meditation & prayer

cottoneye

The Force is Strong With This One
It has occurred to me that meditation and prayer are some of the most powerful tools of spiritual growth available to us, and would like to know if there is a proper and improper way of meditating.
Does the individual just need to discover what works best for them?
Is channeling a type of meditation or a different state altogether?
Some suggested reading material on the subjects would be greatly appreciated.
 
Why do you think that meditation and prayer are some of the most powerful tools?

How do you define meditation and prayer?
 
Why do you think that meditation and prayer are some of the most powerful tools?

How do you define meditation and prayer?
I would say that IMO prayer would be considered talking to higher spirit forms while mediation is inner reflection and a way of listening to those higher spirits as well as your own soul or "god spark".
They are the means by which we communicate and listen to higher levels of concisenesses in order to expand our understanding and perception.
Seems like they would be important tools to use if one is seeking truth, knowledge and understanding.

Would you say that my view is wrong or that I am confused on what meditation and prayer really are?
 
cottoneye said:
Am I over estimating the need for pray and meditation?
I would say that IMO prayer would be considered talking to higher spirit forms while mediation is inner reflection and a way of listening to those higher spirits as well as your soul or "god spark".
Would you say that my view is wrong or confused?
Hi cottoneye, good thing for you would be to follow Anart's advice given you here: http://www.cassiopaea.org/forum/index.php?topic=7813.msg55898#msg55898
Also, there's a search function and please use it first on the matters of your interest, then, after reading what's discussed about it - you can ask some more questions, if not finding your answers among earlier forum posts ;-)
 
Cottoneye, it's good to reflect on concepts like prayer and meditation. But when asking the board about such matters, you should remember that they are such broad terms, wide open to subjective interpretation.

Cottoneye said:
Does the individual just need to discover what works best for them?
I think you already know the answer.

Cottoneye said:
Is channeling a type of meditation or a different state altogether?
Now this is an altogether different question! A veritable can of worms as Laura might say. What's interesting to me is that you posted your query in the PSI section of the forum. This is only a hunch, but perhaps you are seeking an experience? Like you have an idea of what meditation and/or prayer can do to a being, where it can lead them, and you want to be there and experience that too? Totally valid - me too! But. Nothing can short-circuit lessons, lessons learned through the assimilation of knowledge, so seek ye after knowledge, as they say.

Cottoneye said:
Some suggested reading material on the subjects would be greatly appreciated
Have you heard what Mouravieff and Gurdjieff had to say on the subjects? Maybe start there. I don't have their work to hand, but if you're interested I can look them up.

My own experience: I spent a long time thinking about meditating [nothing wrong with that!] Thankfully in the summer I signed up for a Vipassana course of meditation. Amazing results - it 'works' for me. You sit there with many others in a hall, as still as you can, eyes closed, self-observing: 'watching' your thoughts pop in and out of your attention, sometimes lingering, sometimes flowing, but always changing. Vipassana supposedly translates to "seeing things as they really are", which I suppose, given that the Work here at Signs carries the same emphasis, is what attracted me to give it a go. Anyway, I'm not here to sell this 'technique' to you, just to say that by finally sitting still and 'meditating' [whatever that means!], I have now a super-neat helper for observing the machine of my psyche; a 'spiritual tool', as you might call it. Perhaps there are objective guidelines available to help discern proper or improper ways of meditating. I don't know of any. In my opinion, what is proper or improper regarding this is entirely dependent on the interaction of the observor.

I'm even more of a novice when it comes to prayer, so for now I'm not even going to comment on that!
 
In the Turkish TV series “Ertugrul,” the term “99 names of god” is mentioned several times. And the subject of prayer has been in the transcripts.
I wonder why we pray. It seems in the current world situation that people must be praying for all kinds of things. Big ones like peace, abundance, health; and lesser things like money, rain, sports. This kind of praying seems somewhat pointless considering wars, famine, shortages, disease. But the C’s said:

Sep 30 1994
Q: (L) Is there any special power or advantage in praying in the name of Jesus?
A: Yes.
Q: (L) Well, if he didn't die and release his spirit into the earth plane, how is this power conferred?
A: Prayers go to him.
Q: (L) And what does he do when he hears the prayers?
A: Determines their necessity against background of individual soul development.


Could it be that the real “99 names of god” are the spiritual values that are a “necessity against background of individual soul development?” Is it that Jesus (or god, creator, parent, supreme being etc), when we pray, already knows what is needed, even if we do not? Or does Jesus answer prayers in proportion to what one has done to enhance their soul development? Or in other words, “god helps those who help themselves.” (There are several sites saying this phrase is not in the scriptures. It is attributed to Euripides in Hippolytus Veiled (before 428 BC): "Try first thyself, and after call in God; For to the worker God himself lends aid.”)

IMO, foremost among spiritual values is Truth (knowledge protects), Gratitude (the door to joy), beauty, love, peace. Praying in a manner to see the spiritual values and not asking that they be given seems STO.

Is there a divide between seeing objective reality v spiritual reality or are they mutually supportive and joined or different levels of development? I do not have the answers but am searching. So here is my prayer for the day: “Open thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.” Psalm 119:18 KJV
Read full chapter
 
Friendly Advice [Written impromptu by the author on delivering this book , already prepared for publication , to the printer .]

According to the numerous deductions and conclusions made by me during experimental elucidations concerning the productivity of the perception by contemporary people of new impressions from what is heard and read, and also according to the thought of one of the sayings of popular wisdom I have just remembered, handed down to our days from very ancient times, which declares:

“Any prayer may be heard by the Higher Powers and a cor¬ responding answer obtained only if it is uttered thrice:

Firstly—for the welfare or the peace of the souls of one's parents.

Secondly—for the welfare of one's neighbor.

And only thirdly—for oneself personally.”

FROM: "All and Everything," (1950) byGurdjieff G.
 
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