Question about meditation

Hello, everyone. I am starting to become more and more interested in getting into meditation. Before I start getting into it though, I have a question that hopefully someone, or many of you, can give me your thoughts on. This may sound like an odd question, but it is something I am wondering about. A lot of people who I talk to about meditation have been telling me it is a practice used only by Buddhists. While I do realize meditaiton is involved in the Buddhist religion, is that the ONLY religion that can practice meditation? Incase you are wondering, I am a Christian, and I am not looking into meditation for religious beliefs. I am actually trying to get into it more for relaxation purposes and finding inner peace within myself that many claim they receive from meditation. I am not in anyway trying to be offensive to anyone of any religion because I am a very accepting person. I am just trying to see if this is for me. I don't want to go against my religion, just as many of you don't want to betray your's, so I am hoping that people are wrong when they claim that ONLY Buddhists practice this.

Also, this is off-topic, but I am interested in getting into yoga. For people just starting out in either meditation or yoga, are there any books/sites/tapes that you would suggest to help me learn the different techniques? Also, is there any advice you could give someone just starting out? Thanks a lot, I appreciate the feedback.

 

Meditation is a vast subject, developed as a nondual or self exploration tool of mostly Taoists, Buddhists and Hindus. Each of these three nondual systems has different techniques. Taoism calls it alchemy, Hinduism calls yoga a darshana, and Buddhism has many different types of yogas. All these yogas also include meditation.

Meditation in Chrisitanity means thinking about the acts of Jesus. Hence, why don't you become an expert at the rosary? Why face conflict of trying to figure out different religions when instead you can get a book on the rosary and proceed to practice it?

If you start to repeat the rosary until the acts and discursive meaning sinks in in a precursive or beyond thought sort of way until it just starts to flow then this would be much like other eastern meditations. That is, do it until it wells up as a stream of bliss. At some point one will transcend the meaning and come to the pure awareness which is the basis of everything. But it takes alot of repetitions.

For most mantras, 100,000 times is a minimum for getting the results. So that would be alot of rosaries.

As for yoga, I am thinking that you're talking about Hatha yoga? In which case Iyengar is the definitive teacher. But if you prefer a bit more exercise oriented hatha yoga then Ashtangha Vinyasa would be it.

As for meditation, maybe read Thomas Merton, a Catholic monk who practiced Transcendental Meditation as taught by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi to get an idea as to how it fits into Christianity. In Christianity what the East calls meditation is called contemplation, and is considered so rare that only saints can acheive it. Which is nonsense.

I also recommend the works of Bernadette Peters, a former Catholic nun who acheived contemplation, and then had to deal with the ostracisism of the church. that said, she's a very positive role model and it's not a diatribe, but just an autobiography.

Good luck and peace.

 

I'm not sure if Christians besides Catholics do the Rosary, so if they do not then please forgive my ignorance.

 

Thank you very much! I appreciate all of your information. I will look into everything you have told me. Thanks again, and peace .

 

im christian also, and my pastor always told us to meditate on your thanksgivings, aka the great things The Lord blessed you with. i ususally do this right before i go to bed, its very peaceful

 

It sounds peaceful! Thanks for the idea. I will have to try that.

 

Meditation is like Pizza-There are lot's of different types but in the end it's all Pizza. Just pick which one you like the most!

 

I am also Christian. I have read many things against and for meditation and Christianity. In the Bible, meditation is contemplating a verse or teaching very deeply. If you look around, some will say this is what you should do, some say that you should repeat a verse over and over and some say that the repitive verse is wrong. Some say that clearing your mind is evil and will let the devil in and some say that clearing your mind will help allow Christ into your life.
I took a lot of time researching and found many things as you can see. My mother says that she feels that it is easy to stray from God by following other teachings of other religions. That we are warned away from these practices for this reason.
However, I found that in the Bible some of the practices that we do or did, were practiced by other religions. Offering a sacrifice is one of them. I feel as long as I am doing something with respect for God in mind and not doing something that lets me justify hurting someone else, than it is ok.
I started practicing yoga, and some say you have to be of a certain religion to practice it. I am talking the whole sha bang, not just the exercises, but meditation too. It is a way of life and after much research on religions, I have decided the biggest problem with the world is that we focus on too many differences, yoga helped me realize this. So I started looking at how religions are the same. The main teaching is respect for God, each other and yourself. If yoga helps me focus on the important things, like God, faith, family, and doing good, then it is doing good. In Christian teachings I have always been taught that we have to learn to forgive ourselves for our sins and ask forgiveness. I have always felt that I could not. Reading yoga teachings I discovered how to.
Have you ever prayed or talked to God and found yourself getting distracted by things around you or your mind starts wndering to other stuff? i used to do this and then feel terrible that I had started out talking to God and then started thinking about the grocery list or bills. Meditation will help you learn to focus better. All the random thoughts that go through your head, you can learn to control them. Ever have violent thoughts about someone or something and wonder where and the heck did that thought come from? Ever be at work and daydream about vacation, then go on vacation and think about the work you'll have when you come back? Meditation is a step in helping you focus those thoughts. It does take time and I recommend practicing daily. Small steps, like 5 minutes a day at first. Try to meditate at the same time of day. If after a week you are still having problems, change the time of day. They say morning is best, but I fall asleep if I try too early.

good luck
I just noticed how old this thread was. wonder if the Op is still around.

 

Hey. I'm Christian as well. I meditate and practice yoga. I find them both to be relaxing and helpful. Please don't get discouraged. I had the same problem in the beginning as you do. There don't really seem to be a lot of resources availible to Christians. Also, depending on some Christians think meditation is evil, which I don't agree with-- but it can be disconcerting to hear about. For other Christians, meditation just doesn't seem to occur to them. Several Christians practice yoga, but again, some think it is wrong. My husband was raised in a family where they thought yoga was wrtong. They believed that yoga was invented as a way of worshipping/channeling demons. I have never found any evidence of this-- with the exception of some views that seemed very biased to me.


As was suggested, the rosary is a good idea. Most Christians do not use the rosary unless they are Catholic. However: I am not Catholic, yet I was given an anglican rosary by one of the reverends in my church when I was going through a very hard time in my life. She taught me a short comforting prayer to say, instead of the conventional method of telling the rosary. "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me, a sinner." She also stressed that every one is a sinner, she was not saying that I was any more or less of a sinner than anyone else. I understood that, but I figured I'd repeat it to you, because it's not in anyway a condemnation. Now I own a bracelet that, when unclasped is a single decade of rosry beads. It is comforting even just to have it with me.

A useful resource online is beliefnet.com. It has quite a bit of useful information on many religions. Right now they have some pieces on Christian meditation specifically, including a link on the conventional way of telling the rosary.

As was also said meditating on Bible verses is anotheruseful and helpful method. Another way of meditating, which I use is meditating on the names of God and what they mean. Some ways of doing this are: repeating the name to yourself or out loud, and simply thinking on it in your mind. Also saying the name once, either out loud or silently and then letting thoughts come to you. Or you can hold the thought of letting God speak to your heart. One my personal favorite names for God is "Jehovah-Rapha," or "God, my Healer" as it were.

Finally:

"O God, we meditate on Your unfailing love as we worship in Your Temple." -- Psalm 48:9

"I will meditate on Your majestic, glorious, splendor and Your wonderful miracles." --Psalm 145:5

"May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to You, O Lord, my rock and my Redeemer." --Psalm 19:14

"Study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do. This is my command-- be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go." --Joshua 1:8,9

The version I quoted from is the New Living Translation. I hope this helps.

Peace.

 

Namaste Lunarflowermaiden,
To cover all of the bases created by your inquiry re:Yoga/vs.Buddhist meditation/Christianw/other relgious concerns, what I deem you should consider and I'm as equally sure God would have you do is become fully God realized.How do you do that? By following a complete Hatha/Kriya Sadhana(system). Having experienced some pretty advanced points of divine realization myself, I don't share the multi-opinions that there are all of these meditation sytems, Yogas and so forth. Meditation as defined in Sanskrit is called "Dhyana", and is technically an achieved one-pointedned of thoughtless flow of pranic energy into the head. Meditation is only one facet of the genuine Yoga sadhana program used by the Yogin, and is to be incorporated with the body positions called asanas, breathing(pranayama), and other techniques that are methods handed down by God in the ancient Tantras and Upanishads that are used to effectively reverse the state of consciousness we experience as ourselves into the expeerience of our true divine nature. Our true divine nature is nothing less than genuine subjective heaven, called Nirvana, Samadhi, SAt-Cit-Ananda. I myself was born and raised a Christian and have had direct visual experiences with Jesus. I got into authentic acient yoga through experiences on LSD. LSD only takes you so far then you have to comlete the process of realization with a Sadhana, and the flip side of the whole thing is that after you begin effecting the mechanisms in youself that Yoga is intended by God to change, you realize who and what Jesus was and what His ultimate mission was. So Yoga practiced holistically and authentically connects you more deeply to Christ, not the other way around. But this type of Yoga practice is rare and not widely known. I have a book being published as we speak about my journey or you can look up books by Swami Satyananda(my Guru) of Bihar India. Practically speaking, if you were to indeed embark on this type of Yoga Sadhana practice your life would be forever changed into a living embodiment of God, which is the true purpose of Yoga and is scripturally authenticated. If you have any other questions I'd be glad to help you, and you can contact me through this forum or my e-mail. Namaste and God bless you. Yogin Bhairava

 

Thank you so very much for all of your input and information, everyone. I really appreciate the time you all took to help me out. I am grateful for all of the responses, especially considering how old this thread is. Thank you again.

 

The great thing about meditation is that it is pretty much non-denominational. It's a method of working with the mind and necessitates no teachings about God, Gods, or otherwise. Now, after you've been meditating a while, you might see that your views start to change.

 

Eh, you mean there is no Boogie Man up there? LOL. :jester:
Interesting... hmmm

 

Well, some try and say there is, but I usually let them off the hook because they're just speaking metaphorically, right?

I'll have the Boogie Man burger, hold the meat, and the supreme creator sauce, please.