Prayer vs. Meditation

by schnell 4 Replies latest jw friends

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  schnell

  Whenever I prayed, it was always done consciously and ostensibly to another person -- a higher, spirit person -- called Jehovah. The subject was always something about me, even if it was for someone else. If I prayed to thank Jehovah for my meal, it was about me. If I prayed to ask Jehovah to help someone else, I would perhaps feel guilty if I did not do so even though I believed Jehovah already knew what was needed, and thus it was about me. If I added at the end about the kingdom coming as in heaven also upon earth, I did so because I believed I should and I wanted the new system, and thus it was about me. All of this, every shred of it, is conscious effort and ultimately self-centered, and this carries a negative connotation and guilt to the god I'm praying to.

  When I meditate, I usually close my eyes. Sometimes I open them. I focus on breathing. I count my breaths. In a few minutes, my mind and body have calmed down. I feel a smile. I feel my place in the space where I'm sitting, and I notice things. I at first try to squelch all my thoughts, and focus on breathing. At some point though, I let them off the leash and my thoughts go absolutely wild. Then I bring them back in and focus some more. All of this is ultimately self-centered, except there is no guilt to that connotation whatever. It's mindfulness, really. Indeed, I am quite happy to be myself.

  A final note: If I am in a group that insists on having a prayer before a meal, I have noticed that I survive the night perfectly in tact no matter what it is I'm thinking of during the obligatory prayer. No lightning, no leprosy. Hilarious.
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  Saethydd

  I appreciate your insight on this subject, I think I shall try meditation to help fill the... I don't like to say "spiritual" because of the connotation it carries, so instead I will use the word "immaterial" hole I feel in my routine.
  
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  scratchme1010

  When I meditate, I usually close my eyes. Sometimes I open them. I focus on breathing. I count my breaths. In a few minutes, my mind and body have calmed down. I feel a smile. I feel my place in the space where I'm sitting, and I notice things. I at first try to squelch all my thoughts, and focus on breathing. At some point though, I let them off the leash and my thoughts go absolutely wild. Then I bring them back in and focus some more. All of this is ultimately self-centered, except there is no guilt to that connotation whatever. It's mindfulness, really. Indeed, I am quite happy to be myself.
  

  Meditation has suited me much better for decades now. I don't have a formal way or time for me to do it, but it works well. That's how I found my true spirituality, that is, without any ritual, no church/KH, no Bible, no one telling me what to say or how to say it, and in private all by myself in a very intimate setting in connection with my spirituality.
  

  A final note: If I am in a group that insists on having a prayer before a meal, I have noticed that I survive the night perfectly in tact no matter what it is I'm thinking of during the obligatory prayer. No lightning, no leprosy. Hilarious.
  

  I have participated in other people's praying before a meal out of respect for them. I can't care less about the meaning of it or what it's supposed to do, and like you, my meal has remained as great (or not so when it's not) regardless of what I do or think during/about the prayer.

  The beauty of meditation is the intimate quality to it. It's just you and whatever/whoever you feel is your spiritual guiding force. No need to explain it, no need to follow rules, and it's very peaceful.
  
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  LevelThePlayingField

  I never thought of it this way. Thanks.
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  David_Jay

  Prayer is not like the way you describe from our Watchtower days in either Judaism or the most ancient of Christian traditions like Orthodox practice or in Roman Catholicism.

  Catholicism and Judaism follow the practice of praying the psalms throughout the day--morning, noon, midday, evening, night, and during the night watch. I believe a similar practice is found not only among the Orthodox but some of the Protestant faiths, like the Anglicans as well.

  The psalms are sung or chanted, used as a means to offer praise and to meditate. The official prayer of the Catholic Church is the Liturgy of the Hours, for instance, which gave birth to modern music and western harmony due to the Gregorian chants the psalms were set to. This type of prayer is more listening to God speak to us in Scripture than talking to God as if God were Santa Claus and we were kids reading off our Christmas list to him.

  Prayer comes in the form of petitions with these also (as you mentioned where people request things of God), but more often they take the form of meditation and even another form called contemplation. In fact, some of the saints of Catholicism were "contemplatives," people who allegedly made mystical connection with God in ways that are not totally comprehensible via language.

  Eastern religions have certain types of similar prayer too, and all of this together shows how dry and stale the "spirituality" of Jehovah's Witnesses really is by comparison. It is all study and scholastic exercise with the Witnesses. There is no contemplation of the transcendent, no embracing of mystery, not even a feeling of anything that matches the mystical experiences of the prophets, the brilliance of the Transfiguration, or the experience of the inexplicable miracle. It is all "highlighting answers" in pre-printed paragraphs, knocking on doors, sitting in an audience listening to long-winded speeches. That is their "spirituality."

  Someone on here asked in a thread why so many ex-JWs become atheists. What do you expect when all the Watchtower shows you of God is an empty room inhabited by a dusty and dry wilderness? They have nothing to show of God to others, so how is one to be attracted to the idea at all when all you have is nothing? Nothing begets nothing.