Whilst I was browsing the blog Parchment and Pen, I came across a comment by a guy “britphil” who said he led “Contemplative Worship” in an Anglican church in Liverpool. I have never heard about this form of worship so I searched around trying to find what exactly it is. It turns out it is also known as “Centering Prayer”. As I began to read more about it, I felt that this type of prayer had a lot in common with meditation as it is practised in Eastern religions like Hinduism. For example, I found a quote in Wikipedia’s page on Centering prayer of Basil Pennington who appears to be one of the proponents of this technique giving guidelines about how to do this prayer:
1. Sit comfortably with your eyes closed, relax, and quiet yourself. Be in love and faith to God.
2. Choose a sacred word that best supports your sincere intention to be in the Lord’s presence and open to His divine action within you (i.e. “Jesus”, “Lord,” “God,” “Savior,” “Abba,” “Divine,” “Shalom,” “Spirit,” “Love,” etc.).
3. Let that word be gently present as [the] symbol of your sincere intention to be in the Lord’s presence and open to His divine action within you.
4. Whenever you become aware of anything (thoughts, feelings, perceptions, images, associations, etc.), simply return to your sacred word, your anchor.”
The first thing that came to mind as I read this is “Woah! This almost sounds like what a Hindu would do”. The most striking thing about this is that in Step 2 just use the word “Om” to focus on and you will be doing what Hindus do in their meditations. Read the rest of this entry »
