This quote from James jumped out at me: “The faculty of voluntarily bringing back a wandering attention, over and over again is the very root of judgment, char

This quote from James jumped out at me: “The faculty of voluntarily bringing back a wandering attention, over and over again is the very root of judgment, character, and will.” When people ask me what the point of meditation is, this is pretty much what I tell them. You are training a certain kind of "mental muscle", i.e. the faculty James mentions in this quote. I know that James, in addition to being a major psychologist and philosopher, studied world religions. That he would express this sentiment so plainly makes me want to find out more about his investigations (since many religious practices have a meditation component), and to see whether James himself advocated meditation.