Others (particularly Sam Barnett-Cormack) have given very good answers to your question about Quaker* worship and meditation. But let me add some observations to flesh out the details.
Quaker worship has some similarities with meditation in that it is usually quiet, but meditation is an active process, in that you are trying, through breath control, concentration, and other practices, to put your mind and spirit into a state “no mind”. But Quaker worship is much more passive than meditation. Well, “passive” isn’t quite the right word - more like “receptive.”
In Meeting, Quakers practice “waiting worship.” We make ourselves receptive to the Spirit, then wait patiently to be called upon. If you were to visit my Meeting in St Louis you would see some Friends with their eyes closed and sitting still as if meditating, but you would also see some reading Bibles, or Quaker literature, or simply staring out the windows. All of them are putting themselves into a receptive state to be visited, each in his or her own way.
Then too, no one in the zendo is going to stand up in the middle of meditation to speak of something that has been revealed to him. He or she might have an insight, but Buddhist meditation encourages privacy and silence during the practice. By contrast, Friends who believe that they have received a message from the Spirit, and that that message is intended for the Meeting at large, are positively required to rise and deliver it as simply and clearly, and straightforwardly and as accurately as they can. Receiving and delivering a message is a great responsibility and a great joy, and is an important part of why I joined and remain with the Quakers.
These answers may have raised more questions than they have answered. If so, I would encourage you to visit a Quaker Meeting, arriving a little early. There will almost always be someone on duty to greet guests, and if you tell him or her that you are curious about the process, they will be delighted to walk you through it and answer questions.
We’re very nice folks - they do call us “Friends,” after all.
* “Quakers” = “Religious Society of Friends”
Yes, it has some similarities to meditation, but no, it’s definitely not the same thing.
Meditation is an individual activity, even when undertaken as a group under direction. If it is meditation related to a theistic faith, such as Christian and Jewish meditations, then it might be seeking contact with God - as Quakers seek to gain awareness and guidance of the divine. It can also be a non-theistic practice, as in most cases in Buddhism, where the goal is a change in oneself, temporary or enduring. In all cases, it is an inward, individual activity, in all cases I am aware of, and it is not a common practice for anyone doing so to start speaking while in a group of people meditating.
Quaker worship, on the other hand, looks similar from the outside - a bunch of people sitting in a room, being quiet. There are two principle differences.
Firstly, it is not an individual practice; when we worship together, we are seeking to make that contact with the divine together. It is a shared seeking and waiting, and some Friends writing or speaking about it talk about the Inner Light of each worshipper reaching out and joining with that of those they worship with.
Secondly, it is the hope and, in some sense, expectation that the silence will be broken by one of those in the meeting speaking. We speak “as led”, that is to say when we feel something (opinions vary as to what it is) impelling, or even compelling, that speech. We believe that, when done faithfully, these utterances are messages from the divine, however imperfectly channelled through a human mouthpiece; this is called ministry.
So, there are superficial similarities in appearance, and there are some similarities in the nature of the inward experience, but there are also fundamental differences.
I have been to several silent meetings over the years. in a sense, it is quite like meditation. Gently waiting for the Light Within to speak to us. It definitely feels like a form of meditation. I’m not sure if all Quakers would do the same thing as they are listening and some may not consider it a type of meditation, but I think it could definitely be that.
One is ideally focusing solely on the Divine. It is to put all else aside and be with the Divine alone. This can be a prayerful experience and also a type of meditation. As some focus on a candle in meditation, focusing on the Divine Light is very similar.
