Really, it is necessary to learn how to pray scientifically; the one who learns to intelligently combine prayer with Meditation will obtain marvelous objective results.

But it is urgent to comprehend that there are different prayers and that their results are different.

There are prayers which are accompanied by petitions, but not all prayers are accompanied by petitions.

There are very ancient prayers which are authentic recapitulations of cosmic events and we can experience their entire content if we meditate on each word, on each phrase, with true cognizant devotion.

The Pater Noster is a magical formula of immense sacerdotal power, but it is urgent to comprehend in depth and in a total manner the profound meaning of each word, of each phrase, of each supplication.

The Lord’s Prayer, the Pater Noster, is a prayer or petition, a prayer to converse with our Father who is in secrecy.  The Pater Noster combined with deep Meditation produces marvelous objective results.

The Gnostic rituals, religious ceremonies, are authentic treatises of occult wisdom for the person who knows how to meditate, for those who comprehend with the heart.

The one who wishes to tread the path of the tranquil heart must place the prana, life, and the sexual energy in the brain, and the mind in the heart.

It is urgent to learn to think with the heart, to deposit the mind within the heart temple.  The cross of initiation is always received in the marvelous temple of the heart. […]

It is necessary to learn how to pray the Pater Noster, to learn to converse with Brahma (the Father) who is in secret.

A single Pater Noster, well-prayed and wisely combined with Meditation, is an entire work of High Magic.

A single Pater Noster properly prayed is done in a period of one hour or in a little more than one hour.

After the prayer, we must know how to await the reply of the Father and this means to know how to meditate, to have the mind still and in silence, empty of all thoughts, awaiting the reply of the Father.

When the mind is still within and without, when the mind is in silence within and without, when the mind has freed itself from dualism, then the new comes to us.

It is necessary to empty the mind of all types of thoughts, desires, passions, appetites, fears, etc. in order for the experience of reality to come to us.

The eruption of the Void, the experience in the Illuminating Void, is only possible when the Essence, the Soul, the Buddhata, liberates itself from the intellectual bottle.

The Essence is bottled up within the tremendous battle of the opposites: heat and cold, like and dislike, yes and no, good and evil, pleasant and unpleasant.

When the mind is still, when the mind is in silence, then the Essence remains free and the experience of that which is the reality within the Illuminating Void comes.

Pray, therefore, good disciple, and then with the mind very still and in silence, empty of all kinds of thoughts, await the reply from the Father...

Ask and it shall be given, knock and it shall be opened.

To pray is to converse with God, and certainly one has to learn to converse with the Father, with Brahma.

The heart temple is a house of prayer.  In the heart temple are found the energies which come from above; when combined with the energies which come from below, these form the Seal of Solomon.

It is necessary to pray and meditate profoundly.  It is urgent to know how to relax the physical body in order for Meditation to be correct.

Before beginning the exercises of prayer and Meditation combined, relax the physical body properly.

The Gnostic disciple must lie down in a face-up position, in other words, lying on his back on the floor or in bed, legs and arms open to the sides, in the form of a five-pointed star.

The pentagonal star position is formidable due to its deep meaning, but people who for any circumstance are unable to meditate in this position must then meditate by placing their body in the corpse posture: heels together, tips of the feet spread out in the form of a fan, arms unbent along the sides, placed alongside the trunk.

The eyes must be closed in order for the things of the physical world not to distract us.

Drowsiness properly combined with Meditation is very indispensable for the good success of Meditation.

It is necessary to try to totally relax all the muscles of the body and then concentrate the attention on the tip of the nose, until we fully feel the heart pulsing within that organ of smell. Then, we will continue with the right ear until we feel the heart pulsing within it. Then we will continue likewise with the right hand, right foot, left foot, left hand, left ear, and nose once again, fully feeling the heart pulsing separately in each of these organs where we have focused our attention.

Control over the physical body begins with control over the pulse.  The pulse of the tranquil heart is felt all at once, entirely, in its totality, within the organism, but Gnostics can feel it at will in any part of the body, whether it is on the tip of the nose, an ear, an arm, a foot, etc.

It has been demonstrated in practice that by acquiring the possibility of regulating, hastening or slowing down the pulse, the heartbeat can be hastened or slowed down.

Control over the palpitations of the heart can never come from the heart muscles, but rather it depends totally on the control of the pulse.  This is, beyond all doubt, the second heartbeat or the great heart.

The control of the pulse or control of the second heart is achieved totally through the absolute relaxation of all the muscles.

Through attention we can accelerate or slow down the pulsations of the second heart and the beats of the first heart.

Samadhi, Ecstasy, Satori, always occurs with very slow pulsations, and in Maha-Samadhi, pulsations end.

During Samadhi, the Essence, the Buddhata, escapes the personality; it then becomes fused with the Being and the experience of what is real in the Illuminating Void comes.

It is only in the absence of the “I” that we can converse with the Father, Brahma.

Pray and meditate in order for you to be able to listen to the voice of the silence.

Samael Aun Weor (excerpt from "Esoteric Treatise of Hermetic Astrology")