prayer is us talking to God while meditation is us being quiet and still and giving Him time to talk to us...either directly, or through angels or spirit guides.
2007-10-02 04:43:53 · 26 answers · asked by ladeemist 3 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
They do!! never heard that.
You must be mistaken. Or, the one who says that to you are just making up things.
Meditation is a huge part of Christianity. What do you think prayer is! it is another form of Meditation. When a person kneels next to their bed, for example, and pray every night. That is meditation.
2007-10-02 04:48:10 · answer #1 · answered by Soleil 4 · 11⤊ 1⤋
Christians do not say meditation is evil but it can be evil depending on how you use it. God wants Christians to meditate because it is best to listen to God when you are only concentrating on nothing but that. when you use meditation to talk to God through angels or spirit guides what you are actually listening to is demons. God wants to talk to us directly not through other sources.
2007-10-02 04:55:30 · answer #2 · answered by ? 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Persons who actually understand what meditation is know there's no evil there. And as a number of other answerers here have pointed out, there's LOTS of meditation in the Christian tradition, like the Jesus prayer in Orthodox monasteries and Centering Prayer in Catholic monasteries (and of course, not just in the monasteries), and Quaker worship, just to name a few famous examples.
Where some Christians who do not understand meditation may speak of "evil" is when those Christians presume meditation means "blanking your mind makes you open to the devil." But that's like saying "paying mindful attention and being humble and honest makes you open to the devil" -- it really makes no sense. The 16th century Christian meditation teacher, John of the Cross, actually pointed out that when you are meditating evil influences "cannot find you." It's when you are relying on your own thought up ideas that you can get off track, and that, he said, is when the devil can nudge you off in a mistaken direction.
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2007-10-03 13:11:51 · answer #3 · answered by bodhidave 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Because often times meditation is associated with things like Buddhism... also meditation is like getting the benefits of prayer (which is a form of meditation!) without having to deal with the Christian god
2007-10-02 04:50:12 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
i don't think that christians say that meditation is bad. We are told several times in the new testament to "meditate on these things." Surely if the New Testament writers told us to meditate, how can it be bad? Especially if they were inspired by God.
I can't think of any instance where this is found right off the top of my head. however, if you would like to find some examples for you, let me know and i will be sure to study up on it.
2007-10-02 04:55:06 · answer #5 · answered by Bobo 1 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Meditation is a HUGE part of Christianity.
Sometimes it goes by the type of meditation it is - centering prayer, Taize, Stations of the Cross, or just "waiting on God." One of the main sources of meditation for teh Western world is teh Catholic mystic tradition - St. Fracis of Assissi and the book called The Cloud of Unknowing are excellent examples. basically you have there the Buddhist and Hindu ideas of meditation as told from within Christianity. But instead of Ohm we say Amen.
2007-10-02 04:49:59 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
Prayer is not the meditation you are talking about. Proper meditation is described in the Bible as meditating upon what is written in the Bible - not upon anything and everything else that comes into your mind. When you talk about angels and spirit guides your sailing into spiritism and the demonic -- a big no-no.
2007-10-02 04:53:59 · answer #7 · answered by cheir 7 · 2⤊ 1⤋
Depends on the meditation.. if you're simply just sitting there, that's okay.
But if you're doing the whole "Hummmmm" thing, it actually has meanings behind it, and other religious stuff. And if in yoga, certain positions actually mean things, same with martial arts and all that too. Look it up on google, I'm sure you'll find a website explaining it.
But if you are just sitting there waiting for God. There's nothing wrong with that.
2007-10-02 04:51:52 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
the only spirit guide Christians have is the Holy Spirit. God can speak to anyone he wants to,( through dreams and visions) Meditating is clearing the mind of all thoughts of this world and focusing on the LORD and His word.
2007-10-02 05:05:24 · answer #9 · answered by fully_alive888 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Ok, first, God does NOT SPEAK to people directly. He uses HIS WORD (bible) for that. Meditation, depends what you are meditating on. There is nothing wrong with it. I am a Christian and meditation is not evil. Evil is anything against God. If you are using meditation to be against God, then it is evil.
2007-10-02 04:48:29 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 1⤋
I think spirit guides is where the 'evil' comes into play. The only guide one needs it Jesus. "In Jesus' name we pray, I come to you in the name of Jesus" and so on. There's nothing wrong with meditation, because that is our way of listening for the voice of God, many Christians do it without realizing thats what they are doing, its more or less an opinion evolved out of ignorance...
2007-10-02 04:50:59 · answer #11 · answered by Spanky McSpank 2 · 3⤊ 0⤋