Prayer and meditation are similar practices in that they both offer us a connection to the divine, but they also differ from one another in significant ways. Put simply, prayer is when we ask the universe for something, and meditation is when we listen. When we pray, we use language to express our innermost thoughts and feelings to a higher power. Sometimes, we plumb the depths within ourselves and allow whatever comes to the surface to flow out in our prayer. At other times, we pray words that were written by someone else but that express what we want to say. Prayer is reaching out to the universe with questions, pleas for help, gratitude, and praise.
Meditation, on the other hand, has a silent quality that honors the art of receptivity. When we meditate, we cease movement and allow the activity of our minds and hearts to go on without us in a sense. Eventually, we fall into a deep silence, a place that underlies all the noise and fray of daily human existence. In this place, it becomes possible for us to hear the universe as it speaks for itself, responds to our questions, or sits with us in its silent way.
Both prayer and meditation are indispensable tools for navigating our relationship with the universe and with ourselves. They are also natural complements to one another, and one makes way for the other just as the crest of a wave gives way to its hollow. If we tend to do only one or the other, prayer or meditation, we may find that we are out of balance, and we might benefit from exploring the missing form of communication. There are times when we need to reach out and express ourselves, fully exorcising our insides, and times when we are empty, ready to rest in quiet receiving. When we allow ourselves to do both, we begin to have a true conversation with the universe.
Great to see you Wren! Hope all is well! Thanks for sharing this today!!!! Lani
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"We tend to forget that happiness doesn't come as a result of getting something we don't have, but rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have. "
I really love this post. Thanks for putting it up, Chris. We've missed you! I'm going to use the wisdom in this to help me with my practice of the latihan. I joined Subud a little over 6mths ago to practice Step11 & have a regular conscious contact with my HP even when I might forget or avoid the rest of the time! I go to our local Subud House on a Monday & Thursday night & I surrender in the exercise for half an hour a time. It's a great fellowship of people who practice the same & it's quite similar in its organisation as AA in that we're connected as brothers & sisters with all who also take part.
The beauty of the latihan, for me, is in that it's a surrender & a receiving of messages & insights from a God of my own understanding or my higher self. There's no dogma or specific ritual & I can grow at my own pace. I love that I have this as it doesn't detract from my involvement in AA though it can be a skill to balance the two. The main thing for me is that they're both spiritual & they both keep me growing along spiritual lines. Another thing with the latihan is that developing myself in its practice is to the ends of being able to keep it with me on a daily basis. Like practicing the magic of what we receive in meetings to carry with us throughout the rest of our time & to go regularly.
That's me sharing a little of what I do with some of my time here in Liverpool. I get to mingle, love & share bonds & connections with wonderful people in fellowship & in Subud. I love having the two. The beauty of practicing the latihan too is that I couldn't have done it so wholesomely if AA hadn't have opened my mind to the opportunity of cultivating a Higher Power of my own understanding & I'm glad I was sober before this came into my life. Another of the gifts AA has opened up for me. Now *all I have to do* is to really practice at letting go & letting God by asking & receiving minute by minute.
I've been struggling with food/sugar addiction at the moment so I'm going to use all of this for that. I've managed to put down the cigarettes & self~pity ;) Thanks for coming back, Chris! Danielle x x
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Progress not perfection.. & Practice makes Progress!
