Christian Life 24 - No Mud, No Lotus

     I promised to write nothing more unless I had a major epiphany or received comments.  Well, I got a couple of comments the other day, one of which seems to need addressing.  The commentator mentioned the difficulty concentrating while praying.  This is quite common; we've all been there.  I've discussed my own problems in this regard at some length in various posts, as well as my ongoing effort to learn better.

    What I've discovered is to combine lessons learned from both the Buddha and the Christ.  What I mean by this is that Buddhism concentrates almost all of its effort toward meditation with little to no mention of prayer.  This is natural, of course: Buddhism doesn't advocate anything or anyone to pray to.  On the other hand, in Western Christianity, much emphasis is placed on prayer with almost no mention of meditation.  I find both of these approaches to be insufficient.  Meditation without prayer is short-sighted.  Prayer without meditation is impotent.  Since I have lived my whole life in the West and was brought up in a Christian home, I find that, while I know a modest amount about prayer, I know virtually nothing about meditation.  Thus my recent tendency to study Buddhism a lot more.

    I am currently reading No Mud, No Lotus: The Art of Transforming Suffering by Thich Nhat Hanh.  A little past the halfway point in the book, Mr. Thich charts sixteen exercises, separated into groups of four,  that are designed to help quiet the mind during meditation.  They center on breathing.  As anyone working in the medical or psychoanalytical fields knows, concentrating on one's breathing is a simple thing to do (we're all breathing all the time anyway), and this simple act of paying attention to one's breathing patterns automatically calms the mind, lowers the blood pressure and eases tension.  Meditation, then, always begins with breathing and advances from there.  Of course, in Buddhism, learning to meditate at all times in all situations is the ultimate goal.  In these posts, I'm advocating that the practitioner learn these techniques, then go on and add prayer to God afterward, thus - in my mind, at least - completing the cycle.  I only came across this chart yesterday, so I don't have a lot of practice with it yet.  My intention is to start with the first set of exercises and use them until they become automatic, then move onto the next set.  By the time I get through all 16, I suspect I can go on and have a more effective prayer life.  Feel free to play along and send comments about your progress.

Pax