soozeality...
I've studied spiritual development for most of my life.
The simplest way to define the distinction is that prayer
is usually about expressing oneself to God, while meditation
is about creating space free of thought and desire in which
one can obtain insights, answers and other blessings.
In simplest terms, prayer is talking to God, meditation is
listening (without expecting that the insights and answers
will be the ones you asked for).
As one mystic put it, however, there are probably as many
ways to meditate as there are practitioners. Meditation
to arrive at silence of the mind is different than
meditation that attempts to plumb the depths of one's
soul and examine one's thoughts, desires, and behaviors,
which is called contemplation. Many do not consider this
to be a true form of meditation, since it can involve
thought and the intellect.
Additionally, there are meditations which focus on sound,
or use guided imagery or use scents (incense) to enhance
the process.
There are similar components to the formalized versions
of prayer which have become traditions in various
religious and spiritual traditions.
Since the ultimate goal of both processes is to open
up a dialog with the divine, leading to communication,
and, ultimately, communion with the divine, at some
point either practice will lead to, and blend with,
the other.
In one way of looking at it, the one praying is the
pray-er, so it is the soul itself, reaching toward
union with the divine, in whatever format arises
spontaneously, which is the actual prayer, and the
natural inclinations of the soul in this endeavor
have been recorded, passed down, and formalized into
the formats we call prayer and meditation.
Another distinction which may be useful is that prayer,
as defined by those who use the word, is most often
the action of someone who believes in a personalized
God - a Supreme Being with some sort of personalized
identity, as might be typified by Jesus and the Father,
or Buddha, etc. You can pray *to* a saint, or any
personalized form which represents the divine. Of
course, you can also meditate on the divinity evident
in the life of such a being, but this is, again, more
like contemplation.
Meditation is a term more likely to be used by individuals
who are seeking union with a God that they see as an
impersonal Divine Presence which pervades all of
creation - a definitionless awareness with limitless
creative power which is the source and substance of
all awareness and form everywhere, and is the root
and common source to the awareness of all beings.
In this sense, such believers see such an impersonal
God at the heart of every human, animal, plant and
physical form which exists anywhere.
Since the ultimate goal of both processes is beyond
communication or even communion, and is unqualified
*union* with the Divine, these distinctions will
ultimately fall away, as the devout practitioner of
either practice will move beyond words and descriptions
into the realm of a wordless knowing of the Divine
Nature as their own nature.
For an example of the thoughts of such a being, I
refer you to the Hsin Hsin Mingh, which translates
as 'The Book of Nothing', said to have been authored
more than 10,000 years ago. I have the file on my
computer:
Verses on the faith mind of Sengstan (Sosan) 3rd Zen Patriarch,
translated from the original Chinese by Richard B. Clarke, Zen
teacher at the Living Dharma Centers, Amherst, Massachussets and
Coventry, Connecticut.
------------------------------------------------------------
The Great Way is not difficult
for those who have no preferences.
When love and hate are both absent
everything becomes clear and undisguised.
Make the smallest distinction, however,
and heaven and earth are set infinitely apart.
If you wish to see the truth
then hold no opinion for or against.
The struggle of what one likes and dislikes
is the disease of the mind.
*
When the deep meaning of things is not understood
the mind's essential peace is disturbed to no avail.
The Way is perfect like vast space
where nothing is lacking and nothing is in excess.
Indeed, it is due to our choosing to accept or reject
that we do not see the true nature of things.
Live neither in the entanglements of outer things,
nor in inner feelings of emptiness.
Be serene without striving activity in the oneness of things
and such erroneous views will disappear by themselves.
When you try to stop activity to achieve passivity
your very effort fills you with activity.
As long as you remain in one extreme or the other
you will never know Oneness.
Those who do not live in the single Way
fail in both activity and passivity, assertion and denial.
* *
To deny the reality of things is to miss their reality;
to assert the emptiness of things is to miss their reality.
The more you talk and think about it,
the further astray you wander from the truth.
Stop talking and thinking
and there is nothing you will not be able to know.
* * *
To return to the root is to find the meaning,
but to pursue appearances is to miss the source.
At the moment of inner enlightenment there is
a going beyond appearance and emptiness.
The changes that appear to occur in the empty world
we call real only because of our ignorance.
Do not search for the truth;
only cease to hold opinions.
Do not remain in the dualistic state;
avoid such pursuits carefully.
If there is a trace of this and that, right and wrong,
the Mind-essence will be lost in confusion.
Although all dualities come from the One,
do not be attached even to this One.
When mind exists undisturbed in the Way,
nothing in the world can offend,
And when a thing can no longer offend
it ceases to exist in the old way.
When no discriminating thoughts arise,
the old mind ceases to exist.
* *
When thought-objects vanish, the thinking-subject vanishes,
as when the mind vanishes, objects vanish.
Things are objects because of the subject;
the mind is such because of things.
Understand the relativity of these two
and the basic reality: the unity of emptiness.
In this Emptiness, the two are indistinguishable
and each contains in itself the whole world.
If you do not discriminate between coarse and fine
you will not be tempted to prejudice and opinion.
*
To live in the Great Way is neither easy nor difficult,
but those with limited views are fearful and irresolute:
The faster they hurry, the slower they go,
and clinging cannot be limited:
Even to be attached to the idea
of enlightenment is to go astray.
Just let things be in their own way
and there will be neither coming nor going.
Obey the nature of things (your own nature),
and you will walk freely and undisturbed.
When thought is in bondage, the truth is hidden,
for everything is murky and unclear,
and the burdensome practice of judging
brings annoyance and weariness.
What benefit can be derived
from distinctions and separations?
If you wish to move in the One Way
do not dislike even the world of senses and ideas.
Indeed, to accept them fully
is identical with true Enlightenment.
The wise man strives for no goals
but the foolish man fetters himself.
There is one Dharma, truth, law, not many;
distinctions arise from the clinging needs of the ignorant.
To seek Mind with the discriminating mind
is the greatest of all mistakes.
* *
Rest and unrest derive from illusion;
with enlightenment there is no liking and disliking.
All dualities come from ignorant inference.
They are like dreams or flowers in the air -
foolish try to grasp them.
Gain and loss, right and wrong:
such thoughts must finally be abolished at once.
If the eye never sleeps,
all dreams will naturally cease.
If the mind makes no discriminations,
the ten thousand things are as they are, of single essence.
To understand the mystery of this One-essence
is to be released from all entanglements.
When all things are seen equally
the timeless Self-essence is reached.
No comparisons or analogies are possible
in this causeless, relationless state.
* * *
Consider movement stationary and the stationary in motion,
and both the state of movement and the state of rest disappear.
When such dualities cease to exist
Oneness itself cannot exist.
To this ultimate finality,
no law or description applies.
For the unified mind in accord with the Way
all self-centered striving ceases.
Doubts and irresolutions vanish
and life in true faith is possible.
With a single stroke we are freed from bondage;
nothing clings to us and we hold nothing.
All is empty, clear, and self-illuminating,
with no exertion of the mind's power.
Here, thoughts, feelings, knowledge, and imagination
are of no value.
* *
In this world of Suchness
there is neither self nor other-than-self.
To come directly into harmony with this reality
just simply say, when doubts arise, "Not two."
In this "not two" nothing is separate,
nothing is excluded.
No matter when or where,
enlightenment means entering this truth.
And this truth is beyond extension or diminution in time or
space.
In it, a single thought is ten thousand years.
*
Emptiness here, Emptiness there,
but the infinite universe stands always before our eyes.
Infinitely large and infinitely small; no difference,
for definitions have vanished and no boundaries are seen.
So too with Being and non-Being.
Don't waste time in doubts and arguments
that have nothing to do with this.
One thing, all things: move among and intermingle, without
distinction.
To live in this realization is to be without anxiety about
non-perfection.
To live in this faith is the road to non-duality,
because the non-dual is one with the trusting mind.
Words!
The Way is beyond language,
for in it there is
no yesterday
no tomorrow
no today.
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