(The following is an edited message on the topic of Christian vs. non-Christian meditation. I have not expanded it, so like the original, it is not very detailed.)

Remember what they are trying to do — they are trying to blank themselves out, or erase their inner selves, or merge with the universe, or achieve an altered state of consciousness.

The Christian, on the other hand, "meditates" by actively engaging God’s word and applying it to his own heart. This is not a mystical engagement or application, since we do not repeat God’s word as some sort of mantra without thinking about its meaning.

Instead, we carefully think through the meanings and implications of the biblical passages, relating it to other passages, and then apply it to our thought and conduct. As all Christians should know, this involves serious intellectual effort, and it can often be painful to work through one's sinful and unrenewed thinking.

Christian meditation, therefore, is not a way to escape from the self or to lose the self, but to honestly confront it by the only power that can transform it.

So, do not be deceived — even the seemingly gentle Buddhist monks are corrupt to the core. Some of them make a superficial acknowledgement of it, and have written about it. However, none of their writings and exercises have the converting and transforming power that is only available from God through Christ, by means of Scripture, as applied and energized by the Spirit.

Eastern religions want you to lose yourself. Pop-psychology urges you to accept your filthy self as it is. But Christianity teaches that you must confront and examine yourself by the word of God, and then it is by means of this same revealed word from God that he will sanctify and transform you.

Joshua 1:8
Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.

1 Corinthians 11:28
A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup.

2 Corinthians 13:5
Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you — unless, of course, you fail the test?

Philippians 2:12-13
Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed– not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence — continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.

James 1:21-25
Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you. Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it — he will be blessed in what he does.

Recommended:

Vincent Cheung, Prayer and Revelation (PDF, p. 71–76)

Vincent Cheung, Renewing the Mind (PDF, ch. 1 and 2)

Edmund Clowney, Christian Meditation

Nathanael Ranew, Solitude Improved by Divine Meditation

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