Friday, September 21, 2018

More on Secular Meditation

Dangers of New Age and other Creeping Practices. And, I mean Creeping, not as a commentary on the creepiness of that doctrine, but on the way they 'creep' into supposedly secular institutions, such as schools, government offices, and businesses.

Among the Other-than-Catholic practices being promoted:

  • Labyrinth - this is actually Pre-Greek. The legend is from the Minoan times, but "there is little evidence to suggest that such a labyrinth ever existed on the island of Crete. Whether imaginary or real, the labyrinth in the Hellenic world was a negative symbol, associated with fear and an overwhelming sense of evil."
  • Some medieval labyrinths - keep in mind that, during this time, Christianity in the West was borrowing art styles from many other parts of the world, including the East - India, China, etc.
  • Centering Prayer - this was developed in its current form at a Trappist monastery, where the abbot and his monks had been in contact with both Buddhist and Hindu teachers/monks. BTW, the link takes you to an anti-Catholic Fundamentalist site - but, the information about the practice's origins is correct. Here is a Catholic source for the same. Keep in mind the time period of the Centering Prayer's initial introduction - the 1970's - when Transcendental Meditation was all the rage.
A nice explanation of how Christian meditation differs from that which is being hyped today.


2 comments:

SiGraybeard said...

The same sorts of things are pushing into the non-Catholic, evangelistic churches, where it's typically known as the Emergent Church. Lots of stuff imported from Buddhism, Greek mythology and other non-scriptural sources.

Linda Fox said...

Really! I hadn't realized that the idiocy had percolated into the evangelical churches. I'll have to look up Emergent Church - thanks for the tip.