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George Gurdjieff. Can prayer help a person live a Christian life? - Asked one question.

- It depends on what kind of prayer - Gurdjieff said. - Prayer of subjectivity, that is, man number one, two and three, can only subjective results, namely, consolation, self-hypnosis, self-hypnosis. Objective results, it can not give.

- But does prayer do not give objective results? - Said one of those present.

- I have already said, it all depends on whose it is prayer - posted Gurdjieff.

"We must learn to pray with the same perfection as people learn everything else. The one who knows how to pray, who can properly focus - such a person praying is working. It should be understood that there are different prayers, and their results are different. This is known even from the service. But when we speak of prayer or of its results, as a rule, we mean one kind of prayer - prayer, or to believe that prayer can be combined with other kinds of-prayer. Of course, this is wrong.

Most of the prayers has nothing to do with prayers. I'm talking about the ancient prayer: many of them much older than Christianity. These prayers are, so to speak, repeating, repeating them aloud or to yourself, man strives to survive the mind or sense of what they contain, and their content. And people can always make up new prayer. For example, a person repeats, "I want to be serious." The thing is, as he says. If he repeats this prayer even ten thousand times a day and think at the same time, as quickly as possible to end the repetition, that he will have for lunch, and the like, there is not a prayer, and self-deception. But this formula can be a prayer, if one repeats the following

way: he says "I" and is trying at this time to think about everything he knows about "me." It does not exist, there is no single "I" is only a crowd of petty, deceitful, quarrelsome "me." But he wants to be a single "I", Mr., and he remembers the cart, the horse, the driver and master. Saying "I want", he thinks about the meaning of the phrase "I want." Can he want? It always "wants something or does not want." But this "want" or "do not want" it seeks to oppose their own "I want", associated with the objectives of the work on the other, ie, enter in the usual combination of two forces - the "it wants" and "it does not want to" - the third force. "Being" - a person thinks about what it means to "be" what is the meaning of "being", being a mechanical man with whom everything happens, and being a person who is able to do. So "to be" perhaps in different ways. He wants "to be" not just in the sense of existence, but in the sense of grandeur and strength. And the word "be" becomes for him a special weight, a new meaning. "Seriously" - a person thinks about what it means to be serious. It is very important, as he himself is responsible for this. If he knows what it means, if properly define for themselves what it means to be serious if feels really want this, then his prayer can give the result - in the sense that it be added strength, he will often ignore their frivolity, it is easier to overcome himself and forced to be serious. In exactly the same way one can "pray", saying:

"I want to remember myself." "Remember" - which means "remember"? A person has to think about memory. How little he remembers! How often he forgets that he decided to saw, you know! His life would have been different if he could remember. All diseases come from the fact that he does not remember. "Himself" - he comes back to her. Which of his "I" want to remember it? Should I just remember you? How could he discern that want to remember? The idea of ​​work! How can they connect with the idea of? - And so on and so forth.

"In Christian worship a lot of prayers, where you have to think about every word. But they lose all meaning, the significance, if they are repeated or sung mechanically.

"Take an ordinary prayer:" Lord, have mercy on me! "What does this mean? The man cries out to God. He must think a little, make a comparison and ask yourself - what is God and what is he? He then asks God to pardon him. But for this, God must think of him, miss him. Is it worth it to notice it? That it is such as would be worth to think about? And who is to think about it? - God himself! You see, all these thoughts and many more have to go through his mind when he utters this simple prayer. And then these thoughts can do for him what he asks of God. But what he is able to think and what result can give a prayer, if he just repeats like a parrot, "Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! "You know that it will not give any results.