Genie is the root word for genius And it's a really interesting idea because there's this unlimited power that's associated with genius, but it's constrained And that's really what the human spirit is like 'Cause it has this aspect of the infinite And it is something that can grant wishes But it's also constrained, terribly [Chorus] I don't ask God for favors Or for wishes Or for wishes You know? I don't ask God for favors Or for wishes Or for wishes You know? We're constrained mortally and physically and all that but the thing is, is that Both the infinite possibility and the constraint are necessary That's what makes up the genie, it has to be both at the same time And the idea that, you know, if you find your genie You can have your wishes, that's right You have to really want what you're wishing for Or you have to make the proper sacrifices to get it It can't be just some whim You have to ask for something that you would rather not have Which is usually wisdom Somebody asked me about prayer They asked me if I prayed and I thought, well, depends on what you mean by that, exactly [Chorus] I don't ask God for favors Or for wishes Or for wishes You know? I don't ask God for favors Or for wishes Or for wishes You know? But I do think that if you sit on the edge of your bed And you ask What foolish thing you're doing to make it worse That you'll get an answer, right now And it won't be the one you want But it might be the one that if you listened to would set things straight I don't think that I've ever been in this situation where If something wasn't going right for me and I sat and thought; “Okay, huh, I'm willing to figure out what I'm doing wrong.” Which is a big thing to think because you never know how much you're doing wrong it might be something that you really don't wanna contend with But if you clear some space to meditate on that The probability that you'll figure out something that you did that was stupid that's bending you and twisting you in the wind You'll get an answer very, very rapidly [Chorus] I don't ask God for favors Or for wishes Or for wishes You know? I don't ask God for favors Or for wishes Or for wishes You know? And it's not obvious how you do that You know, I mean it's not like you know how you're manipulating your neurons or something It happens of its own accord in some sense like you can participate in it, I guess and you can interfere with it and it seems to take a certain amount of willpower But it still all happens mysteriously behind the scenes And I would say this sort of attitude towards, let's say, prayer that we're discussing is just an extension of that, it’s something like Well, you admit that there's a problem first And then you ask for the minimum necessary intervention which would be, all right Well, I'd like to move forward on this Some small amount that someone like me could actually manage I'd be willing to carry it out and then you reorient the way you're thinking as a consequence of that and something usually pops out of the abyss To guide you, very strange But it's not really any stranger than the fact that we can think at all Because the fact that we can think is actually very strange Strange like the fact that we can dream is strange And that's strange beyond belief That you can dream or that something in you dreams Which is a much better way of thinking about it because it's not like you're really in control of your dreams [Outro by Akira The Don] I don't ask God for favors Or for wishes Or for wishes You know? I don't ask God for favors Or for wishes Or for wishes You know?