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SadhanaOriental Meditation and Christian Prayer

To pray with body (taking a breath)

[30] Chanting one phrase in one breath

 Straighten yourself and control your breath.
 Exhale carefully for a while, imagining that unfavorable, negative things go away as you exhale.
 Now, inhale carefully for a while, imagining that the breath of the Spirit that fills the universe comes to you as you inhale.
 Take a deep breath and exhale slowly. Feel that you are now a good, precious existence. Send love to yourself. Then exhale deeply and slowly, and open your eyes slowly.
 Now, here is a method of prayer to chant one phrase in one breath.
(Let’s take Psalm 23 as an example. Here is the chart for the first half.)

 Do this prayer while breathing calmly, carefully, and naturally. When you inhale, you do not chant. When you exhale, you say one phrase slowly, using the entire exhale process and enjoying the phrase. (The world of praying is not what you create but it rather comes into existence on its own. So we cherish short phrases, riding (“noru” in Japanese) on or chanting (“noru”) with a breath (“iki”), hoping that this would become a prayer (“iki” + “noru” = “inoru”). Using phrases from a good prayer, we can position ourselves in a good manner.)
 Let’s actually pray Psalm 23. (Psalm is ideal for this praying method.) Inhale in the blank part on the left. After you inhale, slowly exhale and say a phrase mindfully. While chanting, enjoy the phrase carefully.

 

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