Confederation, Eastern Orthodox Christianity and Meditation

[Aion]

Prayer is meditation.

There is actually a difference between western and eastern traditions on the meaning of the word meditation. What it means in Eastern traditions is typical of Buddhist and Yogic schools. In the Western tradition this type of meditation is referred to as 'scrying'. In Kabbalah and other parts of the Western tradition the term meditation more refers to focused contemplation. This is also differentiated from visualization, which is actually used in lots of Western practice (any time someone thinks of Jesus on the Cross, or a Saint, or symbolize the Trinity, etc, etc, these are all acts of visualizations).

These different meditative methods are like metabolism, one deals with building up, one deals with breaking down. Whereas the Eastern yogi or buddhist seeks to know the truth of themselves in emptiness, the Western seeks completeness. The thing is that on a certain level when these things are grasped they are basically the same realization coming from different angles.

Although I am a big fan of emptiness meditation, I think it is a different tool than one which fills.