The majority of the human population on Terra have and practice some degree of religious or spiritual prayer.  There are also many who practice meditation, either in addition to prayer, or independently if they have no religious or spiritual practice.  Are there differences between prayer and meditation?  Is one more beneficial than the other? The answers may not be as simple as one might think.

Both prayer and meditation have been practiced actively for millennia throughout the world. There are hundreds of different religious or spiritual belief systems, that involve one or more “gods” or higher spiritual beings.  Religious dogma generally requires that adherents to a faith pray to their deity or deities, generally on a regular basis. The general thought behind prayer is that by praying to a deity, that deity will then help you by taking action, give you the strength to do something, or that you will do something to reinforce your own subordination to that deity. The intent is generally that an individual is not empowered to take action on their own, or an individual does not have access to the information they might need to answer a question they may have.  Any person or persons who pray need to have a degree of faith – or a belief that the deity that they pray to for assistance will provide then with at least some level of help, even though that help may be somewhat subtle in nature.  And in general, prayer may not help an individual with the Energies around them, because that kind of help is not something that is asked for.

Meditation is generally used for many different purposes: relaxation, as a precursor to (or in conjunction with) Energy work, spiritual practices, to reach higher levels of Consciousness, to communicate with spirits or spirit guides (which could involve a deity), or to achieve a state of being where they would be more receptive to the use of their “alternative” senses. While it may not be the case in all situations, meditation can allow an individual to reach a state where they are empowered to do the things that they may want to do, or ask for (and receive) the information that they seek, by either accessing the information directly or through their own spirit guides. This is the biggest difference between prayer and mediation: meditation can empower you to take action yourself, while prayer generally can empower another to act for you or on your behalf. 

Are there any advantages to one over another?  Possibly, depending on your own belief systems. The concept of “faith” can be a very powerful enabler in ones life; if an individual believes in the absolute authority of their preferred deity, they can (and in many cases do) see positive results with respect to their questions and requests; if they pray as part of a larger group, the combined Energies of all of those in the group are certainly capable of achieving powerful results. There is a level of trust, in addition to faith, that the actions of the deity will truly be for the good of all involved. But there is an implicit understanding that the deity they pray to will not act contrary to their wishes, or act in a way that will harm anyone, physically, spiritually, or karmically, and that the questions from different people will be interpreted or heard the same way. 

Meditation can have similar results. But it may require extensive coordination among all involved, in order to have sufficient clarity of question, and the time of the action. If the actions of many are not synchronized, the effect will be to have many different people asking for similar actions at different times; from an Energy viewpoint, it may well be out of phase both Energetically and temporally.  And even if all involved use the same verbiage, how each individual interprets the words could cause subtle differences in the results. As an example, if all the people involved in a particular effort want to “turn a given body of water blue”, one person may try to accomplish that by settling the sediments in the water, while another may focus on making it a specific (or different) shade of blue.  With meditation, there is a lack of “coherence of intent.” This kind of issue generally would not happen with prayer, because all of those praying are praying to a single deity, who will understand the individual prayers to implement the common goal. 

Both prayer and meditation have their own set of benefits and shortfalls. But one is not any more or less capable of accomplishing a particular goal than the other – it is only a question of viewpoint, and the beliefs of all those beings involved.