Citation

Brown, Andrew James. “A Wider Fellowship — Free-Religion without Borders of Place or Time . . . (and an Addendum on the Importance of Meditation).” Caute, 30 May 2025, https://andrewjbrown.blogspot.com/2025/05/a-wider-fellowship-free-religion.html.

Quotes

• species: #quote
• themes: meditation

“Meditation, in our understanding of the word, consists of a careful choice of words, which, in their phrasing, serve the purpose of initiating contact between the human soul and the Soul of the Whole. It is to be a ‘cry of the soul’ to the Unknown, and yet existent Spirit, which permeates all space, all creation, every root, blossom, and fruit of life. Even though meditation is directed toward the spiritual essence of the Universe, it should not awaken in us a sense of rejection of the world or of our life within it, but should rather lift us inwardly above all outward things, towards the dominant reality of the spiritual life, which we come to know through inward immersion, as divinity itself within us.”

— F. O. Lexa, former minister of the Plzeň congregation

Collations

My thoughts

The description of orientation of meditation by Czech unitarians is similar to that in jodo shinshu. We don't ask the Universe to give us something.

Prompts

Czech Unitarianism has used the term meditation as a substitute for prayer.

Compared to a Christian prayer that addresses an anthropomorphically conceived God, a Czech Unitarian meditation addresses an impersonal, higher principle of the universe.

Compare the goal of Christian prayer versus Czech Unitarian meditation :: Christian prayer asks God to change something in our lives, while Czech Unitarian meditation declares who we wish to become