Liberal Arts Blog —How Many Times a Day Should You Pray? Do You Pray? Or Meditate? Or the Equivalent?
Liberal Arts Blog — Monday is the Joy of Math, Statistics, Shapes, and Numbers Day
Today’s Topic: 3,5,7,108 — How Many Times a Day Should You Pray? Do You Pray? Or Meditate? Or the Equivalent?
I know Hindu students who say the Gayatri Mantra 108X per day — but they can do it astonishingly fast — in under 15 minutes (or so they claim). The Islamic requirement of praying five times per day is one of the Five Pillars and is called “salah.” Christian practice varies widely. The classic Jewish rule is three times per day. For some, prayer is entirely a private matter. For others public prayer is of paramount importance. Others seek to balance the two. Recommended postures during prayer differ. Today, a few more details. Experts — please chime in. Correct, elaborate, elucidate.
THE FIVE MUSLIM PRAYERS: Fajr, Duhr, Asr, Mahgrib, Isha
1. Fajr: dawn. Duhr: noon.
2. Asr: afternoon. Mahgrib, sunset. Isha (evening)
3. My favorite Muslim prayer idea is that of bookending everything you do with a Bismillah (like grace at the beginning of a meal) and an Alhamdullilah (the equivalent of grace at the end of every meal as well).
JEWISH PRAYER: Three Times Per day: morning (shacharit), noon (Mincha), night (Maariv)
1. The Jewish Prayer Book is called the Siddur.
2. There are three kinds of prayer: thanksgiving, praise, petitiion.
3. My favorite prayer in Judaism is the Modeh Ani which you are supposed to say before you get out of bed in the morning. As you live day to day, the most important thing is to get out of bed on the right foot — the foot of gratitude.
CHRISTIAN PRAYER: The Seven Canonical Hours, The Three Basic Prayers
1. Psalm 119:164 “Seven times a day do I praise you for your righteous laws.”
2. “From the time of the early church the practice of seven fixed prayer times have been taught. …. “on rising, at the lighting of the evening lamp, at bedtime, at midnight” and “the third, sixth and ninth hours of the day, being hours associated with Christ’s Passion.”
3. For me, growing up as devout Roman Catholic boy, my three go-to prayers were the Our Father, the Hail Mary, and the Glory Be.
NB: The four types of prayers are adoration, contrition, thanksgiving, and supplication (abbreviated A, C, T, S). The seven canonical times are: dawn (lauds). prime (sunrise), terce (mid-morning), sext (mid-day), none (mid-afternoon), vespers (sunset), and compline (retiring).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canonical_hours
BBC — Religions — Judaism: Prayer and blessings in Judaism
14. The Daily Prayer Services — aish.com
Bible (King James)/Psalms — Wikisource, the free online library
https://www.thenationalnews.com/uae/2022/04/06/why-muslims-pray-five-times-per-day/
ATTACHMENTS BELOW:
#1 A graphic guide to justice (9 metaphors on one page).
#2 “39 Songs, Prayers, and Poems: the Keys to the Hearts of Seven Billion People” — Adams House Senior Common Room Presentation, 11/17/20Last four years of posts organized thematically:
PDF with headlines — Google Drive
YOUR TURN
Please share the coolest thing you learned this week related to math, statistics, or numbers in general. Or, even better, the coolest or most important thing you learned in your life related to math.
This is your chance to make someone else’s day. And to consolidate in your memory something you might otherwise forget. Or to think more deeply than otherwise about something dear to your heart. Continuity is key to depth of thought.
