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>It's important to bear in mind that meditation is a religious practice specifically aimed at causing ego-death. This is true for far Eastern styles of meditat

by User23 6y ago

>It's important to bear in mind that meditation is a religious practice specifically aimed at causing ego-death. This is true for far Eastern styles of meditation, but it's not true for Christian meditation[1]. It aims to fill the mind rather than to empty it. In general Christian meditation is practiced more by the various Eastern Christian Churches, but there are Western traditions as well. I'm by no means an adept at the practice, but it has benefited me pragmatically and spiritually. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_meditation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_meditation

lukaa 6y ago
Yes, in Catholicism there are Jesuit spiritual exercises tailored both for priests and shorter for ordinary people, similar in orthodoxy. I think protestants lack that element and that's why meditation is so catchy in America.
- adaisadais 6y ago
  Meditation is big in both Catholicism and Protestantism within the U.S. Meditation is catchy now due to some of the research behind it as well as society always looking for the next panacea. Modern / Hindu / Buddhist meditation (or what i have read and understood) typically centers around emptying one’s self or chanting a certain phrase to reach enlightenment. Christian meditation is about filling oneself with the Holy Spirit and denying our own selfish desires. When God gives his law for humanity in the book of Joshua he commands the people to “meditate on it day and night” because that is the way he intends them to know Him better.
  - thevardanian 6y ago
    The denial of the self or "selfish desires" is the common thread here.
UncleOxidant 6y ago
Isn't dying to self a central tenet of Christian teaching? " Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit." John 12:24 "I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. " Galatians 2:20 " For whoever strives to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. " Mark 8:35 Lots more.
- yters 6y ago
  yes, traditionally there are two ways to approach God: cataphatic and apophatic apophatic is more similar to negation of self however, it is not the same the idea is to remove accidental properties until one perceives the essence itself, like peeling an onion with a diamond in the middle
- mensetmanusman 6y ago
  Dying to self versus death of self maybe?
yepguy 6y ago
I heard once that the Eastern and Western religions have swapped definitions for meditation and contemplation, so that Christian contemplative prayer is analogous to Eastern meditation.

by User23 6y ago

lukaa 6y ago

Yes, in Catholicism there are Jesuit spiritual exercises tailored both for priests and shorter for ordinary people, similar in orthodoxy. I think protestants lack that element and that's why meditation is so catchy in America.

adaisadais 6y ago
Meditation is big in both Catholicism and Protestantism within the U.S. Meditation is catchy now due to some of the research behind it as well as society always looking for the next panacea. Modern / Hindu / Buddhist meditation (or what i have read and understood) typically centers around emptying one’s self or chanting a certain phrase to reach enlightenment. Christian meditation is about filling oneself with the Holy Spirit and denying our own selfish desires. When God gives his law for humanity in the book of Joshua he commands the people to “meditate on it day and night” because that is the way he intends them to know Him better.
- thevardanian 6y ago
  The denial of the self or "selfish desires" is the common thread here.

UncleOxidant 6y ago

Isn't dying to self a central tenet of Christian teaching? " Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit." John 12:24 "I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. " Galatians 2:20 " For whoever strives to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. " Mark 8:35 Lots more.

yters 6y ago
yes, traditionally there are two ways to approach God: cataphatic and apophatic apophatic is more similar to negation of self however, it is not the same the idea is to remove accidental properties until one perceives the essence itself, like peeling an onion with a diamond in the middle
mensetmanusman 6y ago
Dying to self versus death of self maybe?

yepguy 6y ago

I heard once that the Eastern and Western religions have swapped definitions for meditation and contemplation, so that Christian contemplative prayer is analogous to Eastern meditation.