Prayer vs. Meditation
“Mirror mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all?” So goes the line in the story of Snow White. No matter how often or no matter how vigorously the queen beseeched the mirror to tell her she was the fairest the mirror never did.
The property of mirrors, if we think about it, is to merely reflect what is before it, not to add to nor subtract from. The mirror neither enhances nor detracts from the image. The reflection simply is.
When meditate it is like we are gazing upon the mirror of our mind or our life. The image is simply there, the image has no quality of its own other than it is a reflection of what is placed before it.
The purpose of meditation is to quiet the mechanism of discursive thought, it isn’t about seeking anything other than what resides in our lives. There isn’t a value assigned to our feelings they just are, just as the reflection just is.
Prayer on the other hand is more akin to a conversation. Where meditation is about quieting the mind and allowing the Buddha within us to manifest, prayer is about a conversation we may have about the nature of our lives.
“Anyone who keeps this Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma will be able to have his body purified like lapis lazuli. All living beings will wish to see him. Just as a reflection is seen in a clear mirror, all things in the world will be reflected on the pure body of this person, that is, of this Bodhisattva. No one but he will be able to see all things clearly.” (Lotus Sutra, Chapter XIX)
When we chant Namu Myoho Renge Kyo or recite the sutra we are engaging in meditation practice. The practice is to clean our lives of the things that prevent us from manifesting our enlightenment.
Prayer and meditation both have a place in our lives, they are in a sense complementary to each other.
Where meditation is the single word spoken over and over, prayer is an entire conversation.
