The difference between Eastern and Western religions comes down to furniture - or the lack of it. Western religions require a chair or communal pew, with the Catholics requiring the additional padded kneeling bench. Eastern religions mirror the indigenous religions of the world by their surrender-to-gravity approach to God and prayer. I prefer the “sit down and shut up” version of certain Eastern religions, particularly the ones that omit any group singing or reciting of text, instead performing the rituals of meditation and silent prayer.
This seating selection is related to how you “see” God. Is he above you, in heaven? Most Western religions believe so and therefore may unconsciously feel the need to elevate themselves into that chair or pew to be closer to God. As is true with every emotional situation known to man, there is a corresponding Little House on the Prairie episode, often resplendent with tears. The Lord is my Shepherd episode in Season One depicts nine-year-old Laura Ingalls (Melissa Gilbert) climbing a mountain (because there were so many mountains to climb in Minnesota during the late 1800s) to be closer to God. Slightly outside of fiction we have Noah, Moses, Abraham, Elijah, and more recently, Pier Giorgio Frassati, climbing mountains to seek a closer connection with God.
Eastern religions see God as a part of themselves, of nature, and of the Earth Mother. Therefore, they may unconsciously feel the need to get down on the ground. This demographic of spiritual aspirants also tends to include a large population of gardeners. The people of Japan take this to a whole other level outside of religion and gardening to the household rituals of sitting on the floor to eat and sleeping on tatami mats.
I once read somewhere that “heaven” is three feet above the ground on the Earth plane. Maybe those of us sitting on the ground wish to be at eye level with those we love who have died.
Whether sitting up or sitting down
on a mountain, in a cornfield, or up a tree,
whether you pray to Jesus, God the Father, Allah, Jehovah, Adonai, or Lord Krishna
in silence or in song,
with others or alone,
let us all pray.
Love & Blessings,
