Over the past few years, I have been exposed to many elements of many different

religions. I am baptized as a Roman Catholic and even attended a private Catholic school for six

years. But I also constantly receive a mixture of other religious influences, primarily from

Buddhism, as my father practices meditation and I have been fortunate enough to recently spend

two months in Thailand, a country with a mainly Buddhist population. I feel that these two

religions share very similar teachings, but with rather different presentations. In an effort to

better understand some of their differences and connections, I conducted an in depth study of

Catholic prayer and Buddhist meditation. Because the ways in which prayer and meditation are

conducted vary from person to person, this is by no means an exact definition for how anyone

must engage in either practice, but rather a more general examination on how each is meant to

impact the physical and mental being.

The Roman Catholic Church is considered to have begun around the same time as the

early Christian Church, which was started by the Apostles of Jesus Christ. It was not until 313

that the Roman Emperor Constantine legally recognized it as an official religion. Today, Roman

Catholics still make up the largest branch of Christianity and are spread throughout the world

through they are mostly concentrated in Central and Southern Europe, Latin America, and

Ireland. It is a monolithic religion and places its faith in the Holy Trinity, which consists of the

Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Worship is centered around Mass, the Sacraments, and prayer,

through which Catholics strive to achieve the salvation and grace of God in Heaven. In general,

prayer can be defined as communicating or actively seeking help from God or a higher power.

Pope John Paul II described prayer as:

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 “There are several definitions of prayer. But it is most often called a talk, or

conversation, with God. When we hold a conversation with someone, we not only

speak, but we also listen. Prayer, therefore, is also listening. It consists of listening

to hear the interior voice of grace….”

“When Buddhists pray, they enter into complete concentration, as if to lose

themselves completely in this concentration.”

Theravada Buddhism, which is one of the main branches of Buddhism, is typically

studied throughout Southeast Asia, including Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, Cambodia and Laos.

It is one of the most ancient Buddhist religions and believes that Buddha had indeed been human

and that his knowledge and wisdom is still taught today. He preached of the Four Noble Truths,

which state that a person can indeed become free from suffering, and of The Eightfold Path,

which describes in eight steps how to achieve that goal. Of those eight, the last three aid in

mental development and explain how to achieve the Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right

Concentration, mainly through meditation which helps create an awareness of the mind and

body. However, there are many different forms of meditation found throughout each branch of

Buddhism. It is encouraged not to discriminate between the branches because they all came from

the original teachings of the Buddha. Author Thubten Chodron, who wrote a Buddhism guide

book supported by the Dalai Lama, offered a solution to the elaborate situation:

“When we have developed a general overall view of the gradual path to

enlightenment, we’ll understand the purpose of each meditation and where it fits

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 in along the path. Then we can gradually develop many different abilities and

sides of our character.”

Meditation may be seen as striving for an inward focus and understanding of one’s self. It

requires more than just simply relaxing the mind while sitting with the appropriate posture. At

first, it can often be an effort to reach a state of mindfulness for the surrounding world while

focusing on clarity, peace and calmness, which is one of the aims of meditation.

Taking a closer look at both prayer and meditation, it can be said that both play a role in a

person’s tangible world as well as the mental and emotional world. To begin, logically one must

first learn how to pray or meditate. Because prayer has been defined as a conversation with God,

there is not much learning required if one already knows how to converse. Simply speaking with

God through one’s heart can be enough, however it is also beneficial to quiet the mind and not

focus on other distractions, such as music or an argument with a friend, while doing so. One can

gain examples or opportunities to pray from family and friends, the Church liturgy, mass and

other religious congregations.

Meditation on the other hand entails a bit more self-discipline. Sometimes it is even

recommended to learn from a skilled meditator who has studied the teachings of the Buddha and

achieved results. However, one can also practice alone daily by setting up a small quiet area with

a shrine if desired. It is recommended to choose a duration of time that is comfortable as it will

likely increase with later experience.

In order to define it a bit more than simply speaking and listening to God, there are also a

number of specific types of recognized Catholic prayer, which include blessing, adoration,

petition, asking forgiveness, intercession, thanksgiving, and praise. I believe that this variety

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shows that one of the objectives of prayer is actually to create an intimate connection with God,

not simply to ask Him to take care of human needs.

For example, Prayer of Thanksgiving can become a way of connecting with the world as

well as the Lord. Based on the belief that God created everything, we do not need to ask for

anything, but simply say “thank you.” That then brings into account the idea that the Creator is

everywhere in the creation. If one was to then acknowledge an object or thank a person, it could

be believed that he is also acknowledging or thanking God.

In addition to those categories are also two different forms that prayer can be delivered.

First there is vocal prayer, in which the words are spoken aloud and can be done or with a

community. Second, there is contemplative prayer, which is unspoken and considered to be a

more personal method of connecting with God and pondering about Him, the world, the day,

other people, himself, or other thoughts.

Although they are not quite as lenient as prayer, which can be done almost anywhere,

there are also several different forms and poses of meditation. They include breathing, walking

or standing. Breathing exercises are usually done in a sitting position where one then strives to

understand and focus on the workings of the mind. Walking can be added to this meditation in

order to avoid possible boredom and to concentrate on other parts of the body. The final pose is

to meditate while lying down. Meditating in this method may help release stress from the day

and aid in a good night’s sleep.

Both prayer and meditation are used as methods to achieve freedom from suffering and

stress. In the Catholic faith, suffering is believed to come from sin and the act of turning away

from God. It is through the belief that prayer connects one with God that lessens this constant

suffering. Pope John Paul II supports this idea when he said:

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 “This above all: it is prayer that always, first of all and essentially, demolishes the

barrier that sin and evil may have raised between us and God.”

On the other hand, meditation aims to transform stress and suffering from every day life

into peace and well being. One type of meditation, called Insight Meditation, specifically uses

reflection and contemplation in order to obtain attention and awareness of the body. It is used to

help bring about self healing, getting rid of stress, worry, negativity or self-doubt. It is also meant

to bring peace to one’s mind and to send goodwill out in the world by opening the heart to

kindness and compassion. Ironically, stress is often caused by lack of time in daily life and a

feeling of pressure that results from it. This is when meditation helps to prioritize activities,

accept limitations and failures, and to face the realities of life. Overall, meditation is a chance to

have some time alone in order to calm the mind and reflect.

Though prayer and meditation require quiet and solitude, both can be used to help others

and make an impact on the surrounding social community. A person who prays has the chance to

pray for everyone, including enemies. It is believed that God will not deny the Holy Spirit to

anyone who asks for it, even if it is requested to be sent to someone else. However, it is not

solely up to the Lord to change society. It is up to the person who is praying to take action as

well and to follow the example of good deeds in the Beatitudes in an effort to recognize the

shortcomings of human nature, create new ideals, and transform the world for the better.

Meditation strives for a very similar goal of peace as well. First it helps to clear an

individual’s mind so then that person is capable of reaching out to others in kindness. The

formation of a balance between contemplation and activity is necessary to maintain a calm

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mindfulness of one’s self and the surrounding world. Buddhist meditation also presents the

opportunity to pass on the Buddha’s teachings to future generations by means of Dharma doors.

These are metaphorical doors of teaching which lead to understanding when opened and are

constantly changing in number due to changes in social, political and economical conditions over

time. A popular Vietnamese monk and Buddhist teacher, Thich Nhat Hanh, described the results

that could happen when meditation is used as a means of bringing about peace in the world.

“Mindfulness, if practiced continuously, will be strong enough to embrace your

fear or anger and transform it. We need not chase away evil. We can embrace and

transform it in a non violent, nondualistic way.”

The life of both religions can be compared to that of a tree. Prayer and meditation are the

roots of their respective trees, through which flow the power of the Holy Spirit or the Buddha’s

teachings. If the prayer and meditation is properly used and taught to future generations, then the

roots remain healthy and allow the branches of the trees to grow. If the practices are abused or

forgotten, then the trees will likely become ill over time.

The central image of Christianity is the crucifixion of Jesus and his death on the cross.

From this idea came the sign of the cross, which is a motion typically made when entering or

leaving a church and when beginning or ending a prayer. It serves as a reminder of the Catholic

mysteries of the Holy Trinity and redemption. As the sign is being made, Catholics also say “In

the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit” to show their belief in the one

God who is formed from three Persons. The symbol represents the salvation from suffering that

had been achieved by Jesus’ death. It is believed that through His death and resurrection the gates

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of Heaven were opened to those who had perished on earth and that now it was possible for one

achieve eternal life after death and enter the Kingdom of God..

In contrast, there is a wide range of Buddhist symbols and images. This is partially

because images of the Buddha were considered sacrilegious for centuries after his death. So

instead, other figures were created to be focused on during meditation. Some examples include

the lotus flower, which represented purity, the “wheel of the law,” representing the Eightfold

Path, and a stupa, or small monument, which could represent the universe. See Appendix A for

the pictures and descriptions of the eight most common Buddhist symbols.

Then, once images of the Buddha were allowed they were at first only produced by

skilled artists. These portrayals tended to contain a number of subtle symbols and signs, the most

important of which were arguably the mudras, or hand positions of the Buddha. Each specific

gesture had an associated meaning which could represent a wide range of abstract ideas from

reassurance, blessing and protection, to a threat or warning, and even to supreme enlightenment.

See Appendix B for sample images of mudras and their meanings. Finally, people today often set

up a small shrine in their home with an image of the Buddha, a text, a bell, or other offerings.

These are to serve as a reminder of the peace and good qualities of the teachings that the images

represent.

Despite the impact that prayer and meditation have on the physical world, each strive for

slightly difficult goals in the mental realm. First, the ultimate goal of prayer is to serve as a

method of actively creating a connection with God who calls each person into a relationship with

Him. As a conversation, prayer can also be divided down into two sublevels of questioning and

answers. One who prays should ask for the guidance of the Holy Spirit according to his needs,

and it is believed that God will always send forgiveness and grace when it is sincerely requested.

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Decisions in life then can be guided though prayer for it is believed that then the Holy Spirit will

be sent to give wisdom and help in making the moral choice. In exchange, the way that Catholics

live needs to reflect that which they have received through prayer in order to keep the power of

the Holy Spirit alive in the Church and community. In other words, to pray but not practice that

which is being asked for is like refusing to listen to the answer that God is giving. And if one has

ears turned away from Him, then it becomes rather difficult to achieve that ultimate goal of

creating that intimate understanding and connection with God. Thomas Merton, a monk and

spiritual teacher offered this explanation on how to join in union with God:

“God utters me like a word containing a partial thought of Himself.

A word will never be able to comprehend the voice that utters it.

But if I am true to the concept that God utters in me, if I am true to the thought of

Him I was meant to embody, I shall be full of His actuality and find Him

everywhere in myself, and find myself nowhere. I shall be lost in Him: that is, I

shall find myself. I shall be ‘saved.’”

Meditation can be seen simply as a method to develop the mind, though often in

Buddhism it is used as a means of achieving lasting mindfulness and happiness by reaching

nirvana. This is the end of living life as a series of cycles; dying in one life then being born again

in another life form through reincarnation. Rebirth is seen to be based on karma, or the influence

of misdeeds and foul actions which took place in the previous life. Those that follow Buddhist

meditation strive to banish the three basic evils of ignorance, attachment and anger in order to

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reach an enlightened state of understanding for life. It is through this realization that nirvana is

reached.

It is also believed that everything exists intertwined with each other in a certain state.

Whether this state is called the Kingdom of God or Nirvana, it still offers the same understanding

of peace and relief as well as freedom from the concepts of birth and death. Thich Nhat Hanh

offered an example to help clarify the idea behind this state of mind:

“A farmer looking at his land in winter can already see his crop, because he

knows that all of the conditions are there—land, seeds, water, fertilizer, farm

equipment, and so on—except one, warm weather, and that will come in a matter

of months. So it would be inaccurate to say his crop does not exist. It is already

there. It needs only one more condition to manifest.”

Of course, prayer is not used only in the Catholic faith, nor is meditation strictly a

Buddhist practice. Both are used around the world by various types of people and religions.

Overall, the aim is to benefit from the practices and use them to help improve the quality of life.

In Catholicism meditation is used as a method of training the mind to focus and think freely on a

spiritual level. It is meant to help acquire the mental discipline to seek and accept the Lord

constantly, not just during individual times of prayer. In order to do so, meditation is supposed to

help control the mind and memory then teach the person to use that control to gain a better

awareness of God. To a Catholic, meditation may also be considered an unspoken prayer,

however that depends on the situation. Though it is meant to be used as a way of becoming

closer to God, prayer itself is also generally defined as a conversation while meditation requires

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no words. But if those two are separated, meditation and controlled breathing may be used as a

prelude to traditional prayer by helping to remove negative emotions and distractions from the

mind.

Prayer can generally be considered as directing the mind towards a specific aim.

However, it does not matter if the prayer requests help or guidance from God or Buddha, it can

not be fulfilled if the person praying does not take any additional action. For example, if people

pray to God asking for peace it will have no effect if they do not put forth any effort to remove

jealousy and anger from their hearts which act as the root of the fighting. In addition, if a

Buddhist prays to be born in a pure realm in his next life, that is not enough. He must also follow

the teachings that he believes in to have an impact on himself or the world around him. No

matter what higher power is being prayed to, the words will have no meaning if they are just

memorized and become ritualistic.

In conclusion, I believe that thinking that just one religion is entirely right or entirely

wrong would be folly and a close comparison of almost any two religions would be evidence of

that and show similarities between them. Here, Catholic prayer and Buddhist meditation serve as

an example of these inter-religious connections. Thich Nhat Hanh explained how a flower was

actually made up entirely of the “non-flower elements” that came together to create its existence:

rain, sunlight, earth, and time are just a few examples. He then extended this to explain his view

that:

“Just as a flower is made only of non-flower elements, Buddhism is made only of

non-Buddhist elements, including Christian ones, and Christianity is made of non-

Christian elements, including Buddhist ones. We have different roots, traditions,

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 and ways of seeing, but we share the common qualities of love, understanding,

and acceptance.”

Hopefully, through the use of meditation and prayer, these “common qualities of love,

understanding and acceptance” can be recognized and founding order to be used in

whatever is believed to be the best possible way.

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 Appendix A

Lotus Flower: Padma - Symbol of Purity. Can be of any colour except blue.

Dharmachakra: The wheel of the law. The eight spokes represent the

eightfold path.

Stupa: The stupa is a symbolic grave monument where relics or the ashes of

a holy monk are kept. It also symbolises the universe.

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 Triratana: The three jewels - the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha.

Chattra: A parasol - protection against all evil; high rank.

Dhvaja: Banner - the victory of the Buddha's teachings.

Deer: The deer -usually in pairs- symbolises the first sermon of the Buddha

which was held in the deer park of Benares.

Naga: The snake king. Vestige of pre-Buddhist fertility rituals and protector of

the Buddha and the Dhamma.

Source: http://www.thebigview.com/contents.html

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 Appendix B

Bhumisparsa Mudra: Touching the earth as Gautama did, to invoke

the earth as witness to the truth of his words.

Varada Mudra: Fulfilment of all wishes; the gesture of charity.

Dhyana Mudra: The gesture of absolute balance, of meditation. The

hands are relaxed in the lap, and the tips of the thumbs and fingers touch each other.

When depicted with a begging bowl this is a sign of the head of an order.

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 Abhaya Mudra: Gesture of reassurance, blessing, and protection. "Do

not fear."

Dharmachakra Mudra: The gesture of teaching usually interpreted

as turning the Wheel of Law. The hands are held level with the heart, the thumbs and

index fingers form circles.

Vitarka Mudra: Intellectual argument, discussion. The circle formed

by the thumb and index finger is the sign of the Wheel of Law.

Tarjani Mudra: Threat, warning. The extended index finger is

pointed at the opponent.

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 Namaskara Mudra: Gesture of greeting, prayer, and adoration.

Buddhas no longer make this gesture because they do not have to show devotion to

anything.

Jnana Mudra: Teaching. The hand is held at chest level and the

thumb and index finger again form the Wheel of Law.

Karana Mudra: Gesture with which demons are expelled.

Ksepana Mudra: Two hands together in the gesture of 'sprinkling' the

nectar of immortality.

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 Uttarabodhi Mudra: Two hands placed together above the head with

the index fingers together and the other fingers intertwined. The gesture of supreme

enlightenment.

Source: http://www.thebigview.com/contents.html

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 Works Cited

Textbooks

Chodron, Thubten. Buddhism for Beginners. Ithaca, New York: Snow Lions Publications, 2001.

Chowning, Daniel, Kevin Culligan, and Mary Jo Meadow. Purifying the Heart: Buddhist Insight

Meditation for Christians. New York: Crossroad, 1994.

Hang, Thich Nhat. Living Buddha, Living Christ. New York: Riverhead Books, 1995.

Jones, Timothy. The Art of Prayer. Rev. ed. Colorado Springs, Colorado: Waterbrook Press,

2005.

Merton, Thomas. New Seeds of Contemplation. Boston, Massachusetts: Shambhala Publications,

2003.

Segal, William. “Inviting Hell into Heaven.” Gathering Sparks. Comp. Appelbaum, David and

Joseph Kulin. New York: Parabola Books, 2001. 172-179.

Porter, Tom. “Why We’re Here Today.” Gathering Sparks. Comp. Appelbaum, David and Joseph

Kulin. New York: Parabola Books, 2001.134-135.

Websites

http://ezinearticles.com/?Is-It-Meditation-or-Prayer&id=301337

http://landru.i-link-2.net/shnyves/prayer.html

http://www.daughtersofstpaul.com/growinginfaith/basicqas/prayer/prayercomm_231.html

http://www.thebigview.com/contents.html

http://www.racialjustice.org.uk/Types%20of%20Buddhism.htm

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/bullitt/theravada.html

http://religiousmovements.lib.virginia.edu/nrms/roman_catholicism.html

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