From: Dan Glover (daneglover@hotmail.com)
Date: Tue Apr 15 2003 - 16:54:11 BST
Hello everyone
>From: David Buchanan <DBuchanan@ClassicalRadio.org>
>Reply-To: moq_discuss@moq.org
>To: "'moq_discuss@moq.org'" <moq_discuss@moq.org>
>Subject: RE: MD Meditation/prayer
>Date: Sat, 12 Apr 2003 19:08:58 -0600
>
>Dan, Sam and all:
>
>Sam said:
> >Meditation: a glass of muddy water allowed to settle, so that the water
> >clarifies.
> >Prayer: a decision to go sunbathing, so various actions taken in order to
> >expose yourself to the Sun.
>
>Dan said:
>.........The silence itself betokes a sort of worship and praise, sure, but
>undirected and purposeless. In other words, a person doesn't have to
>believe
>
>in God to pray any more than they have to be a Buddhist to meditate, though
>culturally it certainly does seem to help. Any thoughts?
>
>dmb says:
>It seems its the personal conception of God that really makes prayer
>different from meditation. I mean, its hard to imagine why anyone would
>pray
>to a God one did NOT believe in.
Hi David
v. prayed, pray·ing, prays
v. intr.
1. To utter or address a prayer or prayers to God, a god, or another object
of worship.
2. To make a fervent request or entreaty.
v. tr.
1. To utter or say a prayer or prayers to; address by prayer.
2. To ask (someone) imploringly; beseech. Now often used elliptically for I
pray you to introduce a request or entreaty: Pray be careful.
3. To make a devout or earnest request for: I pray your permission to speak.
4. To move or bring by prayer or entreaty.
I think you are using definition 1. while I am using definition 4. I don't
believe a person necessarily needs to pray to God or gods or an object of
worship in order to pray. Even though a person might pray to God, they are
actually praying to themselves.
>But even the most skeptical of scientific
>materialists will allow that meditation has health benefits, reduces stress
>and such.
Very much so, yes. I've read accounts that state the aging process itself is
affected by deep meditation.
>I don't know how formal prayer techniques get in the West, but in
>the East they've got all sorts of ways to quiet and discipline the mind.
>
>Sunbathing makes sense if one is a theist and the image of clear water
>works
>too, but I tend to think of it in terms of a center or core. A light within
>would work if it weren't such a cliche. Its almost like a place one can
>visit repeatedly. And I like very much what Pirsig says about sail boats
>and
>such. I think that quiet head-space thing is very much related to
>meditation. I think its something most people will do naturally, even if
>they don't have a tradition to guide. I think its related to a very basic
>human function as natural and as necessary as is sleep.
I agree. Thank you for sharing your thoughts.
Dan
_________________________________________________________________
Help STOP SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE*
http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail
MOQ.ORG - http://www.moq.org
Mail Archives:
Aug '98 - Oct '02 - http://alt.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/
Nov '02 Onward - http://www.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/summary.html
MD Queries - horse@darkstar.uk.net
To unsubscribe from moq_discuss follow the instructions at:
http://www.moq.org/md/subscribe.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Tue Apr 15 2003 - 16:54:28 BST