“To pray,” Auden wrote, “is to pay attention or, shall we say, to ‘listen’ to someone or something other than oneself. Whenever a human so concentrates his/her attention—be it on a landscape, or a poem or a geometrical problem or an idol or the True God—that s/he completely forgets his/her own ego and desires in listening to what the other has to say to him, she/he is praying.” This may seem a denatured idea of prayer, but Auden took it seriously, and seems to have prayed in exactly this sense”
I sent this article to a few friends.One sent back an elegant and beautiful description of his view of the world and what it has within it though being an atheist he may not pray in the [old fashioned] Christian sense.He may pray in the above sense but to him it’s not prayer it is being alive and experiencing that
Another lapsed Catholic sent a short note saying she wasn’t interested in God
She didn’t ask me what it meant to me or why it had seemed interesting enough to send to her.She may like me have suffered the utter boredom of a convent school
Are some of us living in a complete and enclosed world so we don’t care what interests others? And we feel safe.After all, the boredom of the Rosary nearly drove some of us insane.That was no prayer that was rubbish to me.Yet some people have found it a help in times of trouble/Maybe just feeling the beads is nice?
I suppose in Auden’s piece he wants to be involved in humankind and the world of nature, the Universe of some aspect of that.And he also liked the invocation of the spiritual by means of rites and rituals which has been part of our history from the start……
A bit like music or an art show….?
How my heart sings 
Interesting post, Katherine. If I pray at all then it’s perhaps in the Auden manner. I am probably an atheist, but nonetheless due to C of E upbringing, have a god person lodging in my psyche, and with whom I have more or less wordless exchanges now and then. I’ve been reading a lot lately about spirit mediumship and possession along the Swahili coast where Islam treats with an array of indigenous Bantu beliefs. What is fascinating is the position of concession that people can arrive at – across beliefs, dogma, ethnicity, male chauvinism etc. In other words devout Muslims may feel themselves driven to engage with spirit cults or become mediums despite their intellectual, ethical and religious disapproval. Koranic verses may be chanted to reach the trance state. It’s all about healing and (I think) the acknowledgement of the existence of a universe of parallel spirit entities (neither good nor bad) who might be engaged with to act on our behalves with the Creator/Allah/Mungu/God. They intercede, but only after offerings have been negotiated. And if the humans fail to keep their side of the bargain, then they may expect all kinds of trouble!.
Thank you for such an interesting comment,Tish.I came across this when reading a blog by someone I know in the USA.I am like you.. I might think I am an agnostic but Jesus’s presence is in my unconscious mind and when I had nightmares I would shout,Jesus help me.
I think I was pleased that prayer could be thought of in this way.I really had no idea he was at all Christian despite knowing his poetry.He was not a believer in petitionary prayer
I find the last part of your comment intriguing. and will be musing on it today..There is more in the world than we know.I’ve never taken street drugs but I can imagine if hypnotised one might see a different world.We don’t spend so much intensively experiencing it… but maybe with lost of excitement,holidays in far away places we value extensive experience
We need both I think but intemsive is important.Some of your nature photos provide this and Janet Weight Reed’s paintings show feeling and experiencing the world she inhabits
Thank you once again,Katherine
Did you write this about Auden?
No,I have put another post on today with a link to the article in the NY Review of Books