Fair enough. Meditation and even prayer certainly don't need to be associated with religion. Funnily enough, meditation is explicitly mentioned in the Bible, so

Fair enough. Meditation and even prayer certainly don't need to be associated with religion. Funnily enough, meditation is explicitly mentioned in the Bible, so it's confusing why more Christians choose to solely focus on prayer. If meditation is about understanding yourself, and prayer is about causing effect in the world, meditation seems the best way to operationalize Jesus' words about removing the plank from your own eye before the speck in your neighbor's. It seems to me that both prayer and meditation are related to the notion of a Higher Power. Whether that power ranges from rebalancing the autonomic nervous system to letting God take charge, meditation and prayer are fundamentally about a conscious connection to the Unseen.