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Comment by padobson | Hacker News Reader

It absolutely does. I've been praying pretty consistently since I was very young, around 5 years old.

When I discovered that wasn't normal for everyone, even people I go to church with, I was pretty surprised.

When I started meditating a few years back, I took to it like a duck in water. I had no problem doing 20-30 minutes right away.

But I don't get the same thing out of it that I do out of prayer. Meditation is like local maintenance - a reboot or a defrag. Prayer is more like a software update, connecting back to the home server for bug fixes and feature upgrades.

It's the feeling of being connected to something greater than yourself that seems to be the key difference.

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When I was in college and I was in the Ultimate Frisbee club we played with a group of young Christians and it seemed very much to me like meditation (something I was more familiar with) and prayer were very similar. The concept of God may just make it more pointed, or more like a conversation.

Thanks for the share. You may want to check out Anthony De Mello if these are things you enjoy, I've been enjoying his meditations very much lately. Found out about him on HackerNews. He does Christian meditations with an Eastern style. But there's very little that is preachy about them.

it seemed very much to me like meditation (something I was more familiar with) and prayer were very similar. The concept of God may just make it more pointed, or more like a conversation.

Yes, if I was going to introduce a non-Christian to prayer, that's pretty much how I'd describe it. There definite similarities, but with clear differences that make it more like a dialogue.

I'll look into Anthony De Mello, thanks for the heads up.

> It's the feeling of being connected to something greater than yourself

Well said. I find it interesting that I feel the same towards the Universe. Maybe that's why I never felt the need for a deity.

> Meditation is like local maintenance - a reboot or a defrag. Prayer is more like a software update, connecting back to the home server for bug fixes and feature upgrades.

This is a brilliant analogy.

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