#6 Prayer and Meditation

So the book on meditation I have been reading simplified the difference between prayer and meditation as follows:

Prayer is related to the heart and meditation is related to the mind. 

At first this seems quite reasonable.  But perhaps a bit too simplified.  I would offer that prayer is often offered up to some deity or god so that it is a conscious decision and effort whether its source is mental or emotional.  The sharing of prayers for many purposes is deemed both correct and beneficial.

True meditation is quite the opposite.  It is the purging of mental or emotional distraction to find inner resolution or enlightenment.  And though we can share acts of meditation, the purposeful result is always internal.

It is here I will be focusing my spiritual energies; internal balance and harmony.  Though that does not preclude the attendance of religious services and the shared and quite heartfelt messages and community that is brought together by them.

I want to experience things that bring about positive social, spiritual, interrelationship, physical, and mental change.  Why limit yourself to prayer or meditation or inner or external development when there is benefit to be found in all of these things?

Jesus Christ will almost assuredly NOT become my lord and savior.  But I truly appreciate the positive values his teachings and others' belief in Christianity can bring.  And my wife certainly appreciates the opportunity to experience these things as well.

Religion is a limitation on growth.  It is an acceptance of a particular dogma or set of rules to govern existence and the metaphysical.  Sharing in the tenets and values of multiple systems as well as just educating yourself on them seems to be the most "enlightening".