Christian Meditation
Genuine Biblical meditation has nothing in common with so-called “Christian meditation” (i.e. the practice of Eastern-style meditation using Christian terms). Here are some passages from the Bible that refer to meditation:
Psalms 119:97-104
Oh, how I love your law!
I meditate on it all day long.
Your commands make me wiser than my enemies,
for they are ever with me.
I have more insight than all my teachers,
I meditate on your statutes.
I have more understanding than the elders,
for I obey your precepts.
I have kept my feet from every evil path
so that I might obey your word.
I have not departed from your laws,
for you yourself have taught me.
How sweet are your words to my taste,
sweeter than honey to my mouth!
I gain understanding from your precepts;
therefore I hate every wrong path.
Psalms 119:148-152
My eyes stay open through the watches of the night,
that I may meditate on your promises.
Hear my voice in accordance with your love;
preserve my life, O LORD, according to your laws.
Those who devise wicked schemes are near,
but they are far from your law.
Yet you are near, O LORD,
and all your commands are true.
Long ago I learned from your statutes
that you established them to last forever.
Psalms 48:9-10
Within your temple, O God,
we meditate on your unfailing love.
Like your name, O God,
your praise reaches to the ends of the earth;
your right hand is filled with righteousness.
Psalms 145:4-7
One generation will commend your works to another;
they will tell of your mighty acts.
They will speak of the glorious splendor of your majesty,
and I will meditate on your wonderful works.
They will tell of the power of your awesome works,
and I will proclaim your great deeds.
They will celebrate your abundant goodness
and joyfully sing of your righteousness.
Psalms 1:3
Blessed is the man
who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked
or stand in the way of sinners
or sit in the seat of mockers.
But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
He is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither.
Whatever he does prospers.
Clearly, the Biblical describes a state where a person is consciously reflecting upon the word, the law, the wonders, the works and the love of God. Their mind is actively engaged in understanding the things of God. The Hebrew word ‘to mediate’ comes form the same word which means ‘as a cow chews the cud’. A cow has several stomachs and regurgitates its meal of grass several times back to its mouth, where it chews it again, before swallowing it to the next stomach. Therefore, genuine Biblical meditation requires a person to think about an aspect of God and his Word again and again, so it is a requirement that one’s mind is actively engaged.
In contrast, Eastern meditation practised by Hindus and Buddhists is totally different. Eastern meditation requires the mind to be emptied of all thought and a person’s will deliberately disengaged. In this state, a person achieves an altered state of consciousness thereby connecting with the spirit world and opening up a line of communication with demonic spirits.
Rabindranath R Maharaj was descended from a long line of Brahmin priests and trained as a Yogi. In his book “Death of a Guru” he explains how he meditated for many hours each day, but became a Christian renouncing his previous way of life. He eventually relocated in Europe on the “drug trail” to evangelise young people from the West who were journeying to the East, to do drugs. He discovered from their accounts, that the spirit entities that he had encountered in his trance-like state achieved through meditation, were exactly the same entities they experienced when they were tripping out on heroin.
So-called ‘Christian meditation’ is no different from Eastern meditation. The proponents of ‘Christian meditation’ draw from the teachings and practices of Eastern meditation. And exactly the same result ensues – connection and communication with the demonic spirit realm, not God. Persons who practice ‘Christian meditation’ end up believing in a false Jesus and a false gospel, and receiving a false spirit.
Christian meditation is more commonly referred to as ‘contemplative prayer‘ (or centering prayer) and it is Identical to the method used in Eastern meditation (and New Age meditation called Transcendental Meditation):
Those who have practiced Transcendental Meditation may be surprised to learn that Christianity has its own time-honored form of mantra meditation. The technique, called Centering Prayer, draws on the spiritual exercises of the Desert Fathers, the English devotional classic, The Cloud of Unknowing, and the famous Jesus Prayer. . . . Reliance on a mantric centering device has a long history in the mystical canon of Christianity.
New Age Journal, As Above, So Below
The techniques [Herbert] Benson teaches–silence, appropriate body posture and above all, emptying the mind through repetition of prayer—have been the practices of mystics in all the great world religions. And they form the basis on which most modern spiritual directors guide those who want to draw closer to God. . . . Silence is the language God speaks . . . says Thomas Keating who taught ‘centering prayer’ to more than 31,000 people in just one year. Keating suggests that those who pray repeat some “sacred word,” like God or Jesus.
“Talking to God,” Newsweek magazine
Nonverbal prayer involves learning how to become silent inside. I first learned about nonverbal prayer as a part of other religious traditions. I did not know that it also has a long history in the Christian tradition (even though I had gone to a first-rate seminary; I do not know if it was not taught or if I missed it). It intrigued me. I learned about the use of mantras as a means of giving the mind something to focus and refocus on as it sinks into silence. I was thus delighted to learn later that the Christian tradition not only knows the practice of nonverbal prayer but also includes mantras.
Marcus Borg, The God We Never Knew
The twentieth century, which has seen so many revolutions, is now witnessing the rise of a new mysticism within Christianity. . . . For the new mysticism has learned much from the great religions of Asia. It has felt the impact of yoga and Zen and the monasticism of Tibet. It pays attention to posture and breathing; it knows about the music of the mantra and the silence of samadhi. . . . Now what I say of Zen is true also of Christian mysticism. It also leads to an altered state of consciousness where all is one in God.”
William Johnston, The Mystical Way
Without in any way betraying his faith, the Christian can deepen his contemplation of divine mysteries through Hindu ways of prayer.
Kathleen Healy, Entering the Cave of the Heart
The chief aim of contemplative prayer claimed by its advocates, is to engage with the divine centre and thereby experience the ‘God’ who dwells within. It is, therefore, wholly contrary to biblical truth. It is a great deception leading those who practice it away from God and into an altered state of consciousness and a direct association with demonic forces.