Is Meditation Biblical?

One of the first things most Christians want to know when they entertain the idea of beginning an interior practice is: is meditation Biblical? In other words, can I engage in contemplative exercises while maintaining my fidelity to the Trinity?

The quickest way to put this concern to rest is to actually refer to the book in question. As it happens, the words ‘meditate’ or ‘meditation’ occur about two dozen times through the Bible’s Old Testament (the exact number will depend on the translation you refer to), and none of these references portray the practice of deeply contemplating God’s work or God’s creation as anything but good. One reference that I like quite a bit (and is commonly mentioned by other meditators as well), though it doesn’t specifically use the word meditation, is Ps. 46:10 – “Be still and know that I am God.”

Clearly, the Patriarchs of the Bible had no problem with contemplative practices. Nor should we; in fact, David, through the Psalms, tells us that a full relationship with God is only possible when we spend regular time turning our attention inward (Ps. 4:4, 27:4, 63:6, 77:6, 119:27, 119:99, 119:148). It’s tough to imagine a better advocate than King David for meditation, isn’t it?

Unfortunately, even with all of this clear indication from scripture, there are some folks who insist that meditation is not only non-biblical – their strident position is that meditation is actually counter¬-biblical. Given ample evidence to the contrary, what can be made of this stance?

In general, this position comes from two angles. In some cases it springs from reductionist view of the Bible. For these folks, the sole purpose of scripture is to give humans a strict set of rules; the people who abide by those rules get to walk through the pearly gates when they die, and those who don’t abide by the rules are cast into perdition. There is no impulse to relate to God, other than maybe as an employee to an employer. They do their job and expect to be compensated. There is no need for anything further from the believer and any attempt at exploring a more direct relationship with the Father is a waste of time.

The other angle is a bit more caustic. For these individuals (and there are a surprising number), meditation, or any other interior practice, is actually a threat to salvation. When listening to this camp, it is not uncommon to hear the claim that meditators are somehow selfish or are turning their back on God’s creation (thereby turning their back to God). You can also hear regular horror stories about interior practices leading to possession by demons or ghosts. If any of that is true, there can certainly be no case for meditation being biblically sound.

Both classes of these claims (selfishness of meditation or opening oneself to possession), are based on ignorance of what meditation is and the effect it has on the meditator.

To address the complaint that meditation can’t be biblically sound because it is selfish, one only has to look at the mechanics of the practice (I cover those in another article “How to Meditate”). The very heart of meditation involves stepping back from our addictive search for sensual stimulation. Simply sitting and exercising our intent to focus on one single thing, we declare to ourselves and the Divine that we will not be mastered by our whims, our fears, our lusts or our hates. Meditation, by its very nature, requires that we leave selfishness behind. And when we have done that, when we have stopped nattering to ourselves about all the stuff that we want – we can begin to hear what God wants for us.

Finally: demonic possession. What a scary thought! That by simply looking into a candle or repeating a word for some time (for some reason, candle gazing is an especially huge boogey man for this camp), we can invite a fallen angel into our minds and hearts. There is a common belief that meditation leads to tranced out, hallucinogenic states of mind, and I believe it is this misunderstanding which has fueled the fear about losing one’s mind while meditating.

The truth of the matter is quite a bit more prosaic. Setting aside differences of all the many meditative techniques which have existed in all cultures and through human history, there are really two activities necessary for meditation:

1. directing your attention to whatever point of focus (a feeling, a sound, an image, an activity, etc.) you have chosen, and
2. watching your mind, observing its activity and bringing it back on task when it wanders.

Neither of those primary activities entails losing awareness, trancing out, or receiving direction from outside agencies. In fact, if you find any of those things happening, you aren’t meditating. You might be napping, but you aren’t meditating.

This isn’t to say meditation has no effect on you. If it had no effect there wouldn’t be any purpose to it. But the impact springs from setting aside the myriad wants and fears we mistakenly take to be our true selves. Getting that out of the way clears the path for us to authentically experience the person God made us to be, and allows us to rest in His presence.

With those thoughts in mind, there should be no doubt that meditation is purely in keeping with biblical teaching and can have a role in the life of any interested Christian.

If you have any further questions on this topic, I invite you to email me at CJB@TantricChristianity.com, or visit my website to read other articles or sign up for a mini-course on meditation.

Vigilate!

Christopher Boozell