This is the second practice of this part. It may seem the simplest, and it is the one most often done badly.

Most prayer is recited quickly, from memory, while the mind is elsewhere. Or it is begging: a list of wants sent upward. The tradition asks for something different. Prayer is a conversation with your own Being, the Father who is in secret within you. A conversation has two halves. After you speak, you listen.

The books take the Lord’s Prayer as the great example. They teach that a single Our Father, prayed slowly and with its meaning, can take an hour. Each phrase is said, then felt, then rested in. Our Father, which art in heaven: the Being within you, in the heaven of your own depths. Thy will be done: not the will of the selves.

After the prayer comes the most important part. Fall silent. Let the mind empty, and wait for the answer. It rarely comes in words. It may come as calm, as a feeling, or later, as a meeting or a dream.

You may use any prayer you love, or your own words. What matters is that you mean each word, and that you wait.