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I was just wondering what people’s experiences and thoughts are with meditation vs prayer. My prayers have been in a slow decline over the past year or two. It started with a realization that petitioning God for the things I want/need doesn’t seem to make sense. So my prayers evolved into prayers of thankfulness, which I find more appropriate, but they are becoming infrequent, I really don’t get that feeling that I want when I ramble off a list to God.
A while back I listened to a Mormon Stories podcast that talked about meditation. About a week prior, my wife and I started pursuing meditation through the Chopra Center’s 21 day challenge. Where my prayers have felt empty, meditation lifts my spirit and gives me strength. Sometimes I wonder if it is an appropriate replacement for prayer or not, as it lacks the structure that I have been led to believe is essential for prayer.
Questions:
If you meditate, do you use it to replace prayer, or supplement it?
What are some of your sources for learning meditation practices?
Any recommended online resources?
I don’t do meditation per se, but my prayers are now more conversations than before. My daughter who recently graduated from BYU uses meditation.Her world religion teacher taught them Zen meditation.It’s a practice he uses daily and encouraged his class to use it. She loves it. And has tried to teach me, but I keep getting impatient.
I know that Transcendental meditation has a website and will send a guru to help you. It might help.
Great question, good luck.
Wuwei’s recent intro mentioned him using meditation. You might want to take a look at that. It’s not something I’ve tried. But am interested to hear others’ experiences as my prayers currently feel a little shallow.
I don’t see much difference in the two, when it comes down to what I see as the core concept and principle of each – especially in light of Jesus’ teachings about being gods and the kingdom of God being within/among the believers. I really don’t care how people “commune / get in touch with the divine” – but I believe passionately in the concept. There is power in the statement,
Quote:“Be still, and know that I am God.”
ihhi wrote:
A while back I listened to a Mormon Stories podcast that talked about meditation. About a week prior, my wife and I started pursuing meditation through the Chopra Center’s 21 day challenge. Where my prayers have felt empty, meditation lifts my spirit and gives me strength. Sometimes I wonder if it is an appropriate replacement for prayer or not, as it lacks the structure that I have been led to believe is essential for prayer.
Ha! Me too. Listened to a couple that mentioned or were about meditation and became very interested. Then I tried some yoga and found the words “oh God, hear the …” playing in my mind and I was intrigued at how the ritualism of yoga put me in the same state of mind as the ritualism of the temple. I really want to learn meditation but haven’t really known where to begin.You know, I’m right there with you. I have to find alternatives to the standard prayer I learned in primary, because it isn’t me. 2 Ne 31:3–For the Lord God giveth light unto the bunderstanding; for he speaketh unto men according to their language, unto their understanding.
I think this literally means that each one of us has our own spiritual language, and that God speaks that language to us.
For example–I have loved the Latin Mass since I was a teen. The words of the Mass are inspirational to me. When I cry “Kyrie eleison!” it means something special to me. When I think of Christ’s entry into Jerusalem, the words “Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini” invariably come to mind, and touch me.
I feel like petitionary prayer is fruitless. Maybe I’m wrong. It seems that God is gonna do what he’s gonna do. But prayers of gratitude! Those mean something! And centering, meditating, is preparing ourselves to feel the divine presence. I truly believe that. But I’m not very good at it.
Anyway, I think that every person needs to find their own prayer language.
Thanks everyone. Intellectually it feels strange to me to meditate, because I am not pretending to talk to someone. Spiritually, it makes way more sense. I will look up the Transcendental Meditation website.
Quote:I think this literally means that each one of us has our own spiritual language, and that God speaks that language to us . . . I think that every person needs to find their own prayer language.
This might be the best, most concise description of and advice about prayer I’ve read –
ever– anywhere. Thanks, turinturambar.
I read this article in June 2007 sunstone magazine entitled ‘The yoga of Christ and found it a really inspiring read. http://www.sunstonemagazine.com/pdf/146-30-45.pdf I’ve started meditating this week and notice a huge difference in how much calmer I feel.
Every time I start feeling anxious, confused, annoyed etc I’ve tried to take 5 minutes to stop and meditate and really feel the benefit.
Since my faith crisis Ive found it difficult sometimes to pray. The last couple of nights I’ve said a short prayer and then fell asleep meditating. It’s made for a wonderful peaceful sleep. So much better than all the nights of stressed thinking.
Thanks, my wife was talking about this article and i have been meaning to look it up. littlelostsheep wrote:I read this article in June 2007 sunstone magazine entitled ‘The yoga of Christ and found it a really inspiring read.
http://www.sunstonemagazine.com/pdf/146-30-45.pdf I’ve started meditating this week and notice a huge difference in how much calmer I feel.
Every time I start feeling anxious, confused, annoyed etc I’ve tried to take 5 minutes to stop and meditate and really feel the benefit.
Since my faith crisis Ive found it difficult sometimes to pray. The last couple of nights I’ve said a short prayer and then fell asleep meditating. It’s made for a wonderful peaceful sleep. So much better than all the nights of stressed thinking.
I haven’t really meditated that I know of, but if meditation is just a way of connecting with God, I do it all the time. I have often struggled with insomnia due to stress and have found that if I can’t sleep, laying in bed and talking to God can help, especially if I focus on the things I am thankful for. Some people have rejected this idea because we’resupposedto kneel, fold our arms, etc., when we pray, but I’ve found it useful and Heavenly Father seems to like it too. I once in while meditate to supplement my praying. I have been thinking about doing it more often. When I do it helps me manage anxiety. Meditation and prayer are certainly notthe same thing. The similarity tends to begin and end with the fact that both involve self-examination.
However, meditation is a mental practise/state perfectly accepted by both religion and science, whereas religion isn’t.
Meditation is a way of connecting with yourself, and your surroundings, not with god(s). If you’re connecting with God/gods, that’s prayer, not meditation.
In meditation, you’re not supposed to be thinking of much at all, God included. If you’re talking to God, that’s not meditation.
And by the way, if you guys think meditation has only nice stuff to offer, you’ve obviously not done a lot of it. It brings up many things at many times, some of them good, some of them not so good. If you’re starting out, it’s generally all peaceful and the rest, but don’t expect that all the way. You’ve only scratched the surface.
One of the images I had in meditation once, was of a stick being put into a pool of water, and stirred around. Well, that’s what it’s like. You see all the clear nice stuff to begin with, but you’ll also end up seeing the mud and leaves as well at times.
A lot of the stuff sold to the west is a bit bowdlerized. Can you see many western Zen practioners following this traditional advice? – “If you see the Buddha, kill him.”
However, it does reduce the aggression and anxiety centers in the brain if practised regularly. That’s a fact. But don’t expect it all to be cuddly.
p.s. Regarding Transcendental Meditation, I gather that they charge a lot of money. There’s nothing you can get off them you can’t get for free/less elsewhere.I agree, Sam – which is why I added the caveat about getting in touch with “the god within”. I also think meditation has a scary side, but some of the manifestations of that scariness also can be a gateway to great insight and “repentance” (recognizing areas that need change). As with pretty much everything, it is what each individual makes of it.
Actually even the bad stuff ain’t bad. I came to understand one or two things better. Nonetheless, be aware of it….
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