Did Jesus meditate? Christian vs Buddhist meditation

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Did Jesus ever meditate? There seems to be no biblical evidence that he did. Also, are Christian and Buddhist meditation significantly different in methodology or only in objective? And finally, an extra question for fun: what do you think Jesus and Buddha would say to each other if they ever met?
 
It depends on what you mean by “meditation”. Jesus probably didn’t meditate in the sense of sitting down cross-legged on a mat going Om, but I think his going into the desert to contemplate his mission likely involved a certain amount of meditation. I also think that Mary “pondering” things “in her heart” suggests she meditated on them, tried to see more deeply how they might relate to her life, and probably sought a greater understanding of them with God’s help.

Jesus and Buddha were both peaceful and polite people, so I am sure they would have a diplomatic meeting full of insights. I’m quite sure Jesus would give Buddha much food for thought. Perhaps they already speak up in Heaven.
 
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Catholicism and Buddhism are strikingly similar in certain ways and vastly different in others. They are incompatible but doesn’t mean they might not serve a higher universal truth.

Theologically Catholicism and buddhism are too different to comprehensively have much cohesiveness once you get deeper with it to an extent.

That being said. Divinity is beyond all human understanding and I have respect for both traditions and have studied both but for me the Church is a better fit in how I understand the universe even if there are some aspects of Buddhism I might find attractive.

I also do not think the modem theory that they are historically related has much merit though at one point I did.

Someday we are all going to die.
 
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Buddha said to the hot dog vendor. “Make me one with everything”

Asks “where’s my change”

Hot dog vendor say “change come from within”
 
I also thought Jesus might have been in contact with Greco-Buddhist culture during his early years before his ministry, but now I believe that knowledge of Jewish scripture (and of course his divine nature) are sufficient to explain his moral and ethical evolution
 
In Japan when Catholicism was illegal there was a depiction of a certain bodhisattva carrying a child the Catholics would venerate because if they were caught with an image of Christ or Mary they would be persecuted.
 
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Thing is Christ claimed divinity though humbly. The Buddha denied it.

Christianity is much reliance on higher power
Buddhism is much reliance on higher self.

Is there that much of a difference?

Maybe.
 
Ah yes, the brave Kakure Kirishitan. Watch the movie “Silence”, my friend
 
PaladinSword said:
Catholicism and Buddhism are strikingly similar in certain ways and vastly different in others. They are incompatible but doesn’t mean they might not serve a higher universal truth.
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Other than the basic theology (Buddhism rejecting the ideas of creator deity and so on), do you see them as incompatible in terms of practices?
I’ve always been interested in Buddhism, though not interested in practicing it myself. It’s not my culture and I frankly do not have the mindset or the patience for it - I would have had to have been trained in it from a young age (and probably lived in a different culture that promoted it).
I have seen some people who got into it really reform their lives in a positive way, though. It has always struck me as more of an ethical thought/ life coping system rather than a “religion”.
 
They both have rosaries. Both have statues of spiritual heroes that are venerated. Both claim understanding of hidden truths. Both have methods of liberation of the self through denial of pleasures. I think a lot of it is a language barrier. Buddhism is hard for me to understand as a westerner because of the denial of deity soul and self yet simultaneously having old gods in their pantheon that are seen as inconsequential.
 
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And my response is poor cause I don’t mean to insinuate we don’t venerate the target of iconography rather than the physical object. In case any iconoclastic minds are lurking.

Though my favorite Zen quote is “if you see the Buddha on the road kill him.”
 
But Buddhism doesn’t necessarily reject such a God does it? You can believe in God and be a Buddhist, it’s just that Buddha did not consider the question of a god relevant for what he was trying to accomplish
 
Jesus didn’t do eastern style centering prayer, which is a scourge today in the Catholic Church.

He didn’t empty his head.

Instead, He conversed with His Abba (his “Daddy”).

And that’s how we should prayer, in the example He gave us.

We talk to Our Father as we should talk to our father…chatty, intimate, direct, simple.
 
To meditate is to seek illumination. Christ needed no such thing. His divine nature illumined his human nature. As Saint Peter stated in John 21, “Lord, you know all things.”

Christian meditation is to be filled, to be illumined, to invite the in-dwelling of God. Buddhism teaches the emptying of self, so that even despair is abandoned - an utter emptiness that assumes reality to be an illusion.

They could not be more different.
 
In a sense this is a common understanding of it.

It depends what type of Buddhism also. Most of my experience has been with Thai and Japanese Buddhism.

It is a fundamental teaching of Buddhism that there is no God and no soul. However their texts mention various gods as if they simply do not matter.

Some Buddhist understanding is there may be an entity similar to a creator deity but this deity only thinks it is the creator. A similar idea to Gnosticism. The emphasis on self liberation through Buddha nature and enlightenment is somewhat incompatible with how we depend on God theologically but in practice it is kind of similar in other ways in regards to meditation prayer and asceticism.

I’m not a fan of centering prayer exactly but I think the modern concept of mindfulness is probably worse and isn’t exactly traditionally Buddhist either. Or compatible with catholicism.
 
Curious11 said:
You can believe in God and be a Buddhist
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I’m not sure about that.
You can perhaps agree with some Buddhist practices or ideas, but they do not believe in God in the sense that we believe in God. Therefore, believing in some god or bunch of gods for them is not the same as our belief in God, which necessarily places God at the center of all things and love of God as the main objective of our life.
 
PaladinSword said:
I’m not a fan of centering prayer exactly but I think the modern concept of mindfulness is probably worse and isn’t exactly traditionally Buddhist either. Or compatible with catholicism.
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Interestingly, given all the controversy on here about “mindfulness”, I just saw some workshop or retreat on “Catholic mindfulness” advertised somewhere. Can’t remember where, I will not be going to it, but I noticed it. I have pretty much put That Word on my list of “buzzwords to avoid”.
 
  1. How many kinds of prayer are there?
    There are two kinds of prayer: vocal prayer and mental prayer.
  2. What is meant by vocal prayer?
    By vocal prayer is meant every prayer performed by means of a given formula.
  3. Why are such prayers called vocal prayers?
    They are so called because ordinarily the voice is used in reciting them.
  4. What is meant by mental prayer?
    By mental prayer is meant every prayer performed without aid of any particular formula.
  5. Why is this kind of prayer called mental prayer?
    It is so called because it is made by the mind, generally without any articulation of words.
  6. What is mental prayer ordinarily called?
    It is ordinarily called meditation.
  7. In what does mental prayer essentially consist?
    Mental prayer essentially consists in thinking of God or of holy things, with the intention, at least virtual, of rendering Him our homage. Thus every pious thought, every pious desire, is a mental prayer.
  8. Give a more complete definition of mental prayer.
    Mental prayer is a pious communication of the soul with God by means of considerations, affections, and resolutions. Its object is to make us know, love, and serve God better, and to promote the knowledge of ourselves and the faithful discharge of our duties. In practice, therefore, it is the art of becoming better.
Simler, Very Rev. Joseph. Catechism of Mental Prayer (pp. 1-3). TAN Books. Kindle Edition.
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po18guy said:
To meditate is to seek illumination. Christ needed no such thing.
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Christ contemplated what his role would be. He was tempted by the Devil in the desert to be an economic or a political or a “magical” Messiah. He rejected the temptation. He may have rejected it very quickly, but he did think, however briefly, about how the Father wanted him to carry out the Father’s will.
 
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