- Mar 26, 2021
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I've been asking myself why meditation tends to be forbidden in Christian circles. I've come to the conclusion that meditation excludes the essence of our faith. The meditator is not only taught to deny the supremacy of the Godhead, but to deny that the universe is suffused through with value and that everything participates in the Divine.
A meditator is taught to bracket out value-seeking and to accept things 'as they are'. The problem is that the structure of reality is based on the teleology of all things towards God. Everything is striving and straining toward God. To deny this in meditation is to focus and build one's being around a lie.
Christian meditation would have to be the contemplation of the idea that our experience is shot through with God's power and majesty, and that our experience is predicated on God's sovereignity.
We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Romans 8:22
The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.Psalm 19:1
For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood from His workmanship, so that men are without excuse. Romans 1:20
All You have made will give You thanks, O LORD, and Your saints will bless You. Psalm 145:10
My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the LORD; my heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God. Psalm 84:2
These scriptures contradict the Buddhist conception which is promoted through formal meditative practice. We cannot rightly contemplate things with detachment because the cosmos is just not made that way. Everything is in a state of high emotion. The universe is participative. Everything is directed toward God, everything is longing for reunion, reconcilliation and restoration to Him.
So can Chrsitians meditate? We can meditate on these scriptures. Beyond that I dare not suggest anything resembling formal practice because ultimately, this is all Gift and Grace. This is of course the other big difference between Christianity and Eastern mysticism. All that we receive is given by Grace.
All I am willing to say is that focusing on the breath or on some object of attention and allowing that to fill consciousness is the wrong approach. If 'enlightenment' is a lifting of the veil, we should strive to see the universe as it really is. The true subjects of meditation are:
our dependence on God;
the presence of God in experience;
the beauty of that experience (not dependent on our ability to see it);
the fact that our bodies are themselves in a state of constant praise;
the universe's continual praise
To rightly meditate, we should be in tune with this reality. How you do that has to be worked out in prayer. Perhaps it is different for every soul. I do think that it is more likely that this is given as a grace and that trying to induce it methodically is liable to be spiritually harmful
NOTE:
1) There are some with psychological conditions who use traditional meditative techniques to relieve their symptoms. I have an anxiety-based disorder and have stopped meditating for the reasons cited above, but I am not recommending that such people follow my lead. Ultimately you have to bring that to God in prayer. Perhaps our unique situation warrants a different perspective.
2) I am not promoting panpsychism. Again that is a metaphysical conjecture which is not explicitly stated in the bible. We just don't know whether all things have their own subjective experience. We do however know that nothing is 'dead' or 'lifeless'.
A meditator is taught to bracket out value-seeking and to accept things 'as they are'. The problem is that the structure of reality is based on the teleology of all things towards God. Everything is striving and straining toward God. To deny this in meditation is to focus and build one's being around a lie.
Christian meditation would have to be the contemplation of the idea that our experience is shot through with God's power and majesty, and that our experience is predicated on God's sovereignity.
We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Romans 8:22
The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.Psalm 19:1
For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood from His workmanship, so that men are without excuse. Romans 1:20
All You have made will give You thanks, O LORD, and Your saints will bless You. Psalm 145:10
My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the LORD; my heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God. Psalm 84:2
These scriptures contradict the Buddhist conception which is promoted through formal meditative practice. We cannot rightly contemplate things with detachment because the cosmos is just not made that way. Everything is in a state of high emotion. The universe is participative. Everything is directed toward God, everything is longing for reunion, reconcilliation and restoration to Him.
So can Chrsitians meditate? We can meditate on these scriptures. Beyond that I dare not suggest anything resembling formal practice because ultimately, this is all Gift and Grace. This is of course the other big difference between Christianity and Eastern mysticism. All that we receive is given by Grace.
All I am willing to say is that focusing on the breath or on some object of attention and allowing that to fill consciousness is the wrong approach. If 'enlightenment' is a lifting of the veil, we should strive to see the universe as it really is. The true subjects of meditation are:
our dependence on God;
the presence of God in experience;
the beauty of that experience (not dependent on our ability to see it);
the fact that our bodies are themselves in a state of constant praise;
the universe's continual praise
To rightly meditate, we should be in tune with this reality. How you do that has to be worked out in prayer. Perhaps it is different for every soul. I do think that it is more likely that this is given as a grace and that trying to induce it methodically is liable to be spiritually harmful
NOTE:
1) There are some with psychological conditions who use traditional meditative techniques to relieve their symptoms. I have an anxiety-based disorder and have stopped meditating for the reasons cited above, but I am not recommending that such people follow my lead. Ultimately you have to bring that to God in prayer. Perhaps our unique situation warrants a different perspective.
2) I am not promoting panpsychism. Again that is a metaphysical conjecture which is not explicitly stated in the bible. We just don't know whether all things have their own subjective experience. We do however know that nothing is 'dead' or 'lifeless'.
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