Praise is the very foundation of prayer. One who can praise has a heart ready to jump into prayer. It is difficult to praise, it is easy to condemn. It is easy to condemn because through condemnation the ego feels nourished. Through condemnation you reduce people to being lower than you; you become higher, holier, superior. That’s how the ego exists: it always reduces everybody to a lower status.
Praise means raising the other higher than you. It is poison for the ego. When you praise each and everything, when the whole universe becomes an object of your praise, the ego disappears. And the disappearance of the ego makes you available to God. Only when the ego has completely gone can God descend in you. The ego has to vacate the heart, only then can God enter.
God simply means the whole.
