Transcendental Meditation ?

[west]

I know as Christian we are not to do this empty your mind but fill in with Christ prayer and Bible verses .But anyone have any verses against this Eastern Religion peactice that the West calls Transcendental Meditation .Thank you !

 

[blackbird]

Originally posted by west:
I know as Christian we are not to do this empty your mind but fill in with Christ prayer and Bible verses .But anyone have any verses against this Eastern Religion peactice that the West calls Transcendental Meditation .Thank you !

Verses against?? Sure! Start with the verse you just mentioned----"Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus."--Phillipians 2:5

"Finally brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report: if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things."--Philippians 4:8

Suppose you went to Wal-Mart----and as you walked in all you noticed was nothing!! Nothing on the shelves! No food! No clothes! No autoparts!! They had absolutely nothing you came in for!!! What would you do??? You'd go somewhere else, wouldn't you!! You go in looking for something---and instead, find an empty shelf where your something was supposed to be---you say to yourself, "Ain't no need of me hangin' around here!!" So you leave!!

Don't fill your mind with emptyness and nothingness----leave all of that for the fullness of the Lord Jesus Christ found in His word we call Scripture!!!---start thinking on those things we just mentioned for a start!!

Bro. David

 

[mhoward1999]

Bravo!

 

[Marcia]

TM is a teaching of Maharishi and it is his spin on Hindu meditation. One is given a mantra to repeat over and over, and/or come back to if one's attention wanders. The purpose of this, and of all eastern and New Age meditation, is to get beyond the thinking mind and thoughts, which they believe is a barrier to spiritual truth. There is nothing in the Bible that tells us to get beyond our thoughts and that thoughts will interfere with our knowledge of and/or communication with God. Eastern meditation teaches that you get union with the Absolute through meditation, and that you evolve into a higher or pure consciousness this way. These techniques evoke an experience and feelings, often nice ones, but they are artificial.

I did various forms of Eastern meditation for about 15 yrs. - Tibetan Buddhist, Hindu, and Zen meditations.

Here are some links on TM (the 3rd one is from a site for ex-TM people):
http://www.apologeticsindex.org/t15.html

http://www.watchman.org/profile/tmpro.htm

http://www.trancenet.org/research/2000perezdealbeniz.shtml

Here are two of my articles on meditation and one on contemplative prayer (which uses Eastern techniques):
http://cana.userworld.com/cana_meditation.html

http://cana.userworld.com/cana_Meditation_Psalm.html

http://cana.userworld.com/cana_ContemplativePrayer1.html

Anytime someone tells you that you should not be thinking or using your mind - WATCH OUT! This is not from the Lord.

 

[donnA]

I would thinnk anything related to eastern religions would be off limits.

 

[Servent]

The bible tells us what to meditate on, read 1 Tim. 4 especially vs. 15 it say's "Meditate on these things; be in these things in order that your improvement may appear to all"

 

[donnA]

Meditation should be on scripture it says there. Which means you aren't empting your mind.
One must ask what is the purpose of meditation (which is not on scripture), and what is it to accomplish, and how, what is to be meditated on?

 

[daktim]

I was given a book about TM in O'Hare Airport on my way to basic training in the Air Force. One of the first things the training instructors did was have us dump all of our belongings on our bunks. Then they went around inspecting what we brought. When they saw the book about TM, one of them grabbed it, cursed (which was not an uncommon thing for them ) and threw it across the barracks. They wouldn't touch my New Testament, however. It shows they had some sense after all!

daktim

 

[Marcia]

Originally posted by donnA:

One must ask what is the purpose of meditation (which is not on scripture), and what is it to accomplish, and how, what is to be meditated on?

The purpose of eastern meditation is to transcend the mind, because they believe the mind and thoughts are barriers to spiritual truth.

There are many techniques of meditation - some use imagery, some use a process of letting thoughts go by, some use a mantra (a repeated word or phrase), some use counting the outbreath. These techniques are a form of self-hypnosis; many of these techniques are taught as stress reduction.

In this state, they believe, you can get insights and also eventually unite with the Absolute or with the Divine. What actually happens is that in this state your mind is open to anything and your critical thinking skills are suspended.

This may all sound very foreign but it's coming into the evangelical church via a method called Contemplative Prayer, sometimes called Centering Prayer or Listening Prayer. This type of "prayer" uses many of the eastern techniques. They don't use the word "mantra" but instead say a "love word" and tell you to choose a "love word" like Jesus, or a "love phrase" like "The Lord is my shepherd." Then you either repeat that over and over and try not to think, or you as you go into this state of contemplation (which means no thinking according to these people), you can use the "love word" to bring your focus back if you feel you are wandering or if you are thinking.

This is not biblical at all. I have been reading the books by the contemplative prayer leaders and wrote an article on it:
http://cana.userworld.com/cana_ContemplativePrayer1.html