I have found that meditation is very useful. Its the key to understanding difficult things. And, as a Christian talking to other Christians, I have to say that its practically necessary. I highly encourage my brothers and sisters to meditate a lot.
Lets first define meditation. In movies we're presented the picture of some eastern monk sitting with legs crossed in an uncomfortable position, and other ritual stuff. It all looks very different and interesting, and that's probably why those scenes are in movies, but that's not what meditation is. Meditation is simply thinking something over. Its using your brain to ponder universal truths which are not very prevalent in everyday life. Its analyzing something in detail with the purpose of understanding reality. And there is the key word: purpose. It has purpose, unlike the scenes you see in movies, where there is no purpose of the meditation other than looking cool and mysterious.
Meditation is something that everyone at some point has done. Its synonymous with deliberation, but its meant to deal with the deeper meanings of things, whereas deliberation is dealing with the practice of everyday life. We deliberate over what we do in a situation, but we meditate over what we do for our whole life. So its no less practical than deliberation, but its certainly less common. And meditation is something that can happen in most any setting. You can meditate on your bed late at night. You can meditate while you're on a long drive. In fact, meditation usually happens when there's not much going on and nothing pressing on the mind. That is when your mind is free to wander and free to contemplate deep truths.
It is very good for a Christian to free up their time and use it to meditate. You cannot think about God without meditating, and thinking about God is something that should happen often for the Christian. You cannot meditate when your life is busy and your mind is occupied with earthly wants and worries. So that cheesy saying that's in some movies, 'free your mind' is, in some sense, true. What's not true, found in the eastern philosophy, is the idea that meditation is aimed at emptying the mind. Meditation is the exact opposite: Its the filling of one's mind with a deep understanding of universal truths. To do that one must empty their mind of trivial things. And that happens most often when a person has nothing to do and nothing to worry about. This is one reason Jesus spoke so often about giving up life's worries, wants and riches. The spiritual man is the man that is free to think about God and God's word often. That man may be poor in earthly riches, but he is rich in heavenly riches. That man meditates often, even when he's doing something normal, his mind is probably somewhere else. His mind is probably occupied with thoughts of eternal things.
Lets first define meditation. In movies we're presented the picture of some eastern monk sitting with legs crossed in an uncomfortable position, and other ritual stuff. It all looks very different and interesting, and that's probably why those scenes are in movies, but that's not what meditation is. Meditation is simply thinking something over. Its using your brain to ponder universal truths which are not very prevalent in everyday life. Its analyzing something in detail with the purpose of understanding reality. And there is the key word: purpose. It has purpose, unlike the scenes you see in movies, where there is no purpose of the meditation other than looking cool and mysterious.
Meditation is something that everyone at some point has done. Its synonymous with deliberation, but its meant to deal with the deeper meanings of things, whereas deliberation is dealing with the practice of everyday life. We deliberate over what we do in a situation, but we meditate over what we do for our whole life. So its no less practical than deliberation, but its certainly less common. And meditation is something that can happen in most any setting. You can meditate on your bed late at night. You can meditate while you're on a long drive. In fact, meditation usually happens when there's not much going on and nothing pressing on the mind. That is when your mind is free to wander and free to contemplate deep truths.
It is very good for a Christian to free up their time and use it to meditate. You cannot think about God without meditating, and thinking about God is something that should happen often for the Christian. You cannot meditate when your life is busy and your mind is occupied with earthly wants and worries. So that cheesy saying that's in some movies, 'free your mind' is, in some sense, true. What's not true, found in the eastern philosophy, is the idea that meditation is aimed at emptying the mind. Meditation is the exact opposite: Its the filling of one's mind with a deep understanding of universal truths. To do that one must empty their mind of trivial things. And that happens most often when a person has nothing to do and nothing to worry about. This is one reason Jesus spoke so often about giving up life's worries, wants and riches. The spiritual man is the man that is free to think about God and God's word often. That man may be poor in earthly riches, but he is rich in heavenly riches. That man meditates often, even when he's doing something normal, his mind is probably somewhere else. His mind is probably occupied with thoughts of eternal things.
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