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"Apologies if I am being inappropriate in asking these questions."
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Not at all! It is good that you are curious. First, I think a lot of comparison between eastern and western cultures gets lost in translation and, more importantly, in general human communication. God is a difficult thing to define and different people have different notions of Him. The same with a soul, etc...

Meditation is a very benficial practice that should not be tied to any particular religion. Prayer is a form of meditation (and vice versa).

A few weekends ago I met a Christian women who was an 'expert' meditator, she said it enourmously enhanced her ability to be close to God. It can enhance the practice of any religion, or can be done just by itself.

Basically it teaches one to calm the mind, which is undoubtably why SavageRepublican uses it as a stress releasor (as you can tell he is normally quite Savage):). By calming the mind you become more intune with ones body, emotions, thoughts, and, in the JudeoChristian sense, if one was praying then your prayers would be clearer and perhaps you would be more liable to 'receive'(if one does this). There are various exercises you can do to train the mind and get it more under your control.

My Christian friend used meditation to completely relax and still the mind before prayer.

Your correct that Yoga is actually a religion, but you can still separate out the physical exercises if one wishes to partake in them. I'm not too familiar with Yoga, although I do stretches before meditation.

When the Dalai Lama visits the US he normally speaks of meditation etc.. in this mostly non-religion-specific way, which I think is a rarity among religious leaders and, in my view, very positive. I've also read some of the books on 'mind life conferences'(or something) series of meetings he's had with various western scientists where they discuss eastern ideas about the mind with western neuroscientists, sleep scientists, psychiatrists etc... They have hooked up monks to EEG, MRI machines etc... and seen marked differences in the brainwaves, even while not meditating.
It is refreshing to me to see a religious authority so big on embracing scientific research - in effect saying "We know meditation is good and beneficial, we will help you scientists do whatever you need to prove it".

oh and besides, he's against the Commies. :)
Reminds me a bit of John Paul. You can love the guy just cuz he and Reagan brought down Communism in Poland.

btw, if your interested I wrote a piece expanding on some of these ideas a bit more (especially definitions of God etc):
http://www.neoperspectives.com/theoryofgod.htm

I am also doing some writing on meditation, which I can ping you with when im through if you wish.