如同人类所有的深层问题一样，祈祷也是件复杂的事，草率不得。我们要耐心、细致且宽容地探索这个问题，不能追求铁板钉钉的结论与决议。
祈祷的人，尚未觉悟自心，通过祈祷，可能走向自我欺骗。有时我听人讲——好几位跟我说过：当他们向所谓的神祈求世俗之物，常常应验；不管他们寻求什么，比如健康、慰藉、世俗财产，只要他们心持信念，而且愿力足够强大，那么他们最终都能如愿以偿。如果人沉溺于祈求祷告，祈祷的确能带来回报，所求之物常能如愿，这又进一步强化了他的祈祷依赖。除了为人或物祈祷，还有人祈祷体验实相、上帝，这种祈祷也常有所回应；此外还有其他形形色色的祈祷，更加微妙而迂回，但这些终究只是向神灵祈求、乞讨或供奉。所有这些，尽管各有回报，各有体验，但能引领我们去觉悟究竟实相吗？
我们是过去的产物，所以与这座巨大仓库息息相关，仓库里储藏着我们的贪婪、憎恨，及其相对立的各种情绪。当我们发出请求，做出祈祷时，我们是在唤起这仓库里积蓄的贪欲，从而产生回报，同时也付出代价。但，向外人祈求，向心外之物祷告，能让我们觉悟真理吗？
——克里希那穆提《生命书：365观心日课》（The Book of Life: Daily Meditations with Krishnamurti）
Prayer Is a Complex Affair
Like all deep human problems, prayer is a complex affair and not to be rushed at; it needs patience, careful and tolerant probing, and one cannot demand definite conclusions and decisions.
Without understanding himself, he who prays may through his very prayer be led to self-delusion. We sometimes hear people say, and several have told me, that when they pray to what they call God for worldly things, their prayers are often granted. If they have faith, and depending upon the intensity of their prayer, what they seek—health, comfort, worldly possessions—they eventually get. If one indulges in petitionary prayer it brings its own reward, the thing asked for is often granted, and this further strengthens supplications. Then there is the prayer, not for things or for people, but to experience reality, God, which is also frequently answered; and there are still other forms of petitionary prayer, more subtle and devious, but nevertheless supplicating, begging, and offering. All such prayers have their own reward, they bring their own experiences; but do they lead to the realization of the ultimate reality?
Are we not the result of the past, and are we not therefore related to the enormous reservoir of greed and hate, with their opposites? Surely, when we make an appeal, or offer a petitionary prayer, we are calling upon this reservoir of accumulated greed, and so on, which does bring its own reward, and has its own price…. Does supplication to another, to something outside, bring about the understanding of truth?
DECEMBER 10
