it is thy will in us that willeth.

"it is thy desire in us that desireth.

"it is thy urge in us that would turn our nights, which are thine, into days which are thine also.

"we cannot ask thee for aught, for thou knowest our needs before they are born in us:

"thou art our need; and in giving us more of thyself thou givest us all."