How a Western megachurch pastor fell in love with Eastern meditation

[Disir]

CHICAGO (RNS) — Years ago, Southern Baptist theologian Albert Mohler wrote an article warning Christians that Eastern meditation, which encourages participants to embrace silence and clear their minds, was “not a means to spiritual growth.” More than being just ineffective, he concluded, it was “dangerous” and “an empty promise.”

Coming from an evangelical upbringing, I can understand his concern. I’ve heard plenty of religious leaders make similar claims, casting meditation as some sort of boogeyman wooing Christians away from the faith with pagan practices. In the world in which I was raised, meditation was not on the list of approved spiritual practices. We prayed and read and sang and journaled. But meditation was not on the menu.

But a few years back, I began to explore the practices of silence and meditation — not due to some sort of spiritual curiosity, but out of spiritual exhaustion. Our church was only a few years old, but the process of launching it had taken quite a toll on my wife and me. We were simultaneously full-time parents of young kids and full-time pastors of a young church, and the combination had left us undone.

How a Western megachurch pastor fell in love with Eastern meditation

(RNS) — Coming from an evangelical upbringing, I’ve heard religious leaders cast meditation as a dangerous pagan practice. But Western Christians have missed out since abandoning our own tradition of meditation.

religionnews.com

It's always been there. Quakers don't meditate but they have some similarities.

 

[Andylusion]

CHICAGO (RNS) — Years ago, Southern Baptist theologian Albert Mohler wrote an article warning Christians that Eastern meditation, which encourages participants to embrace silence and clear their minds, was “not a means to spiritual growth.” More than being just ineffective, he concluded, it was “dangerous” and “an empty promise.”

Coming from an evangelical upbringing, I can understand his concern. I’ve heard plenty of religious leaders make similar claims, casting meditation as some sort of boogeyman wooing Christians away from the faith with pagan practices. In the world in which I was raised, meditation was not on the list of approved spiritual practices. We prayed and read and sang and journaled. But meditation was not on the menu.

But a few years back, I began to explore the practices of silence and meditation — not due to some sort of spiritual curiosity, but out of spiritual exhaustion. Our church was only a few years old, but the process of launching it had taken quite a toll on my wife and me. We were simultaneously full-time parents of young kids and full-time pastors of a young church, and the combination had left us undone.

How a Western megachurch pastor fell in love with Eastern meditation

(RNS) — Coming from an evangelical upbringing, I’ve heard religious leaders cast meditation as a dangerous pagan practice. But Western Christians have missed out since abandoning our own tradition of meditation.

religionnews.com

It's always been there. Quakers don't meditate but they have some similarities.

I don't know anything about this particular guy, or where his eastern meditation leads to.

In general the problem with Eastern Meditation generally comes from the source of peace. A Christian meditation, is based on peace through knowing G-d, and knowing the Lord and savior Jesus Christ. Hence "Christian".

Eastern meditation, tends to be more about looking inward, and finding peace somehow inside yourself.

While Eastern meditation in the short term can bring into a calm state by clearing your mind, it doesn't actually solve any of the fundamental problems.... like why am I here? Why does life hurt? Where am I going? What happens after this? And what is the purpose of my existence?

Interestingly, meditation is actually a very Christian idea, and is found throughout the Bible. But the difference is that instead of just clearing your mind, a Christian consider the answers to all the questions, by meditating not on blanking our mind of all thought, but to carefully consider the words of the Lord, and how they apply to our lives.

Christian Prayer and Eastern Meditation

I find it interesting that Eastern meditation has become a fad in our postmodern world. The cover of this week's Time magazine shows actress Heather Graham in a lotus position practicing Transcendental Meditation and the

globalchristiancenter.com