The thread about the purpose of furniture in the temples made me wonder if one can go to the temple just to meditate and pray and all of that fun stuff with out doing any ordinace work. Will they let you just sit in the chapel or on the furniture that's in the massive "hallways" and be spiritually edified from being in the temple?
Or do they only let you there if you're doing an ordinance and then kick you out when you're done?

Obviously they want you to do the ordinance and get out. They will often push you along.

But you might be able to sit for a while in a hallway, or a side waiting room. Most temples have waiting rooms before the TR desk, altho you may have to sit with coats etc. :)

Once you pass the desk to have your TR checked, they want you to move right along. They would prefer you do your meditating outside, or just go home.

No, you can't just sit in the chapel. Pretty sure they will try to move you along. The chapel is for reverently waiting for the next session to start. Laie temple chapel has a small organ, and sometimes someone would be there playing hymns.

The Laie temple has a large front entrance room, and the TR desk is right in this room. There are chairs, and you can sit and wait there. It's got a lot of big windows, and the gardens are very nice. Actually, I used to sit in the gardens and read scriptures on a Sunday, very nice place. Nice water features too. Very nice...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/22/2012 06:01PM by hello.

You can't get to the celestial room unless you do a session.

Actually, it is possible as I found accidentally that one can merely walk in one of the out doors, so long as you have on the "proper" attire (being the apron and the baker's hat or veil). Just act like you know what you are doing. After all, in a larger temple they won't know that you didn't just leave the CR to use the restroom. Since you wouldn't take off the apron etc until you got to the lockers, it is no stretch to leave the locker area in full regalia. Just think that you can get in without the boring session!

People are allowed even invited to do enter the Celestial room after doing sealings. As long as you are in your full temple robes you can walk into the Celestial Room the back way and they will assume you just finished doing sealings.

The temple isn't about meditation. It's a money extracting factory selling recommends for 10%.

right ozproof. It is not for anything spiritual.

They like it when everyone is in the appointed place, doing the appointed thing, listening to or delivering the appointed message. Doing things on your own, well, that's just wrong. You might wander from the fold. You might have unapproved thoughts.

Forget the temple, I was chastised for sitting alone in an empty classroom or in the chapel at the ward. Mormonism has a knee-jerk aversion to solitude.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/22/2012 07:15PM by Stray Mutt.

Yes, which is why they don't have a "Meditation Room."

They do not let you hang around in the Celestial Room even if you have done a session. After 10 minutes, you will be gently "cleared out."

Honestly, why would you want to? There is nothing edifying or spiritual there. Why don't you drop in at the Cathedral where you are welcome? And you have beautiful stained glass windows, filtered light, quiet, no one bothering you about what you are wearing, or how you are sitting/standing/kneeling. And candles.

You don't even have to be Catholic or have a priest's permission. Since they aren't selling entry, it's called the Church of the Devil. God's "true" church charges and you know what they say, you get what you pay for.


Anagrammy

The Mormon Temples are not designed for meditation or thought. They are more like a factory. When I went to the temple, I felt like I was being processed more than anything. Temple workers are like robots herding the people along. You don't have any time during the session to pause, sit and think. (Although it seemed there was always at least one person sleeping through the session.)

As people have said, when you are waiting for the session to start, and as people gather, there is sometimes a peaceful feeling in the quiet of the waiting rooms. And the temple grounds are always nicely kept. I always liked to walk around outside. Inside the temple, I don't recall any windows that you could use to look outside, or even any natural light. It's a little disorienting for those like me who feel a little claustrophobic when you go in and run around from dressing room to waiting room to session room to celestial room back to dressing room with no way to get your bearings or to know whether is sunny or raining or even night or day.

My parents say they always get inspired going to the temple. But even they rarely go anymore. It seems more an obligation than an inspiration. Frankly, temple work has always seemed to me to be less a religious experience than initiation rites to a secret society like the Freemasons that inspired the whole thing. You don't learn any new doctrine or anything. Just dress up in weird clothing--stuff that looks absolutely ridiculous--and exchange secret signs and cryptic words. How that would inspire anybody, or give them anything to meditate about, I don't know.

When I have lived a few blocks from a temple (once upon a time), I would go to the temple for 30 minutes and pray/meditate over some issue. I totally believed that I would be closer to God inside the temple and that Satan could not enter the temple and cause confusion in my heart and mind.

Theoretically - yes you could. The temple is NOT designed to go meditate - it's designed for busy work. However there are a number of ways you could do so if you wanted to.

1) There is a lobby in most temples right behind the entrance in most temples. People hang out there fairly often - mostly men waiting for their wives to change. You could probably sit there for hours if you wanted to. Eventually a temple worker would probably come talk to you and ask if you were OK or needed help.

2) As far as entering the chapel you could potentially do it, but it would be really awkward. The chapel is designed to be the waiting room for the next endowment session. You could not go into a session - must likely no one would even ask - they would assume you are waiting for someone else before going into the session - you could even skip several sessions but it would eventually start to get awkward. You can also leave the chapel and just head back to the locker room - a temple worker could potentially.

3) Also you can get into the Celestial room in two different ways. One is by doing the endowment session. The other is doing sealings. If you do marriage sealings you are always allowed to go visit the Celestial room afterwards. There is no escort usually - you just wander over to it.

So you could actually sneak into the Celestial room if you wanted to and they would just assume you came from sealings. You would just need to be wearing your full temple robe & apron.

Realistically that's not how it works. People attend the temple to check if off their "should do to be a good Mormon" list and then get out of their as quick as possible.

One more comment. I don't think anybody feels a sense of grandeur in a Mormon Temple. The best place is definitely the Celestial Room, with the nice furniture and, as I recall, flower arrangements and the like. But a temple is nothing like, say, a cathedral with architecture and fine art designed to uplift and inspire. The inside of the Mormon Temples is pretty pedestrian, as you have seen, and feels that way when you go there. It would almost be like going to meditate in an airport or train station.

You live in Rexburg right? I think you have to go to the BYUI Taylor Building (just kidding)

If one truly believes that inside the temple walls, Satan cannot enter and that Christ has walked the halls (which is the belief), then one can believe that there is inspiration anywhere inside the temple. No doubt, TBM's believe that and many go to the temple to get answers to questions and to get focused. While the Celestial Room is (of course), the preferred place, any place is "out of this world"

If someone does not accept the above belief, then it feels (this is my experience) a little weird, a little spooky sometimes, very uninspiring, and sometimes boring.

This aversion to being alone reminds me of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World... And that was exactly the purpose in the book: not to let anyone meditate and think for themselves while alone. This is a rather creepy resemblance.

I haven't considered myself catholic for over two decades (and didn't have to resign - how cool is that!), but I still walk into a church sometimes, just to relax or meditate. No questions asked, no one bothers me. Feeling at peace is fundamental for any spiritual experience, and it's definitely NOT the case in the mormon temple. Ugh!

Better off to check out some place like this:

http://www.makarchitects.com/fo-guang-shan-st-louis-buddhist-center/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Liverpool_Anglican_Cathedral_-_Lady_Chapel.jpg

Yes you can just go to the celestial room if you are in full Masonic temple garb. I've done it myself a couple of times when I was trying to get my gay ex boyfriend to stop being gay. (Sorry about that by the way, gay ex boyfriend)

You just ask ad temple worker and they will escort you there no problem.

Another possibility, once you are past the recommend desk: go to the locker room, and directly to the restroom. Find an empty stall, sit on the throne (think of it as the "throne of God") and meditate to your heart's content as long as you like. You are in the "house of the Lord" even if you are taking a dump while meditating. Or masturbating.

Remember to flush afterwards.

Nice!

I tried that once at a particularly troubling point in my life. They did not like me being there like that.

"THE" church is here for "THE" chruch. The church is not here for you!

I've always had buddhist leanings and when I learned about the benefits of meditation, I foolishly thought I could do that in the temple to get closer to "Heavenly Father". Riiiight.

Temple patrons and matrons have a secondary job of security personnel. They are friendly enough but also firm when they don't want you around certain areas.

After one session, I sought to stay a while in the Celestial Room for some prayer and meditation. I was "allowed" in there for a couple minutes only. The patrons kept walking past me and finally someone very gently placed his hand on my shoulder and asked me if I wanted to attend the next session or hurry along. Their reason? The next group is coming along soon and they will need space to sit out the shock and disbelief of their temple session (okay that last part is mine). But you get the picture.

What you can do is walk around the grounds, find a spot and sit there for as long as you like. I live in a hot and humid country so that was done during the cooler seasons. However, experiences may vary. I was pretty well known to the head of security (same ward) so my presence anywhere in the grounds was never questioned.

While visiting the Nebraska Mormon Trails Center in Omaha over our Memorial Day weekend road trip, we walked over next door to the Winter Quarters temple. We were in "Gentile" wear of course, but were allowed into the grounds and wander around taking goofy photos and such. No one bothered us despite our loud laughter and chatter. I guess temple security was on a break as well.

You can mdeitate at home. Why do it in Satan's place?

Not necessarily. I remember wanting to just sit and relax outside one of the Temples. No sooner had I done so than I was accosted by a Temple Square missionary.

It was pretty annoying, but I lacked the assertiveness skills I have now. I just listened to the "testimony" of said missionary, who started crying and got me to sob along. I will never forget how really odd it all was - I knew I didn't want to be involved in Mormonism - yet this guy was using a full court press, but in a very gentle way - to try to get me to join in the charade. I found out later, through someone who knew him, that he was an "extreme" missionary who hoped to one day become Prophet! :)

in the CR (as suzanne above said) that I could find the answers for my gay boyfriend/husband. I thought I could do the same if I could just ask church leaders--find answers. Nope.

I never ONCE got to sit in the CR. I'd go through those horrible endowment sessions just to get the CR and they'd rush us out.

THE ONLY time I was able to sit and meditate in the temple was while waiting for my ex to finish up a session as they had pulled me aside to do sealings (why not pull my husband aside, too, rather than have me stand in with another man who wasn't my husband)--but I sat in the lobby for about 45 minutes. That was the last time I went to the temple. The sealings did it--not necessarily the meditation. Doing those sealings with some other guy really brought perspective to my own marriage. They really DO NOT put much value on marriage.

That's one thing I kinda liked about the Catholic church. You can stop by a cathedral pretty much any time of the day, whether you are a member or not, and just pray and meditate. No one bothers you. You can stay as long as you like.

The LDS temple is NOT like this. It is like a factory where they just process you through.

Thanks for sharing and for the thoughts. Just to clarify, I don't _want_ to do that; I was just wondering if one could if they wanted.

You have raised a very interesting question. As I have said in other threads, I wonder where the Mormon Church is going with this temple building spree. Why do they need all these temples when they are so little appreciated by the members? If the buildings had any grandeur or anything special or sacred going on there, I could understand it. But the temples have nothing inspiring in their architecture or furnishings, unlike many churches, and nothing inspiring in the things that are taught there. Why build more of them?

Church worship servies, rituals, and buildings don't allow for introspection or spontaneous prayer.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/23/2012 01:55PM by Cheryl.

Mormon temples are like rides at Disneyland. So much anxious build-up, then when you're actually there you have to deal with the frustration of waiting, then being hurried thru. The experience is never as good as everyone says.

I used to just go to the celestial room on my own,especially at quiet times,was once moved on from a lovely room near the sealing rooms and i asked where could i go to pray and meditate and the worker said just go on a session,numpty,sometimes would sneak into the chapel which was used for the youth before they did baptisms for the dead,thinking back how stupid was i to think i could receive revelation on a conveyor belt!