Meditation - the Christian's and the Buddhist's

The Foundations of Buddhism
Rupert Gethin

I finally managed to get a copy of this book. Apparently, it is the textbook for Buddhism, but a pretty small one at that. Now I can get back to reading and figuring out how to tackle my paper on this topic. I cannot even remember what the assignment question is! But I do know I wanted to so something on meditation.

I find the Buddhist meditation very interesting and quite unlike what I do in meditation as a Christian. I have only read the first thirty over pages of this book, but I remember Gethin saying that meditation is like attaining a state of altered existence - I may have gotten the words wrong ... but I think not. When I compare my meditation in practice with the Buddhist meditation, at least from what I read, I find that whilst I meditate on Scripture or on God, my aim is so that I can understand my God better. I desire to know Him more and enjoy His presence, and in turn know what I must and should do as His child.

For a Buddhist, it is the attainment of an altered state of the mind. It is a concentration on something or nothing, until the mind is free from externalities - that is what I think it is at this point of time. I have much more work to do to figure this out.

pearlie