And there would be plenty that would say "no. We can't answer the first one for you at all. You should know what you believe. If you're unsure of what you believe or should believe, then I'd focus on that first. Once you know what you believe, you could study about TM yourself and keep your eye out for patently non-Christian elements. Knowing what non-Christian or even anti-Christians teach can be beneficial. At any rate, you'll need to make your own mind up on that.
As for the second question, there is precedent in Scripture, which may completely nullify my answer to the first question.
Romans KJV 14 I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself: but to him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean, to him it is unclean. Destroy not him with thy meat, for whom Christ died. All things indeed are pure; but it is evil for that man who eateth with offence. Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth. Participating in TM is very comparable to eating food sacrificed to idols in this regard.
Paul is teaching that eating food sacrificed to idols in and of itself has no effect on the saved Christian. The Christian isn't worshiping the idol, and meat is meat. However, reading on in 1 Cor 4: , you need to be aware that people are watching you. There may be non-Christians who are watching your actions. Maybe people you've witnessed to, and if they see you participating in TM, they may think that there's nothing at all wrong with it, either. They, unlike you , may not know what is Christian and what is not.
Another good comparison would be martial arts. I was in martial arts of varying types when I was younger. Almost all of the martial artists I hung out with fancied themselves to be Zen Buddhists to one degree or another. If they weren't quoting Bruce Lee, they were quoting Zen Buddhist sayings. Some of them went further and got sucked in completely, some were just posers. As a Christian, I feel confident that I could practice martial arts again, without getting sucked into the eastern mysticism that tends to go hand-in-hand with the martial arts culture.
TM is pretty similar. I feel pretty confident that I could sort out the mysticism, determine what is patently un-Christian if anything , and participate with a clean conscience. However, I know plenty of people that wouldn't be able to sort it out. They might say "Hey, if he can do it, so can I. They could go in and get sucked in, because they don't have the background and knowledge that I have.
That isn't meant to sound as arrogant as it does. I just mean I know what I believe, and some haven't given it much thought. So, personally, for their sake I wouldn't participate. This is exactly what Paul was talking about in 1 Corinthians. About meditation in general, I can recommend you Ascent to Mount Carmel by saint John of the Cross, a famous 16th century mystic. It's not an easy reading, but it's a good guidebook of Christian mysticism. Along with few things that are good to do, author warns against many dangers in spiritual life, which may seem marginal in the beginning but may lead you astray finally.
According to John of the Cross, meditation and emptying yourself from anything that isn't God is good, but there are many things that seem to be God , and these are often very hard to distinguish. This guide needs not to be a mystic or even a "perfect" mystical term for "very close to God" mystic, but they need wisdom of Holy Spirit and know something about mysticism. This is why I would be suspicious about TM or any other non-Christian meditation.
About meat sacrificed to idols, knowing what you believe is enough. But emptying yourself is much more delicate and if it's hard for Christian mystics not to make some grave mistake, it's even harder outside Christian tradition. The meditation techniques may be similar or maybe even the same, but without guidance of Holy Spirit your meditations can't lead to their aim - to bigger opennes to Holy Spirit. If your guide is trained to rely on his own spiritual abilities, they can't lead you on the way of Holy Spirit.
And if they are trained in some non-Christian tradition, it's very likely that you will be taught some pagan elements such as mantras invoking Hinduistic gods. I would definitely avoid such a practice without guidance of someone capable of distinguishing what is of Holy Spirit and what is against him. This means someone full of Holy Spirit with charisma of distinguishing of spirits or at least with great experience with Christian meditation. But such people are usually capable of teaching you Christian ways of meditation, so you don't need to bother with something like TM.
Just a comment to David Stratton's note on martial arts : from martial arts you usually expect to learn to fight. From meditation you expect that it helps you spiritually. It's much easier to distinguish a martial art from spirituality behind it than to distinguish meditation from spirituality behind it. If we were perfect, our every thought would have it's foundation in God. What I mean is, if you "dive deep" into your thoughts, or even try to "empty" yourself, God becomes everything.
Not that I have ever been able to do that very well, but the deeper you go, the more you as a Christian will find God. So to answer your question, go for it, but your aim should be drawing close to God.
But maybe then it becomes something other than transcendental meditation. You should ask yourself these questions Is my reason for meditation for good or for ill? Do I meditate for God or for myself? Do I replace God with meditation?
Does my meditation harm my body, mind, heart, or soul? Does my meditation hinder my relationship with God or does it promote it? Do I do "Christian" meditation or only transcendental meditation consider doing both? Does my transcendental meditation cause me to directly sin? We are taught to pray, fast and meditate, but lack basic teaching on the last. It would be helpful to list out, then, a framework to guide us in our efforts. What is good and what isn't. Transcendental meditation is removing thoughts, emptying the mind, and calling out to God, through chanting, to touch us.
The problem with this is that we don't know if it is the right way, and several cases have been reported about ill effects. Surprisingly, teachers of the technique will admit the results are unpredictable. I have personal knowledge of people requiring treatment for psychological illnesses after practicing TM. Traditional Christian Meditation, of which John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila are the names most called to mind, as practitioners, also share the same techniques as other mystics.
Their aim is to be touched by God. Their method is to remove worldly thinking and fill the mind with Scripture. The problem is that they treat the actual words of Scripture as entities with power. I'm not surprised they experience the Dark Night of the Soul, spiritual dryness, in the process. It should sound an alarm if the journey from immaturity to wisdom is progressively distressful, when God's Word is described as a Lamp unto our feet, something that brings peace and joy as the destination nears.
It saddened me to learn that the longest period of alienation on record is that endured by Teresa of Calcutta, who reportedly suffered depression for nearly 50 years. A little survey of the criticism, in articles on the Internet, he provoked should enlighten one about the grey areas he drifts into in recommending his methods. These border on being parallels to the centering and actualisation techniques taught by New Age practioners. Some people differentiate between studying the Bible and meditating on the Bible, but I think that the distinction is uncalled for.
Biblical meditation IS study of the Bible, carried out in conjunction with praying to God for assistance, and just as water, bread, medicinal cures and light are life giving, so also is the study of the Bible nurturing, healing and enlightening. Luke NET If you then, although you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him! The Holy Spirit helps in many ways, sending direct revelation of the meaning of the text, as well as indirectly by bringing to our notice people, books, techniques and other resources varying from knowledge about competing philosophical world views to analogies from the world of art, and even technology, to open the meaning of the Scriptural material.
This is the first writings of Eastern meditation which is rooted in Hinduism. Later on, however, meditation is introduced as a practice by Confucianism and Taoism in China, and Buddhism in India. Although Eastern meditation varies from culture to culture, separate religions and traditions, there are two main aspects in which almost all Eastern meditation agrees upon; that is Enlightenment and Self-Realization.
Another crucial belief to Eastern meditation is that man can become one with the highest power, whether that is the Universe, or God, or those may be the same to some.
Enlightenment will mean different things based on each religion Eastern meditation has its origins in. Self-realization comes into play, then, when one realizes who they are. This is a self-liberating knowledge that is apart of Enlightenment. According to Project-meditation. As we see in this quote, transcendental mediation is the most commonly used form of Eastern meditation.
So, we decided to look into this further. One of the most popular types of Eastern meditation is Transcendental meditation. He brought the technique to the U. Many people today will use this type of meditation, but not for spiritual practices. This is called secular meditation. The beneficial uses behind this are the health benefits at secular Transcendental meditation can offer.
Many testify that TM can help reduce anxiety and depression, increase overall mental health, and can even lower blood pressure and cholesterol. Christian meditation gives man revelation of God, and brings us close to Him. It is also believed that God is personal, and that through meditation, we can deepen our relationship with Him. Christians do not believe that there are specific body postures for meditation, nor do they believe that we should meditate for self-discovery, but rather for discovery of who God is.
Many Eastern religions teach that the source of salvation is found within, and that the fundamental human problem is not sin against a holy God but ignorance of our true condition. These worldviews advocate meditation and "higher forms of consciousness" as a way to discover a secret inner divinity. Yoga, deeply rooted in Hinduism, essentially means to be "yoked" with the divine.
Yogic postures, breathing, and chanting were originally designed not to bring better physical health and well-being Western marketing to the contrary , but a sense of oneness with Brahman—the Hindu word for the absolute being that pervades all things. This is pantheism all is divine , not Christianity. Transcendental Meditation is a veiled form of Hindu yoga, though it claims to be a religiously neutral method of relaxation and rejuvenation.
Initiates to TM receive a mantra Hindu holy word to repeat while sitting in yogic postures and engaging in yogic breathing. The goal is to find God within their own beings, since God Brahman and the self Atman are really one. Differences in various forms of Eastern meditation aside, they all aim at a supposedly "higher" or "altered" state of consciousness. Meditation guides claim that normal consciousness obscures sacred realities. Therefore, meditation is practiced in order to suspend rational patterns of thought.
This helps explain why so many Eastern mystics claim that divine realities are utterly beyond words, thought, and personality. In order to find "enlightenment," one must extinguish one's critical capacities—something the Bible never calls us to do Rom. In fact, suspending our critical capacities through meditation opens the soul to deception and even to spiritual bondage. The biblical worldview is completely at odds with the pantheistic concepts driving Eastern meditation.
We are not one with an impersonal absolute being that is called "God. No amount of chanting, breathing, visualizing, or physical contortions will melt away the sin that separates us from the Lord of the cosmos—however "peaceful" these practices may feel. Moreover, Paul warns that "Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light" 2 Cor.
Even yoga teachers warn that yoga may open one up to spiritual and physical maladies. The answer to our plight is not found in some "higher level of consciousness" really a deceptive state of mind , but in placing our faith in the unmatched achievements of Jesus Christ on our behalf. If it were possible to find enlightenment within, God would not have sent "his one and only Son" John to die on the Cross for our sins in order to give us new life and hope for eternity through Christ's resurrection.
We cannot raise ourselves from the dead.
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