Posted on 09/12/2019 5:39:11 PM PDT by marshmallow
When divinity and the world are confused and there is no otherness, any type of prayer is useless'
Spain's Catholic bishops have warned that the increasingly popular use of Mindfulness is incompatible with "Christian prayer practices", and cautioned Catholics they risk "effectively abandoning the faith" if they engage in it.
"Our pace of life, marked by activism, competitiveness and consumerism, generates emptiness, stress and anguish", said the Bishops Conference's Commission for Doctrine of the Faith. "In this situation, many people are resorting to methods of meditation and prayer that originate in religious traditions outside Christianity in response to a growing demand for emotional well-being. However, a spirituality understood as cultivation of one's interiority and self-discovery does not lead to God".
The document was published in response to the growing popularity of Mindfulness, Buddhism and New Age practices in Spain, where baptised Catholics make up two-thirds of the population of 47 million, although fewer than a quarter ever attend Mass and 29 percent declare of citizens themselves non-believers, according to August data.
It said the "secularised mentality" characterising contemporary society hindered the cultivation of spirituality and attempts at "encounter with God".
However, it added that techniques aimed at "self-control of personal emotions and sufferings" were often used "without proper discernment about their compatibility with the Christian message of salvation", and were not generally "open to the will of God". Those using Mindfulness methods "as a complement to the faith or to achieve a more intense experience of it", the Church document added, often "effectively abandoned the Catholic faith even without realising it".
"The reduction of prayer to meditation turns this type of practice into a monologue that begins and ends in the subject itself", the Bishops Conference commission said.
(Excerpt) Read more at thetablet.co.uk ...
Careful there heretic lest you get a taste of the Spanish Inquisition!
Mindfulness does tend to cut down on an organization’s profits. :)
For the vast majority of people who begin mindfulness practice it becomes a technique to calm the inner comparative voice and reduce the stress and suffering caused by an undisciplined mind. This is like working out at a gym or running or doing yoga and should not interfere with or contradict anyone’s core religious teachings or practices like prayer. Many Christians, Jews, Hindus, and Muslims use contemplative practices in their daily devotions that are very similar to mindfulness meditation.
It is true that the final goal of meditation practice is liberation from the conditioned mind and a complete understanding of impermanence, suffering, and the illusion of the ego but this level requires a lifelong of deep meditation that is very difficult for ordinary working people to maintain.
Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!
>It is true that the final goal of meditation practice is liberation from the conditioned mind and a complete >understanding of impermanence, suffering, and the illusion of the ego but this level requires a lifelong of deep >meditation that is very difficult for ordinary working people to maintain.
Correct. Zen, don’t even think about it
Not until Torquemada shows up at your door, anyway.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/do-the-right-thing/201904/the-trouble-mindfulness
They say mindfulness is not as good and is oversold. I saw a study that said mindfulness and bio feedback caused anger and stress reactions later.
Eh ...nah. Mindfulness is a great way to slow down and breathe and stop panicking over every little last thought. AT any rate, it would prepare you to center yourself in preparation for prayer. Much ado about nothing here.
If a Buddhist pun is posted on a Catholic thread will any Protestants realize the humor in it? :)
Serenity Now!
Liberals’ attack on religion hasn’t removed the religious impulse.
In some liberals, it is de facto Buddhism - mindfulness and yoga being preeminent.
In others, it is environmentalism. Hence the regular anthropomorphizing of Mommy Earth crying because we eat the sacred innocent baby animals and pollute her body with industrial waste.
And for some, it is social justice. That’s liberal political dogma infused with religious levels of devotion. That’s why Youtuber Sargon of Akkad was viciously and even physically attacked for mocking social justice and creating a Youtube video (since censored) that social justice is a cult. Note - he’s a liberal atheist attacking them.
Well, I’ll have to think about that.
>If a Buddhist pun is posted on a Catholic thread will any Protestants realize the humor in it? :)
Probably not, but Jews might!
Hey, we’d all like additional seasons of Firefly....
:)
If some bishop thinks that other meditation is stealing worshipers from prayer he doesn't think too much of his religon, does he?
Blessed are the absent-minded, for theirs are the keys of the kingdom of God. Which they will certainly lose over and over again.
“Be still and know that I am God.” - Psalm 46:10
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.