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ritual, as a formality. It is prayer as playfulness. It is prayer as cheerfulness. The birds in the morning singing -- that is prayer. They are not Christians, they are not Hindus, they are not Mohammedans; they don't know anything about the church and the temple and the mosque, and they have never heard that there are scriptures -- but their singing is prayer. The wind passing through the pine trees is prayer; although it knows nothing of prayer it is prayerful.
The prayer is all over the space. The stars are prayerful, the trees are prayerful, the oceans are prayerful. Except for man the whole existence is always in a state of prayer; only man needs to move towards it consciously -- for a certain reason: man is the only conscious animal. Hence man has a choice: he can fall out of the natural flow of existence or he can become part of it. No other animal has that freedom. The birds in the morning are not singing out of their own choice, they are simply singing instinctively. The trees are prayerful and the mountains are prayerful, but that prayer is just a natural phenomenon.
Man's dignity is that he can choose to be prayerful -- but that can also become his fall because he can also choose not to be prayerful. Man is always at the crossroads: each step and there is a choice, each step and you can go wrong or right. When sadness and cheerfulness confront you, always choose cheerfulness. When seriousness and playfulness confront you, always choose playfulness. And remember: we become whatsoever we choose. It is simply a question of choice.
A Sufi mystic was dying. His disciples gathered and they said "One thing we always wanted to ask but we could never gather enough courage to ask ... If we don't ask now we will never be able to ask because you will be leaving the body. So now whatsoever you think of us ... you can think of us as fools, but we have to ask the question. How did you manage your whole life? -- because we have never seen you serious, sad, unhappy; you have always been blissful. How did you manage? -- because it is impossible to be so blissful day in, day out."
The old man laughed and he said "Early in my life I discovered
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