is meditation more spiritually productive then prayer?

Question

if you dont understand the nature of meditation dont bother answering please

Answer 1

i see at least one advantage of meditation vs prayer: mindfulness.

there is one coincidence: samatha state, people who pray concentrate in their wish, or in the prayer itself, or in the saint/virgin/Jesus/God towards whcih prayer is directed.

meditators concentrate in breath/heart beats or inner trip.

Answer 2

meditation is the listening after prayer. Prayer is a way of living. We are all ways in prayer by our actions, thoughts and speech. Meditation is a 24-7 thing too. It is also called intuition. You may be limiting yourself to a time and space that restricts your total awareness of receiving and giving by the way in which you asked the question or your personal interpitation of prayer and meditation. Spiritually productive.... hmmm.... is it heart felt? Only you can answer your question.

Answer 3

I personally feel that meditation is just a deeper form of prayer where we are getting in touch with Deity and becoming more open to His will at the same time. I unfortunately do not have any sources for this except personal experience.

Answer 4

Doing nothing is never as productive as doing something. Meditation and prayer might be ways to relax some, but they really don't accomplish much.

One man with a hammer can do more good than a million people meditating or praying.

Answer 5

Prayer is said to be asking God and Meditation a time to get the answer. Meditation is listening to the inner self. Through the quieting of the soul (meditation) we can find our inner peace centre and live and love from that source.

Answer 6

Let's look first at what they both are: Meditation is a long deep thought; #1: Looking within yourself about something for an answer. #2: Thinking about something over and over to fully understand; example, when a cow chews it's cud, it's meditating on the food.
#1; if this is what you are referring to; and I think based on your question that you are then looking within yourself for either an answer to something or simply just to be at a state of inner peace. If #1 and #2 then one might say that he or she is trying to look "within" oneself for an answer.
Prayer is an act of speaking to God.
Now if you wanted to talk to the president and had no relationship with him it is like your phone line is cut; then instead of talking to the president you try to figure the problem out yourself. The same is applied spiritually; for those who have no relationship with God it is as their prayer line is cut; thus ones' desire to meditate seems more profitable than to pray.

Answer 7

When I meditate, I am praying to the Lord. Meditation and prayer go hand in hand. You are shutting out all that is going on around you and focusing solely on your communicating with the Lord.

Answer 8

No prayer is more important. And yes I know Meditation has to do with tapping into your karma and relaxing your entire body and mind.

Answer 9

Meditation is the state in which you forget about everything else even your physical body. That is when you are most honest to yourself and that is what counts in the end! It brings about deep relaxation and encourages one to find answers to thing in life themselves instead of looking for help from above. When a person is relaxed he can better control and bring forth discipline in his/her life!

Answer 10

they're very similar... they both relax the mind internally... i think meditation is more productive because it expands your own mind and perceptual abilities rather than relying on a diety....

edit: the meditiation i am talking about is the kind you would normally think of from eastern cultures...relaxation, repeating mantras, listening to your heartbeat... has nothing to do with religion .