Prayer

Requests to Kami need not be long.  Pray for this very day. 
When you wake up in the morning, give thanks for the past night
and pray for that day.  In the evening, give thanks for that day
and pray for the coming night.  Being healthy on this very day is enough.

GII:  Tabuchi, Aizo:  3.1

In this teaching, Konko Daijin reminds us of where to put our time and energy when practicing faith.  He teaches us that devoting much time to our prayers is not necessary.  Instead of that, we must remember the most important and basic of prayers - the prayers for each and every day of our life.

Every single day of life is a priceless gift and our prayers should reflect this fact.  When we wake up in the morning, we should fully appreciate the divine blessings of Kami that allowed us to rest and sleep through the night.  Then we should pray for the continuous divine blessings to live throughout that day and request that our daily activities go well.  At the day's end, we should look back on the things we did and accomplished with gratitude for being allowed to complete our activities.  Finally, we should request the blessings which will allow us to sleep soundly, rest and "recharge our batteries" for the full day of activities to follow.

The prayers we give to Kami need not be difficult, nor complicated.  They should simply be sincere expressions from our heart at any given moment throughtout the day.  The practice of our faith need not be difficult nor complicated either.  It should be simply a steady and faithful expression of gratitude for each of our normal daily activities.