Religion Follow-up: Do You Meditate or Pray?

I received some great feedback on my post about discussing religion earlier, so I thought I would ruminate on a few other religion-related subjects. I would assume that virtually everyone who belongs to an organized form of religion and considers themselves a practicing member of that religion prays or meditates. If you go to a church, temple, or mosque, some of the time you spend there is inevitably spent praying, or thinking seriously about God and your relationship to him/her. If you are a practicing Buddhist, you probably spend some time meditating, or at least thinking about emptiness and non-duality. Whether you believe in these things or not, I do think it’s important and very valuable to have a time where you think seriously about the world, reality, and your place in it, or about morals, or about the love you feel for others. As Robert Pirsig wrote in his wonderful book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, time spent thinking in this way is never wasted, and it can leave you calmer and more able to tackle life’s obstacles. So my question is, if you are not a practicing member of an organized religion, do you allow yourself similar meditation time? I don’t officially meditate, but I do value thinking time, and for at least ten minutes a day I usually find a spot to sit, look around outside, and think solidly about all the things in my mind. I always feel less stressed when I get a chance to do this. Do you unofficially meditate in a way like this? Is there an activity you do just for the thinking time it provides, like fishing or arts and crafts or work around the house? Most people,I think, have a meditative activity that can have a calming and focusing effect on the mind. What’s yours? And does it help you write? Maybe writing is your meditative activity. Leave a comment about what you think.

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