Meditation in the news

Recently Singapore's Mentor Ministor Lee Kuan Yew was interviewed by the New York Times, and the interview was picked up by the Straits Times. At one point in the interview, LKY discussed how a government investment friend, who happened to be Roman Catholic, taught him how to meditate. The point which many of my protestant friends picked up is that the "mantra" or sacred word that he chose was Maranatha. I've already heard two sermons expressing the hope that Singapore's former prime minister might convert to Christianity soon. Maybe or maybe not. LKY, who grew up with ancestral veneration, is a self-professed agnostic. He dislikes superstitions, Buddhist or Christian. He objected to his own brother having his aged father baptized when it was questionable whether his father even understood what it meant. We can only pray.

What interests me is the media coverage for an ancient and valuable Christian spiritual practice. Just yesterday, the friend mentioned by LKY was interviewed by the Straits Times - His Serene Highness. Referred to as meditation, the centering prayer is a practice that is meant to lead to contemplation, or communing with God. A similar approach is taught by the Trappist monk, Father Thomas Keating and Contemplative Outreach, which finds its roots in The Cloud of Unknowing and other Christian spiritualities, such as the Eastern Orthodox Hesychasm. The use of the term "mantra" might be a little misleading in that the point of eastern meditation (Buddhist or Zen) is to void the mind of all thought, while Christian meditation, leading to contemplation, is to create a hospitable space for the One who holds all things together.
Shalom.