Monday, April 20, 2015

Mindfulness Meditation or Prayer?

With hectic schedules and a constant bombardment of stress, many people are turning to meditation training programs to find relief.  A recent article in our local newspaper reported the following:
Meditation, primarily a 2,500year-old form called mindfulness meditation that emphasizes paying attention to the present moment, has gone viral.The unrelenting siege on our attention can take a good share of the credit; stress has bombarded people from executives on 24/7 schedules to kids who feel the pressure to succeed even before puberty. Meditation has been lauded as a way to reduce stress, ease physical ailments like headaches and increase compassion and productivity.
However, for Orthodox Christians, there is a more sure way to find a joyful way of life. Rather than mindfulness meditation, the Orthodox Church teaches the way of prayer, particularly the Jesus Prayer. When rooted in a faith in Jesus Christ and active participation in the full sacramental life of the Church, we can find a greater peace than what can be achieved through mindfulness meditation.

To be watchful, as Orthodox Christians say, is crucial for our spiritual well-being. We must have a mind that is under control and not easily swayed by external stimuli. Since the time of Christ, the Orthodox Church has taught repeating the phrase "Lord Jesus Christ Son of God have mercy on me a sinner" as a form of prayer. This is not a mantra; it's a short prayer that affirms our faith in Christ, recognizes our distance from the way of life He taught us, and seeks His help and forgiveness. By repeating it for at least 15 minutes every morning and evening, the prayer becomes programmed into our physical being, and eventually becomes a prayer that's with us continually, linking all our actions with the will of God.

We start by praying it verbally and then, when God allows, we can say it in our minds with few distractions. The discipline of sincere prayer is to develop the ability to reject distractions and thoughts that try to keep us from prayer. This takes effort and time, but rather than investing time in mindfulness meditation, we should invest our time in prayer, which yields greater benefits.

Unfortunately, many people believe that such spiritual disciplines are only for monastics. However, if we're to follow the teachings of Christ, we need God's help and our own efforts to control our bodily passions. This is why disciplines like the Jesus Prayer and fasting are emphasized in the Orthodox Church. Most importantly, we must learn to become watchful, controlling what thoughts we allow to affect our actions. If we can control our minds with God's help, we'll receive more of His grace to do all that He commands.

If you're interested in learning more about the Jesus Prayer or the  Ten Point Program for an Orthodox Christian way of lifeplease visit the links provided.

4 comments:

  1. Christos Anesti!

    An excellent post and timely advice. Thank you for sharing it.

    +JMJ,
    Theo

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  4. I am wondering how often you practice mindfulness meditation to understand what you are talking about. If you really knew mindfulness meditation, you would see that the Jesus prayer IS a mantra (Mantras are prayers ) employed by mindful meditators and thus your argument becomes contradictory. Is not the Jesus prayer utilized in order to bring us into the prescence and recognition of God in the here and now? God doesn't exist in the memories of the past or the fantasies of the future. He is everywhere filling all things. How could attention directed to the now not be directed towards God in the now if he exists everywhere and within all things? My question is, have you ever done the practice mindfulness meditation? Mindfulness meditation is not religion based. How could the practice of being in the here and now be one of religion?

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