I'm Chris DeTippet. This hour we'll explore creative and generous approaches to prayer,

religious and non-religious in three very different lives. With musician Anushka Shankar,

translators Stephen Mitchell, and theologian Roberta Bondi.

Any reason to begin a pattern of prayer is a good reason, because prayer is about everyday

life. It isn't the great spiritual mystery. It is too high and lofty for the likes of us.

A mathematician working at a problem or a little kid trying to pick up scales on the piano

is a person of prayer. If you look at the whole language of Sanskrit, I think it's the only

language in the world, maybe apart from Latin, where like the vibration of the way the

word sound is equally as important as what you're saying. This is speaking of faith. Stay with us.

Speaking of faith is supported by the Fetzer Institute, sponsor of Karen Armstrong's Charter

For Compassion. You can learn more at Fetzer.org. I'm Chris DeTippet. Americans are religious and

non-religious devout and irreverent, but in astonishing numbers across that spectrum, most of us say

that we pray. From American public media, this is speaking of faith, public radio's conversation

about religion, meaning ethics and ideas. Today we open up the subject of prayer, asking how it

sounds and what it means in three traditions and lives. The English word prayer comes from a

Latin root, meaning to entreat. But the meaning and structure of prayer is infinitely various.

It can be a plea and expression of thanks, a moment of introspection. Prayer can be constructed of

silence or words or some would say of actions. In recent years, many Americans have discovered

ancient contemplative traditions like centering prayer, the Jewish Kabbalah, the Sufi mystics of

Islam, and Buddhist and Hindu chant and meditation. Later in this hour, Stephen Mitchell, who's translated

texts from the Psalms to the Daude-Jing, will describe his understanding of non-religious prayer.

And theologian Roberta Bondi will describe how she learned to pray in a messy, modern life

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