Rick Warren asks: What does it mean to meditate? Some people think it means to put your mind in neutral and contemplate the lint on your navel as you say, “Ommmmmm.” – But that’s not what meditation is! (…) ‘If we look up the word meditation in a dictionary, we find that a synonym is the word rumination. Rumination is what a cow does when she chews her cud. A cow eats grass, chews up all she can, then swallows it. It sits in one of her stomachs for a while, and then a little bit later she burps it up – with renewed flavour! The cow chews on it some more and swallows it again. This continues for all four stomachs. That’s rumination. The cow is straining every ounce of nourishment from the grass. Meditation is thought digestion. Meditation does not mean that you put your mind in neutral and think about nothing. Meditation is thinking seriously about what you are reading. You take one verse and ask, “What does this mean for my life?” Talk to yourself about it and talk to God about it.’
Rick Warren, God’s Power To Change Your Life, 2006, Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, p.38-39