Christian Meditation

Study: is a specific kind of experience in which through careful attention to reality the mind is enabled to move in a certain direction. When this is done with concentration, perception, and repetition, ingrained habits of thought are formed. The purpose of this instruction is to direct the mind repeatedly and regularly toward certain modes of thought about God and human relationships. It is a means of knowing God and learning His truths and priorities through the study of Scripture.

Mindfulness is another way of meditation. Meditation was used to seek to improve one’s psychological or physical health, or spiritual growth. (Brantley, 2007). The history of Mindfulness comes from Buddhism and his search for enlightenment and a foundation of the four noble truths. The Buddha teaching focus on the four noble truths which consist of knowing suffering exists, there is a cause of suffering, there is cessation of suffering and there is a path that leads to the cessation of suffering. (Van Gordon, 2015). The four noble truths were not only there to represent the Buddha’s experiential understanding of suffering, but also to express the truth (Van Gordon, 2015). Studies of Buddhism and the Four Noble Truths teach us that there is always going to be suffering in our life but to find ways to overcome suffering (Tsering, 2005).

The differences the personal shared with me; was the belief between the Christianity and Buddhism in provision of medial care lie in practices of yoga and mediation by Buddha. The Buddha practices yoga to attain self confidence and the optimism that enables the patient to reduce suffering which he is undergoing. In Christianity on the other hand yoga is not practiced.

This paper is about my experience with mindfulness based meditation and scientific inquiry of these experiences. Mindfulness based meditation is describes as technique used to cultivate nonreactive, non-judgmental and stable awareness of the present moment (Garland and Gaylord, 2009). The end goal is to sustain this meta-cognitive state for a long period of time. I practiced non-denominational form of mindfulness based meditation for the first time in my psychology class, which was devoted towards intellectual and experiential examination of meditation. The practice was conducted in a group it was instructed by our own professor and it begun at the end of class. There was one sessions per week and each session was structured meaning it was

A main focus of the book explains how Christians can use the Jesus Prayer to overcome one of the biggest obstacles to prayer, which is the steady stream of thoughts, inner conversations, and emotions that “disrupt the mind and keep it unsettled.” Remarkably, they discovered that intrusive distractions during periods of prayer could be cured with “a substitute thought—a single, simple thought of prayer.” After experimenting with various short scriptures and petitions, this prayer, rooted in Scripture emerged, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me.”

The second chapter of Celebration of Discipline is on the Discipline of Meditation. Foster explains that this discipline is not like the meditation of Eastern Religions because it is not about emptying the mind, but it is about filling the mind with the things of Christ. The point of meditation is to grow in your relationship with Christ. Foster tells us that meditation is not the end goal, but a means of practice so that this nature of peace and focus on God becomes a constant part of our lives. It is a time to set aside everything except for setting your eyes on God. He mentions four ways of meditation: meditation on scripture, becoming still, contemplative prayer, and meditation on current events.

In (Matthew 6:6 NIV), Jesus explains the merits of praying to the lord God and the reward of inner peace, “But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret: and your father who sees in secret will reward you.” It is through this conversation with God that Christians pursue peace in their lives. Prayer can either be private or communal, spontaneous prayer is one way that charismatic communities can come closer to God. The act of prayer allows believers to have a personal conversation with God; it alleviates stress attributed to the monotony of everyday life. Besides prayer, meditation is another way of attaining inner peace, it is an ancient practice within the Christian tradition, which has undertaken a recent revival, a global group that reaffirms the concept of praying and meditating for inner peace is Taizé. Not as popular as prayer and meditation, Lectio Divina, generally known as bible studies is a way for Christians to feel connected to God and to finally attain inner peace. The studying of the sacred scriptures on a day to day basis and reflecting on prayers also maintain a continual connection with God. It is vital to maintain equilibrium between prayer and service, whereby an individual fathoms the notion ‘ora et labora’, in order to equally partake in both prayer, and the concept of action whereby ora develops inner peace, which is mirrored through the

Instead of seeing a "soul" or a "mind" as the seat of personal identity, in Buddhism, the self is to be found in processes. Meditation, then, has the therapeutic effect of disengaging the practitioner from self-consciousness, freeing the mind. The view of the world without the construct of a permanent essence enables one to "experience reality as it really is" (3). It is important to note that Buddhism does not distinguish mental processes from other senses. Just as seeing takes a visual object, the mind takes a mental object (1). Just as the eye is free to take in different visual objects, the mind is free, as well. While meditation aims to develop "single-pointedness of mind," it is ultimately to free it from external objects. The focus is on the process of breathing, in Zen, and, eventually, one can reach a state where one is not considering anything (2). Zen considers the "blank-mind" stage to be a higher form of consciousness because it is free from attachments.

primarily on the art of meditation, which is pursued after achieving the first five aspects

The hours that we spent in prayer asking from God, if such is spent in praise and worshipping chances are we will stand a better chance of receiving from our Heavenly Father.

Yahweh told him to mediate on His word without fail and he would find specific answers “according to all that is written.” If you do this, you shall prosper and have unmeasurable success (Joshua 1:8). Meditating helps us to know the difference between right and wrong according to the teachings of Yahweh. However, there is one stipulation. Once you know better, you must do better. With knowing, comes the responsibility of acting or behaving in a manner that pleases Yahweh.

Christian spiritual writings are texts that help us connect to our spirituality and they also hold various themes or messages. Some recurring themes that have been uncovered from a number of texts are; meditation, silence, connecting to God and spirituality. Two themes that are fundamental are silence and meditation. In meditation we find silence difficult but this is a factor that we need to work on because it is very important. A hypothesis has been created that will assist in critiquing and evaluating four Spiritual Writings in their attempt to finding the mystery of God. Contemporary Christian spirituality writings suggest that deep meditation and silence are fundamental to us in order to search for the mystery of God. The next four paragraphs will talk about for authors and the articles they have created. These articles will be evaluated on their attempt to explain that silence and meditation, help us search for the mystery of God. The four authors that will be critiqued are Laurence Freeman, Cynthia Bourgeaults, John Main and Richard Rohr.

<p align=justify>Samatha meditation is the development of mental tranquillity with concentration, and is accompanied by three

In relation to this belief is the practice of prayer that Muslims place importance on, but the Buddhists disregard, and rather believe in meditation or the cleansing of mind.

Having been a Christian for many years I thought that I had a fair knowledge of what it meant to pray. I was amazed and humbled by the idea that through Jesus’ restorative act on the cross I am able to come into God’s presence - and not only come but be welcomed and even longed for. I believed that prayer is a powerful tool to petition God , a vehicle to praise Him , and an instrument to increase our intimacy with Him . I understood that people pray in a variety of ways, based on the teaching they have received, their experience, and even their personality. Most commonly, I engaged in prayer as a conversation with God.