The Labor of Prayer - Meditation Exposed

The religions of the world teach many ways to pray, but there is only one true way. The Bible tells us how to pray, but if we listen to men (guru’s, teachers, theologians or pastors gone astray) on how to pray, we’ll be tangled in disciplines without having a personal experience with God. My prayer life prior to accepting Christ was a burden, so difficult that most nights I went to bed without even attempting it!

I’m going to explain it to you in some detail here so you can remain vigilant in your churches. Someone might explain it as a way to deepen your knowledge of God, and use phrases like Christian meditation or Christian Yoga. Always refer to the Bible about prayer, never the ways of man, no matter how educated or well connected that man may be.

This looks peaceful, and it should be, but... 

In my guru laden church, praying was a series of works. Prior to prayer we were to practice a series of Yoga “energizing” exercises. They were relatively easy to do, but took between 20 – and 30 minutes. After this, you sat down to mediate. Usually this included chanting for another 20 minutes. Next you practiced 3 different series of “yoga” techniques.

The first was a breathing exercise that used a repetitive phrase called Hong-Sau. You were to mentally say the first word as you breathed in, and second word as you breathed out, all the while paying close attention to your breathing. After about a ½ hour of this, you would switch to another technique, called The Om Technique. This one involved closing your ears and eyes with your fingers. To make this easier they sold a special bar you used to hold your elbows. You were to listen for the OM vibration and look for the “third eye.” They taught us this was the “comforter” taught in the Bible, or their idea of the Holy Spirit.

(This is an artists rendition as the picture I used was removed by Blogger...gee, I wonder who complained about it? Could it be a church that wants to hide it's techniques from the public eyes?)

An OM BAR is not a place to have a drink!

The last technique was their highest and took a year of lessons and a special secret initiation. It was called Kriya Yoga (you can Google this for more information), and this was a technique where you visualized energy in your spine while using a breathing method to “draw” it around the spine, starting from the base (coccyx) to the base of your brain (medulla oblongata). Each revolution was one Kriya and the amount of them depended upon how far along you were. They start you at 12 and increase you by 12, but not without permission from a monk certified to increase them. He would watch and listen to see how well you were practicing Kriya before allowing you to do more.  After the initiation they throw rose petals on you and sing, "Roses to the left, roses to the right, roses, left and behind...om, om, om..."

After doing 24 to 120 Kriya's, each taking about one minute to perform, you would then “sit in the silence." All of this took about two hours, but I would manage to cram this into one hour. You were instructed to do this at least twice a day, in the morning and at night.

These are Kriya beads count each Kriya

If you think it’s hard to find 20 minutes to pray to God, imagine having to go through those hoops to talk to him, and then not be able to really ask him for anything, just “feel his presence.” What does Jesus say about such prayers?

"When you pray, don't babble on and on as people of other religions do. They think their prayers are answered only by repeating their words again and again." Matthew 6:7 (NLT)

After I denounced my guru, it took me years to even attempt to pray, and I had no idea what kind of “religion” I should try. I started walking every morning and praying: “Dear God, restore my faith in you and define that faith and belief.”

If you or anyone you know practices techniques of prayer, I hope this message will release you from that bondage.

I want to leave you with a warning. Eastern and New Age philosophies and techniques are present in American Christen churches. We must be vigilant about “blending philosophies” into Christianity. Tolerance for other religions has nothing to do with standing firm in Biblical Truth.