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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   3058 thread views

Wellness Wednesday for March 29, 2023

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May do an experiment where I pray for 90 minutes per day for 40 days. Anyone have thoughts or experiences with prayer they would like to share?

Why do you want to pray instead of meditating?

For a lot of reasons.

  • “Awareness” meditation is alien to Western culture, and I like Western culture. There are few people who meditated a lot and accomplished great things, but Bach and Mozart prayed and this is enough for me. I would rather be a loud and passionate Christian monk than a quiet, ineffectual Buddhist monk.

  • The science of meditation is confused, because (1) longterm meditation selects for a certain character, and (2) the true control is “wakeful rest” rather than a lack of any quiet low-stimuli period.

  • Strong emotions are good and glorious if they are directed to a good and glorious cause, which prayer arguably attempts.

  • Prayer can be construed as a mental practice, where one (1) elaborates on the vision of God, (2) fleshes out one’s sins and wants, (3) focuses on the path forward.

  • I have some thoughts on prayer and psychological reinforcement that I’m interested in personally testing

Why do you want him to meditate instead of praying?

I don't want or not want him to do anything. I'm asking.

My advice, regardless of your denomination, would be to find a Catholic church with something called Perpetual Adoration. This is typically a side chapel, quiet, has the right vibes. Having a special place to go for this project will probably help maintain focus, and they usually have a small library of Bibles, spiritual classics, meditations, etc which will help if you run out of things to think about.

You will not be able to maintain 90 minutes of continuous prayer when you start this experiment.

Perhaps, but I’m considering a 90min slot of my day dedicated to prayer as prayer. I do not expect complete focus.

Most spiritual traditions do not recommend starting with 90 days of continuous prayer. They recommend you begin with shorter sessions of prayer/meditation and work your way up.

You may want to consider reading the works of spiritual masters- western Christian saints have extensive writings that are easily available in English(sometimes for free in pdfs hosted by 90’s conspiracy sites). Eastern Christian saints are harder due to language issues.

He said 40 minutes per day which seems reasonable?

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