The Oriental Philosophic Arts

There was an article about meditation in today's newspaper. The complaint was that western countries have taken the spirituality out of spiritual practices. That's probably true because westerners take god out of everything, and it's small "g" here because all gods are not the same, but most westerners seem to be content to worship themselves!

Meditation is not emptying the mind, but thinking profound thoughts.  Not being a listener of music and little television, I spend a good part of my day on meditation. There's no secret to how to do it! You just query God and then think on it! For instance, my continuous thought dwells on "What this idea have to do with Jesus?' when reflecting on Old Testament scripture. Then my mind runs rampant with thoughts of symbolism, shadows of things to come and even mind-boggling thoughts such as "How far does nothing go in the cosmos and is there anything beyond nothing?" A followup thought to that is "Nothing must be something because it's a container for the material of the cosmos!"

For Christians meditation is fifty-percent of communing with God. It's the part where we shut up and listen! Yes, God speaks with his children, but we must be attentive! Communing with God is more than praying and praising him, but listening to him and doing his will. The will of God is revealed by divine inspiration. When I think on poverty, for instance, scripture pops to mind ?

James 1:27 "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world."

While visiting the widows and orphans in their "affliction" requires some thought! What is God revealing to the reader of this passage? Read it, think on it and God will reveal it! Widows and orphans are economically hard-pressed. They are needy! The thought here is more than "just visit" because charity is more than that! It's helping with their needs. Meditation here is "What things is it God's will that you do and he must have a plan for you to do it! What's God's plan?"

 Joshua 1:8  "This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success."

Meditation is three-fold: 1) We think on how to do God's will, 2) we then do God's will and 3) we shall prosper and be better for it! In the case of the widows and orphans, they gain by your help, you gain when you help and lastly you prosper because you've been charitable. However, the focus is not on "you" here, but God and others! Guess why? You demonstrate love for God by loving others and because you love, God rewards! If this sounds familiar, it should:

Exodus 20:6  "And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments."

I have written often that God meant by "keep my commandments" that we are to love him (Commandments 1-3) and loving others (Commandments 4-10).  Or as the New Testament says "the Greatest Commandment" is to "love God" and the one like unto it is "to love others as oneself". The focus here is not on "one self" because that love is a given: Loving our Self is our idol of the flesh, which God realizes, but expects others to be loved as much!

In Exodus 20:6 it speaks of the reward for meditating: God shows mercy on the one meditating!  The Christian who meditates on the things of God receives grace for meditating! God will have mercy on the one who loves God and others enough to consider God's will in human and divine relationships!

However, meditating can be through philosophy and other, or pagan gods. Most meditation, even in the western hemisphere, is either eastern philosophy (Buddhism, for instance) or the practice of worshiping Vesta from which Hinduism and many pagan "isms" are derived.  When western peoples practice eastern thought, they are in violation of "The First Commandment" in effect, "I don't want you to practice the worship of other gods even if you still worship me to!"

Christians meditate in the fashion of pagans on a daily basis. They are placing two idols before God: 1) The pagan god on whom they meditate, and 2) on their Self because they are doing what the Self wants to  do! I bet you never thought that many people worship three gods! We always forget the "Self", but ultimately the "Self" is God's worst enemy because it's always trying to please the Self! The Self always asks the question "What is it that I want?" and the answer is always "To do whatever it is which pleases me!"

Another form of meditation is just "opening the mind". It's a process where people clear out the clutter and allow whatever to come that will come! There is much danger there, because if the things of God are cleared from the mind, principalities are ready to fill the void.

Leviticus 19:31 "Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them: I am the Lord your God."

"Familiar spirits" are called that for a reason! People channel dead loved ones for advice and comfort. However, it's spirits who look familiar, but are wearing clever disguises. Those familiar spirits are in fact nefarious beings from a dark world making efforts to win you over whatever it takes! Nowadays these familiar spirits are called "Ascended Masters" because they are alleged to know things mystical to us, and can provide safety, comfort, wealth and health if you only listen to them. However, Ascended Masters are merely tricky spirits providing false knowledge, yet people turn to them rather than to God!

Meditation is in vogue right now. It has a strong foothold in industry, education, entertainment, psychology and government. However, there are many more eastern philosophies equally destructive and widely practiced! For instance, Christian women think nothing of practicing Yoga because they are told "It's not another religion!" It's not. Yoga is a practice of pagan religions and by doing Yoga Christians are doing what the pagans do!"

 Deuteronomy 18:9 "When thou art come into the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations."

Technically, we aren't going to them; they are coming to us! Either way we are not to do things the pagans do because God commands us not to do those things! What are they: Yoga, martial arts, eastern meditation, faith in positive affirmations,  acupuncture, holistic healing, and all types of other practices coming from the worship of Vesta! Even much of Jungian psychology is eastern spiritualism.

Why do Americans suddenly insist on doing things the pagan way? There is a vacuum in the heart which men try to fill, but fill with whatever it is which promises more than it can perform! On the other hand, God delivers what he promises! The faith that he will is our "hope" for mankind and any person knows that a healthy person stays healthy if they have hope! Meditation can fake hope, it can never deliver, but in the process the practitioner is doing the "Self's" will and not their Father's in heaven!