Welcome to the Buddhist Boot Camp Podcast. Our intention is to awaken, enlighten, enrich, and inspire a simple and uncomplicated life. Discover the benefits of mindful living with your host, Timber Hawkeye. Do you pray, meditate or both?

Today we'll briefly chat about the difference between the two and the benefits of each one.

It's been said that prayer is when you talk and meditation is when you listen.

My old therapist never told me what to do in or with my life

for example. She simply helped me navigate through my own thoughts in order to

find the answers that were already buried deep within. It's like when someone helps you find the keys to your car, they don't criticize you for losing them. They help you check every drawer in the house and under each cushion of the couch until you discover they've been in your

pocket all along. Meditation accomplishes this by quieting the mind so we can hear the truth we already know. It's like fine-tuning a radio dial to eliminate the static for a clearer reception.

If you think of meditation as an inward journey, prayer is often thought of as an outward expression, whether you pray to God,

Mother Nature, or the universe at large. A true prayer is one of gratitude for the blessings in our lives. It is not a time to be greedy or beg for more.

This is because we already have everything we need in order to be happy.

So even saying, God, please give me strength for example

implies that we don't already have it when we actually do. Simply say thank

you for the strength and you will be empowered to tap into its unlimited supply.

Don't even imply that you have somehow been shortchanged in this life because you will actually

start believing it and then you will experience every aspect of your life from a place

of lack instead of abundance. By being grateful for what we have we generate energy towards

more of the same and that's because energy flows where

attention goes. It's ill-advised to focus on what's missing because then you'll wind

up with more of what you don't want. So I say meditate and pray. Meditate to keep your mind

firmly fixed in the right direction and it will raise your awareness of things to be grateful for in your prayers.

A common question I get is, well, what's the harm in praying for world peace? Well, the problem lies in the idea that it's somehow somebody else's

responsibility to make peace happen

...