Meditation is a subject that generates a lot of questions. Some of the statements and questions that have come across my desk have been:
*”Meditation” is a widespread term in Australia among some denominations and other religious groups
* What is meditation?
* Why is it practised in many other religious bodies?
* How is meditation done?
* Does meditation comprise chanting of sacred words?
I would guess that the best place to start would be with the first question, What is meditation? Collins Dictionary says to meditate is to think about something deeply; to reflect deeply on spiritual matters, esp. as a religious act. Sometimes English dictionaries do not serve us well for they list current usages rather than Biblical ones. In this particular case the current English meaning is quite similar to the Biblical use. The English word meditation, actually derives from the Greek meletao. This word stresses; to think about seriously, to ponder diligently, to attend to carefully, to bestow careful thoughts upon, to dwell in thought, to muse, to reflect upon. Thus the word was used by the Greeks to refer to meditative pondering.
Meditation is a part of life, if for no other reason than the mind is always operating. As Selma Lagerlof said, Thinking is never so easy as when one follows a plough up a furrow and down a furrow.
What should we meditate upon? Phil. 4:8 has a range of wholesome topics on which to meditate. Ps. 1:1,2; 119:97 has the Psalmist saying, O how I love your law: it is my meditation all the day. Is the law ‘delightful’? There are those who think that getting rid of God’s laws makes life sweeter. Elmer Prout said, Test this with five of the ten commandments – laws in the most unmistakable sense of the term. “Thou shalt not kill…commit adultery…steal..bear false witness…covet” Everyone of those statements is negative. But consider – do these five commands close the door to meaningful life or do they open it?
In a community where the residents do not delight in those commands of God, what quality of life would you expect? In a town where people kill if they choose, commit adultery if they please, steal as they wish, lie at random and covet everything in sight – how much “delight” will there be? Rather than a doorway to enjoyment that is the path straight to fear, suspicion, panic, isolation and broken lives.
On the other hand, think of a community where people accept even these five ancient laws from God and delight in them. Trust blossoms, fear vanishes, suspicion is gone, fellowship replaces isolation and hearts and lives are healed. What is true of those five words from God’s gift to Israel is true of all His laws, whether moral, physical or spiritual.
Now here’s a point: if you can worry you can meditate. How do we do this? Take five minutes each day to meditate on something in God’s word with the radio off, the TV off, and the Ipod off (people can’t even jog without one these days). Are we afraid of silence? We can choose to live such fast-paced lives (1 Sam. 9:27; Matt. 14:23) Five minutes may not seem like much and it isn’t, but somebody who hasn’t walked further than from the house to the car in three years shouldn’t take up running five miles on the first day. Prov. 23:7 speaks to the relationship between our thinking and our lives– if we meditate upon good things then we will be doing good things. If our minds are filled with evil then so will be our lives.
1 Pet. 3:15 encourages us to be able to give answer to those who question our hope, but such answers can only be on our tongue if we have taken the time to meditate upon them. Meditation ought to be a part of Bible reading and study. The Bible has milk and meat and some of the meat takes some chewing! We need to meditate upon difficult passages like a dog gnaws on a bone, buries it, digs it up- and gnaws on it some more, buries it, digs it up and gnaws on it some more and so on. Do that and few Bible passages will fail to yield their meaning to you.
The basic concepts inherent in the word meditation are inherent in other words too. 2 Pet 3:1 speaks of stirring up your pure minds by way of remembrance. God has supplied us with so many things to meditate upon, His creation not being the least. David contemplated on the universe and some of his thoughts are recorded in Ps. 8:3,4. Job did likewise (Job 22:12) and was asked by God to do so (38:4ff; 40:15;).
David looked at himself in Ps. 139:14. He considered the omnipresence and omniscience of God and said, it is too high for me (Ps. 139:6) – we need to have a sense of awe about God. People don’t meditate upon important questions. I often ask but many say they don’t think about such questions. I don’t know whether it’s because some people will bend over backwards to prevent entertaining a religious thought because they don’t want to be disturbed, or is it really true they never ever think about such things. Christopher Morley wrote, I went to the theatre with the author of a successful play. He insisted on explaining everything. He told me what to watch, the details of direction, the errors of the property man, the foibles of the star. He anticipated all my surprises and ruined the evening. Never again! And mark you, the greatest author of all made no such mistake.
Oscar Wilde said, We do not appreciate sunsets because we do not have to pay for them. Somebody else once said, If the stars only came out one night a year we would all go out and look at them. Without awe of God there is a reduction of life to just molecules in motion and meaninglessness – and there is no thankfulness. I think it was Tillotson who said, An atheists’s most embarrassing moment is when he feels profoundly thankful for something but doesn’t know who to thank for it.
The Bible nowhere teaches the idea of repeating mantras and the production of a religious ‘high’. According to Collins Dictionary a mantra was originally a psalm of praise from Hindu literature, but has come to mean a ‘sacred’ word or syllable used as an object of concentration and embodying some aspect of spiritual power. Transcendental Meditation was popularised in the West by the Maharishi Yogi in the 60’s and 70’s. Its practitioners were taught to sit for 20 minutes each morning and evening, and silently repeat, over and over again, their specially assigned Sanskrit word, or mantra. This was supposed to be a cure-all for high blood pressure and lack to energy to alcoholism. The Maharisha believed that if only 1% of the population is meditating, the other 99% will feel good effects and crime will be reduced. If 5% meditate, great things will begin to happen and we will see the dawn of the Age of Enlightenment. The age of enlightenment never came as he understood it (it came 2000 years ago according to John 1:1-9), but they were charging people $125 each (in the 1970’s) to learn the technique so it was a good money-spinner at least. A meditator is never supposed to reveal his mantra to anyone, and this mantra is supposed to be used all one’s life. Examples of mantras are; Aum mani padme aum (God there is a jewel in my heart) and Aum shanti shanti aum (God, peace, peace, God). Mantras are to be repeated again and again to supposedly bring about powerful transformations. Didn’t Jesus speak against “vain repetitions” (Matt.6:7), and then go on to model a prayer which is remarkable for its brevity and simplicity.
Thought there is no specific act called “meditation” in worship, we could say that meditation is a common basic factor in all our worship, and in all our speech, and in all our actions. Our teaching and our learning involves meditation. Our singing involves meditation. Our observing the Lord’s Supper involves meditation as does our giving for it is “as we have purposed in our heart”. This comes in the aspect of our worship being “in spirit” (John 4:24). Unless we give thought, that is, meditation, to our worship we have become mechanistic, formalistic, ritualistic, but have not engaged in true worship.