Prayer?

by Satanus 13 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  BrendaCloutier

  My own take is not that prayer is useless, but they are two sides of the same coin. Prayer is intent, usually for others. Meditation is the response for one's self.

  Personally, I have found the most simple prayers to be the most powerful: "God, help me!" in honest despiration is one of THE most powerful prayers there is. Another is a simple "god bless so-n-so", and leave it at that. This is a good one when there is strife, or resentment, or anger with someone - praying for them allowing "god's" will to be done instead of our will <murder or severe hurt comes to mind>, has had some amazing results that I've experienced and have heard of experiences of others.

  As the article suggests, Prayer differentiates, separates, individualizes. Meditation unifies and opens us up for the answers we need even when we don't know how to form the questions.

  I personally believe that we are "spiritual beings having a human experience".
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  Satanus

  Brenda

  Glad you like it, and thanks for your comments.

  Tophat

  Not exactly, although he does criticise aspects of it. He seems to think meditation is better, though. Perhaps he is saying that practice of prayer can be a step toward meditation. Notice the following:

  Prayer could be transformed into pursuit of a higher plane of awareness by refining the mind.

  Singing with celebration and dancing with delight for no reason and with no expectation takes invocation proximate to meditation. When prayer disappears and praying vanishes, something beautiful burgeons. Then one glows like camphor and floats like incense.

  Something that i would add is that there are different forms of meditation. Zen or breath focussed meditation is to clear the mind. Focussed meditation is where meditation can be focussed on almost anything else, including 'god'. If you pray to a god, try a meditation focussed on your god. If you pray for somebody else, try a focussed meditation on them.

  S
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  MegaDude

  Having practiced both meditation and prayer I am hard pressed to say one is better than the other, but would say that depending on your circumstances at the moment you might find one more beneficial than the other.
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  Twitch

  There's a lot to chew on,....

  Thanks S