What is the difference between meditation and silent prayer, and where is the transition?
This question is not easy to answer. If someone experiences the presence of God through their meditation or even attains unity with God – like Buddha, for example – have they prayed or meditated?
One could differentiate this based on the goal of the meditation:
- Someone who enters deep meditation with the intention of encountering God can regard this as prayer.
- On the other hand, someone who meditates to reduce stress would likely consider it simply meditation.
The inner attitude of the one meditating or praying seems to be crucial.
If a person understands their devotion in deep meditation as a turning toward God and an expression of love for God, we can certainly regard it as prayer. Thus, someone who sees meditation as a path to God can also understand it as silent prayer.
I would like to emphasize once again that the path to God consists not only of prayer or meditation, but of living in a spiritual attitude — striving to live out of true love.
This includes:
- The practice of charity,
- The alignment towards an ethical lifestyle,
- Possibly also the reception of sacraments,
- And not least the inner processes like the purification of the heart.
If we consider prayer and meditation as pure methods, then we can classify practices that lead directly to prayer in the spirit as prayer methods.
For me personally, the heart prayer from the Christian tradition was a great help. It supported my previously practiced Zen meditation, which I already understood as complete devotion to God, in a methodical way.