The Subtle Difference between Prayer and Meditation
One way to deepen your spiritual practice and experience, is to contemplate the subtle difference between prayer and meditation. When your prayer deepens, your act of offering
Have you ever tried to sleep but could not? This is the key; you cannot force yourself to sleep because sleep happens! Similarly, you can be very consciously praying and know that you are praying, but if you try to reach a meditative state consciously, your,mind will not stop talking to you. It is only when you are totally immersed in the experience of prayer or pranayama (control of the breath) that meditation happens.
Prayer thus presupposes the acceptance of dualism: that is, separation between the one who is praying and the other to whom the prayer is directed. However, if the prayer deepens to a complete absorption where the mind stops and words are silenced, then it becomes meditation, where all dualism melts into unity consciousness.
Probably the best way to illustrate this is to look at the difference between these two photos of a cat. The photo to the left illustrates the concept of prayer; and the one on the right, of meditation.
We now look more deeply into these two aspects:
Prayer
When you pray, you try to express your thoughts and emotions to the Supreme Being - in words and in gratitude. You try to seek that which only the Divine can grant. You pray for yourself and for those whom you want should receive the bounty of God's grace and healing.
When the Divine has answered the prayer, you express gratitude for all the blessings and grace the Divine has showered upon you. You impregnate your mind with thoughts of light and gratitude to the Universal Intelligence for this gift that is yours.
What prayer should be: The basis of all prayer should fundamentally be gratitude. Starting with the actual blessings of your life. Focus on the good you have endeavoured to do, the love and comfort you have tried to give, and be grateful for your own ability and efforts to help others, every day in your continual prayer.
Meditation
Meditation as a practice is an effort
Meditation as a practice is an effort
to stop the mind from its natural tendency to weave thoughts. In meditation, you need to relax yourself and then focus your mind on a divine form, a sacred sound, a word or phrase as a mantra; or to focus on your own physical body, your own breath or your own thoughts. It is in fact, sitting with your own mind for a while.
You watch the drifting thoughts in the space of your mind. As you keep watching, the mind wanders away; you bring it back to the watchful, playful, mindful, act of being in the mind, for the mind, with the mind. Then you are in the grand world of your Inner Being. This is meditation.
It is not just a forced technique to practice. It is the playfulness of your spirit. Remember - the purpose of meditation is not to achieve anything. It is to reach a state of letting go, a profound state of relaxation. Meditation is your willingness to do nothing. You are obsessed with doing too many things. As if that is not enough, you are obsessed with doing them perfectly! That leads to untold stress. In meditation your effort is to attain to Non-Doing.
To do something without any expectation, then the mind cannot calculate any more. It has to melt. It melts into the flow of the Universal rhythm of joy. Meditation empowers your mind to be more disciplined, more focused, more refined, more content. True happiness in life, flows out of it spontaneously. Meditation connects you to that spontaneous inner source.
One of the best ways to enter Meditation is to watch one’s breath. As your mind comes close to the rim of your nostrils, you witness the warm air moving in and out. Count to ten while breathing (one cycle of inhale and exhale would be 1), then again start from 1 to 10, you will see that your mind is calming down and with that, your body and mind are vibrating in a higher frequency. This vibration invites lightness and luminosity, health and harmony into your life.
Meditation need not always be simply sitting quietly, absorbed in Oneness. One can be in a beautiful state of meditation, even in the process of doing. You need to be awake to your inner reality - to your spirit! You can do the same things mindfully, consciously. For example if you are doing the dishes, recognize that you are not doing them alone. The water is also washing them. The detergent, the sink, the trees that provide you oxygen are also washing. The clouds in the sky provide the water. The air helps you to breathe. Mother Earth, the air, the sun, all have joined with you, in celebration. You feel washing dishes is a chore only when you cannot consciously connect to the Cosmic process involved in your work.
When you feel a part of the whole, everything becomes sacred. You don’t work; you are not doing. Work happens through you, it flows through you. You are no longer an obstruction. When you are not mindful, it is your ego, thinking in isolation, which feels alone. With mindfulness, your consciousness expands. You access the Whole.
A true yogi is one who does not give up action, but who makes action divine by turning it into worship and meditation.
The effort in meditation is always to be effortless. In meditation, as you persevere through the initial obstacles, you begin to feel your natural connection to the universal field of energy and vibrations. You feel the calm state of your mind. Mundane emotions are transmuted into a joyful experience of giving and forgiving. You feel your body and mind are in rhythm with the universal rhythm, and you are not struggling to be happy any more. Meditation thus is more an inner journey toward the Self within, a journey for discovering the real 'I" as contrasted with the “I” that goes through all the ups and downs of the outer world.
As you bathe in that Cosmic Energy, bask in it, dance in it, you are in the utter ecstasy of divine bliss. Once you realize the need to connect to your deepest Source within, you will come to know what you have been missing all through your life. It is your love affair with your Self!
You watch the drifting thoughts in the space of your mind. As you keep watching, the mind wanders away; you bring it back to the watchful, playful, mindful, act of being in the mind, for the mind, with the mind. Then you are in the grand world of your Inner Being. This is meditation.
It is not just a forced technique to practice. It is the playfulness of your spirit. Remember - the purpose of meditation is not to achieve anything. It is to reach a state of letting go, a profound state of relaxation. Meditation is your willingness to do nothing. You are obsessed with doing too many things. As if that is not enough, you are obsessed with doing them perfectly! That leads to untold stress. In meditation your effort is to attain to Non-Doing.
To do something without any expectation, then the mind cannot calculate any more. It has to melt. It melts into the flow of the Universal rhythm of joy. Meditation empowers your mind to be more disciplined, more focused, more refined, more content. True happiness in life, flows out of it spontaneously. Meditation connects you to that spontaneous inner source.
One of the best ways to enter Meditation is to watch one’s breath. As your mind comes close to the rim of your nostrils, you witness the warm air moving in and out. Count to ten while breathing (one cycle of inhale and exhale would be 1), then again start from 1 to 10, you will see that your mind is calming down and with that, your body and mind are vibrating in a higher frequency. This vibration invites lightness and luminosity, health and harmony into your life.
Meditation need not always be simply sitting quietly, absorbed in Oneness. One can be in a beautiful state of meditation, even in the process of doing. You need to be awake to your inner reality - to your spirit! You can do the same things mindfully, consciously. For example if you are doing the dishes, recognize that you are not doing them alone. The water is also washing them. The detergent, the sink, the trees that provide you oxygen are also washing. The clouds in the sky provide the water. The air helps you to breathe. Mother Earth, the air, the sun, all have joined with you, in celebration. You feel washing dishes is a chore only when you cannot consciously connect to the Cosmic process involved in your work.
When you feel a part of the whole, everything becomes sacred. You don’t work; you are not doing. Work happens through you, it flows through you. You are no longer an obstruction. When you are not mindful, it is your ego, thinking in isolation, which feels alone. With mindfulness, your consciousness expands. You access the Whole.
A true yogi is one who does not give up action, but who makes action divine by turning it into worship and meditation.
The effort in meditation is always to be effortless. In meditation, as you persevere through the initial obstacles, you begin to feel your natural connection to the universal field of energy and vibrations. You feel the calm state of your mind. Mundane emotions are transmuted into a joyful experience of giving and forgiving. You feel your body and mind are in rhythm with the universal rhythm, and you are not struggling to be happy any more. Meditation thus is more an inner journey toward the Self within, a journey for discovering the real 'I" as contrasted with the “I” that goes through all the ups and downs of the outer world.
As you bathe in that Cosmic Energy, bask in it, dance in it, you are in the utter ecstasy of divine bliss. Once you realize the need to connect to your deepest Source within, you will come to know what you have been missing all through your life. It is your love affair with your Self!
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