Contemplative Prayer part 2

I have decided to read Ray Yungens book again "A Time Of Departing" because there are things that really need to be brought out into the open about what is happening in the Christian community. It seems that there is nowadays a practice that is becoming more and more common in evangelical circles, non-evangelical (such as Episcopal, Methodist etc..) and has become common in the Catholic church as well. I am speaking of contemplative or breath prayer. The following is an excerpt from Ray Yungens book.

In the early Middle Ages, there lived a group of hermits in the wilderness areas of the Middle East. They were known to history as the desert fathers. They dwelt in small isolated communities for the purpose of devoting their lives completely to God without distraction.The contemplative movement traces its roots back to these monks. They were the first ones who first promoted the mantra as a prayer tool. One meditation scholar made this connection when he said:

The meditation practices and rules for living of these earliest Christian monks
bear strong similarity to those of their Hindu and Buddhist renunciate brethren
several kingdoms to the East....the meditative techniques they adopted for finding
their God suggest either a borrowing from the East or a spontaneous rediscovery.

The desert fathers believed as long as the desire for God was sincere - anything could be utilized to reach God. If a method worked for Hindus to reach their gods, then Christian mantras could be used to reach Jesus. Do you see the reasoning here? Non-Christian sources as avenues to spiritual growth, are perfectly legitimate in the Christian life, and if Christians only practice their Christianity based on the Bible, they will impoverish their spirituality. This was the thinking of the desert fathers. So now as a result we now have contemplative prayer. Please take heart to what Jesus Christ expressly warned His disciples in Matthew 6:7:"And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions, as the heathen do." It should be apparent that mantra meditation or sacred word prayer qualifies as "vain repetition" and clearly fits an accurate description of the point Jesus was making here.
**end excerpt**

Many Christians will say that there is a difference between Eastern and Christian mysticism. On the surface this seems logical. What really makes a practice Christian? The answer is simple, did Jesus sanction it? A Christian is a pupil of Christ. That means you follow the teachings of Christ. Nowhere in scripture does Jesus teach this method of prayer. And I don't think that our Lord is one to hold any good thing out from us. If this is supposedly such a great way to commune with the Father, then why didn't Jesus outline this methodology instead of the prayer he gave in Matthew chapter six? The answer is that contemplative prayer is not Biblical in nature. God does not leave it up to well meaning people to invent their own Christianity. He has set before us certain models for our approach to the throne. Your intent has nothing to do with it. Just look at the story of Cain and Able. Cain thought he could please God in the way he wanted to, but God was very displeased when Cain wanted to bring a cleaner, less gross sacrifice to Him.

It is my prayer that God will be glorified in the manner that He should be glorified. That our approach to the throne will be done properly and reverently. After all, He is the king of the universe. You don't make up your own method of going before the throne. The approach that contemplative prayer takes, doesn't even lead into the throne room. It leads someplace else.