Friday, July 02, 2004

smug bastard

lawrence posted this on june 21. i never linked him on my sidebar, but then i've never felt like his friend. that's not offensive, is it?

In a thread in an online forum that complements the Universal Forum of Cultures in Barcelona (which is taking place now until September) I found a simple and eloquent statement about the difference between prayer and meditation.

"For me prayer is not the way forward. I prefer to use meditation where I feel I have a different relationship with God. For me it is not a case of asking God but of listening to him."


is it just me, or does he sound like he feels he is better than people that pray, and he's proud of it? that's even worse, i think. maybe it's because i've been reading the screwtape letters, but i'd rather be asking god for help all the time rather than feeling like my relationship with god is _better_ somehow than someone else's. my first impression is, what a jerk. am i completely overreacting here?

1 Comments:

At 9:16 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

The original forum thread is about perspectives on peace. In the full post, the guy Lawrence is quoting is talking about methods to achieve peace, specifically that peace is more internal than external. His point is that prayer is an external means, asking God to change the world to make it better, whereas meditation is internal, listening to God to change yourself.

I don't think there's an explicit judgement on a "better" relationship with God, perhaps implied that it's more effective. To me, it seems more smug to think that God will listen to you as opposed to just opening your ears to what God has to say. Then again, I haven't been reading The Screwtape Letters so I don't have that perspective.

And if you don't like me changing my blog address, just wait until next week.

 

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