Do you pray or meditate? Here's how these spiritual practices are different and similar
A friend of mine recently told me of a significant life altering health condition they were experiencing.
While we were discussing this, I asked if they wanted to work on meditation or go on a meditation retreat with me as they participated in a mindfulness and meditation course I facilitated in the past.
They responded, “I pray in the morning and I think of it as a form of meditation.” I left it at, “If it brings you peace, that’s great.”
Since then, I’ve contemplated how prayer and meditation may be similar and how they may be different.
Most prayer, in my experience, is somewhat different than meditation. Prayer typically involves looking outwards to a god or other supernatural power. Meditation typically involves looking inward, often with a focus on the breath or another focus object.
If prayer involves attachment to an event in the past or to an anticipated future, it differs from a typical meditation which brings one into the present moment without such attachments.
But, when prayer is performed as a mantra or otherwise brings one into the present moment and invokes peace, joy, equanimity, etc., it overlaps with meditation.
The “fruits of the spirit” in Christianity include love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Whether we experience these via prayer or meditation, as long as we experience and cultivate these, we will be better off within and without.
Ron Lee, Brentwood 37027
Agree or disagree? Or have a view on another topic entirely? Send a letter of 250 words or fewer to letters@tennessean.com. Include your full name, city/town, ZIP and contact information for verification. Thanks for adding to the public conversation.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Prayer and meditation: Know how these practices differ and overlap