Did Jesus meditate? Christian vs Buddhist meditation

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It’s perfectly possible that Jesus meditated. It’s even possible that he learned from buddhists before He started His ministry. We don’t know where Jesus got His knowledge from in the first 30 years of His life. It’s possible that everything came straight from God the father. It’s possible that he learned from buddhists and different jewish groups. The latter is more likely but there were buddhists in Judea and what is now the middle east in those days, so who knows. We don’t know how God planned all this.

If you read about Buddha and realise it comes from a place and time long before Jesus, where people didn’t know Jahweh, then I think it’s truly a miracle that a human created something as great as Buddhism, so I do think it was inspired by God and there to serve a purpose. The purpose to serve the son of God 500 years later perhaps?

Did Jesus meditate? The bible says he prayed for hours. At the same time Jesus teaches his disciples to say short prayers. The ‘Our Father’ doesn’t exactly take hours. So how Jesus prayed for hours we don’t know. I can’t imagine him talking to His Father for hours so it has so be something else. Meditation is perfectly possible.

Eastern meditation is not about ‘emptying yourself’ as christian people who are afraid of other religions and even see evil in it sometimes say. Think about that one, how does one ‘empty himself’? It’s just about focussing your mind. It’s good practise for the mind. Just like working out is good for the body.
 
Le_Bonvivant said:
then I think it’s truly a miracle that a human created something as great as Buddhism, so I do think it was inspired by God and there to serve a purpose.
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Buddhism in the pre-Christian sense of an ethical system keeping social order doesn’t seem like a bad thing to me. Seems like rather a good thing.
 
It probably came closer to Christianity than the Jewish religion in 500BC did.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
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).
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You might want to try Saying the Jesus Prayer, which is a Christian version of one of the forms of Indian meditation. If you do try it, then do bear in mind Bishop Ware’s advice:
“But those who have no personal contact with starets [teacher] may still practice the Prayer without any fear, so long as they do so only for limited periods - initially, for no more than ten or fifteen minutes at a time - and so long as they make no attempt to interfere with the body’s natural rhythms.”
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rossum
 
I do say the Jesus Prayer at the start of Adoration when I kneel, and after Communion.
I do not as of now say it in a meditative way. I have read that some Catholic and Orthodox religious do this.

I am still debating whether to get more into meditation or contemplative prayer. From a spiritual standpoint, I don’t think I am ready, not because I’m afraid that I’ll lose my faith or lapse into some kind of bad “mindfulness” but because it requires certain prayer skills that I have not yet developed as part of my “basic training”, so it is on my list for down the road. It’s definitely a technique I am interested in, though. I am interested in all different kinds of prayer, just as somebody who likes working out at the gym is interested in using the different machines and taking different kinds of classes for lifting and aerobics in order to get a healthy mix of everything.
 
rossum said:
You might want to try Saying the Jesus Prayer, which is a Christian version of one of the forms of Indian meditation.
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From the link:
We don’t say the Jesus Prayer, or enter wordless contemplation, to get “some benefit.” We don’t pray to reduce our stress, or strengthen our immune system, or lose weight, or add years to our life. On the contrary, we enter prayer to follow Christ, to become open to Him. His way is the Way of the Cross.
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Using the Name of Jesus should be treated seriously.
 
Also I kinda forgot. In a way Buddha was canonized a saint by the Church under a different name so hey. The Church can’t change its mind so we have something in common there. Anything true in any other faith would be fulfilled in Christ if we are the primarily true faith.
 
PaladinSword said:
Also I kinda forgot. In a way Buddha was canonized a saint by the Church under a different name so hey. The Church can’t change its mind so we have something in common there.
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Indeed, see Barlaam and Josaphat. Unfortunately, the Church did ‘change its mind’ so Barlaam and Josaphat are now downgraded to legendary/not-really-a-proper-saint second division status. 😥

rossum
 
Yeah I wanna take the bodhisattva path anyway. Contentment is overrated give me something to do. 😉
 
Meditation and contemplation were very much part of the Ancient Jewish tradition.

The Discalced Carmelites, of which my wife and myself are 3rd order members OCDS, Elijah is called the Father of the order. He was the first Contemplative known in Scripture.

Jesus being a mystic himself, would most certainly have meditated and experienced in the highest level of contemplation, which is union with God the Father.

What we call Contemplative Prayer, or Centering Prayer today, has nothing to do with Eastern Meditation and are very different in that they are Christ Centered.

Those who promote the misinformation about these deeper levels of prayer only serve to take people away from deeper union with Christ, which we are all called to.

Jim
 
Desert fathers too. Counting rocks and stuff. I wanna be like those guya.
 
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