Mix and Match

In the first book of Joshua, God instructs Joshua to meditate on his words and tells him that if he wants to have good success he should continually think on God’s word. Every major religion or faith has its major precepts and one of the major precepts of the faith known as Christianity is the Word of God. Our faith tells us the Holy Bible is God’s word. The Apostle Paul tells us that the word of God is given to us for correction, direction, inspiration. The Bible continually tells us to meditate on God’s word. We understand that Christian meditation involves the internalisation of God’s word by the constant muttering and recitation of the word.

However Christianity is not the only religion that uses meditation. Most, if not all Eastern religions also use meditation. Personally, I believe that meditation no matter the religion in which it is practiced, is all about connecting with something outside of yourself or opening yourself up for something to inhabit you. In essence, I believe that meditation, no matter the way it is practiced is spiritual. You don’t have to be a recognised adherent of a religion or faith to practice it. Therefore I believe you don’t have to be a recognised practicing Buddhist to practice Buddhism. All you need to do is adhere to certain aspects or teachings of the religion. And one of the teachings of Buddhism and most Eastern religions is the use of meditation to find inner balance or peace. Therefore to my mind, when you say you’re a Christian and you’re also meditating the Buddhist way, it means you’re not really sure which religion you’re practising.

Many years ago I listened to a programme where the person with the record for the most days spent without eating was being interviewed. Incidentally, the person was a Buddhist. He had managed to go a hundred days without eating. He had managed to do it by a lot of meditating. Some people would argue that Jesus and a whole host of people in the Bible were able to fast for forty days. Exactly! Which is my point. Jesus and the others had the Holy Spirit. I personally do not believe that a person can voluntarily go that long without food unless he has something or someone aiding him.

David said in the Psalms that God keeps those whose minds are stayed on him in perfect peace. I therefore believe that God’s plan through his word, Spirit and presence is to help people achieve peace and balance in their lives. However he can only help us achieve this when we look to him and not to some New Age mixture of religions. The Bible says that God is peace. Therefore there is really no amount of peace we can search for that we will find outside of him. God is also only a payer away. We don’t need to run to some other god or gods to find him. He lives in us. That’s how close to us he is.

JC Cruz is the author of DECEPTIO published by WestBowPress, a division of Thomas Nelson publishers.http://bookstore.westbowpress.com/Products/SKU000194087/Deceptio.aspx and LOST, BUT FOUND available at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DPLLEUQ/. You can follow him on Twitter @Cruz_JCReal.