heh heh, my friend's turn to lead Bible Study yesterday. He chose an old book which he bought a couple of years back (but didn't finished reading) to share about biblical meditation.
The session raised more questions than answers because:
1) My friend hasn't had the time to finish reading through the whole book, so he could only gave a gist of it :p;
2) Some portions which he read to us sounded more like secular teachings about positive thinking and CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy), and those portions my friend read didn't exactly give much scriptural references.
However, we did come away with quite a number of interesting questions, which provokes more thought about the spiritual discipline of biblical meditation. Here's sharing them with you. I'll give my thoughts and answers in a separate entry, so as not to lead you thinking on this. :p
What's the difference between other forms of meditation and Christian meditation?
What's the difference between thinking and meditation on God?
Is worship and prayer integral to meditation? What is/are the difference(s) between worship, prayer and mediation? What is/are the commonalities?
Is there a difference between Biblical mediation and Christian meditation?
Is positive thinking the same as Biblical mediation?
What is the purpose of Biblcal meditation?
Did Jesus meditate?
Cheem... but definately good questions!
ReplyDeleteI can't tell big differences between Christian mediation and other religious meditation. But I think the difference between Christianity's and Buddhism's is that the latter encourages you to clear your mind, to be empty, so that you can reach a state of emptiness, not having the desire for anything (hope i'm correct in this, but i may be wrong).
The former encourages one to concentrate on the God being that we worship.
my mentor once told us to meditate on Psalms...She said the words are good for meditation...normal meditation (eg deep and slow breathing) is actually discouraged by her and by our pastor as our pastor said that actually it is like Yoga, where people believe in "Qi"=氣 and 5 elements etc, which is "unorthodox"...
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