In “Theology for Millennials” on April 12, 2021, Mexican Father Mario Arroyo Martinez shared with Exaudi’s readers his article entitled “Mindfulness and Prayer.”
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Mindfulness and Prayer
Are mindfulness and prayer compatible? Are they complementary or excluding? Can a person of faith practice mindfulness? Is mindfulness more effective than prayer? Can mindfulness help us pray better? It never fails to be an interesting and current question.
The following scriptural principle is useful to address it. “Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things” (Philippians 4;8).
First of all, what is mindfulness? It can be understood as full attention to the present moment without judging. It is the art of observing intentionally and attentively our consciousness. It is a concept drawn from Buddhist meditation, which is focused on being occupied exclusively with the here and now, without making value judgments.
Is it religious? Its origin is Buddhist; it comes concretely from vipassana meditation, and it’s the translation of the word “sati.” However, in the West, its practice has been separated from a religion or a determined philosophy of life, as is being used therapeutic treatment for stress, anxiety, post-traumatic stress or the handling of pain, with a high degree of efficacy.
What is prayer? We can offer two definitions that help to understand its difference from mindfulness: “a personal, intimate and profound dialogue between man and God, “ where the encounter of two freedoms God’s infinite with man’s finite, freedom is essential for a genuinely Christian prayer.”
Whether we know it or not, prayer is the encounter of God’s thirst and man’s thirst. God is thirsty for man to thirst for Him. “ The dialogical element is essential in prayer; to come out of oneself, as opposed to mindfulness, which is to be centered on oneself.
In that line, the word meditation is equivocal, it designates two different realities. In mindfulness it implies abandoning oneself, doing away with all effort, to reach the highest degree of relaxation. On the contrary, Christian meditation “is, first of all, a search. The spirit tries to understand the why and how of Christian life, to adhere to and answer what the Lord asks for. Attention is necessary that is difficult to channel.”
And what is more important, whereas mindfulness implies a method, a very concrete technique,” authentic Christian mysticism has nothing to do with technique; it is always a gift of God, as otherwise it would go against the spiritual childhood, recommended in the Gospel.
Wherein does the fundamental difference lie? In Christian mysticism, meditation has an object, the Person of Jesus Christ, the Most Holy Humanity of Jesus Christ. Prayer aspires to unite us with Jesus, to contemplate Jesus, to love Jesus. Instead, the highest degree of meditation in mindfulness, the Full Consciousness Technique seeks to meditate without concentrating on anything in particular.
There is no object of attention. Therefore, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has warned against “some techniques of prayer that are not inspired in the Gospel and that practically tend to do without Christ, in favor of a mental void that has no meaning in Christianity.”
As ever, the Church’s Magisterium does a difficult balance. On one hand, it warns of the danger “of mixing Christian meditation with non-Christian meditation . . . [as those who engage in it] do not fear to place that absolute, without images and concepts proper to Buddhist theory, on the same plane as God’s Majesty.”
The problem with this sort of meditation is ‘remaining in oneself: here is the real danger. The great Doctor of the Church [Saint Augustine] recommend centering oneself on oneself, but also transcending that ’I’ that isn’t God. But, on the other hand, “the Catholic Church does not reject what these religions have that is true and holy, they must not be scorned without previous consideration of these indications, by the mere fact they are not Christian. On the contrary, one can take from them what they have that is useful.”
Eastern meditation techniques can help to create the necessary recollection, indispensable for Christian meditation. Moreover, some techniques foment Christian attitudes, such as the “Technique of Love and Kindness” or the “Technique of Shared Compassion,” where sentiments of love are fostered towards one’s neighbor in the most genuine Christian sense.
In other words, one cannot reject or accept wholesale but must discern in each case, knowing that both practices — prayer and mindfulness are good although they tend to different objectives.
