Imagine that you are a bird, and you are flying over a city. Patiently consider the things that you would see, and examine them each individually in differing degrees of detail. At the same time, try to locate, in your mind, where your wingtips would be in relation to your head, your feet in relation to your rear-end, and so on. Immerse yourself in the things that you would see, smell, hear and feel. For a few brief moments, accept this existence as your reality.
Now, without attempting to rationally consider the question, ask yourself, "What is important?" Accept whatever thoughts enter your mind without attempting to cross-examine them. Because it is nearly guaranteed that you would be wrong about the thoughts and priorities of a real bird, then it is valid by mere virtue that this reality is your own invention. Try asking yourself different questions along this thread, and accept their answers with as little question. Continue with this fantasy until it has become more intense than your experience of the real world.
Allow this experience to fade away, and then go through the same process of self-examination that you did when you imagined that you were a bird. Take in what you see in varying levels of detail. Concentrate on the location of your fingertips, your ears, your feet, and so on. Ask yourself the same questions with the same easy acceptance of what their answers are.
Review what you have done in the past day, the past week, the past month, and the past year. Then begin dividing these experiences into related subjects: for example, review the books that you have read during those time frames, and then review the meals you can remember eating during those timeframes. Carefully and neatly catalog your experiences, so they will be easy to find when you need them.
Now, go through all of your experiences, and spend a while trying to understand why you read one particular book or ate a particular meal. Spend some time trying to understand what motivates you to do the things that you do. The most important person to have empathy for is your past self, after all. If you cannot understand that person, then you cannot very well understand others.
When you have completed this exercise, begin forming in your mind a list of people that you know, and review your past experiences with them. What you will do differently on this occasion is spend some time trying to understand them in the same way that you have attempted to understand yourself. Try to understand what motivates them. If they are religious, try to understand what makes them religious. If they are vegetarians, try to understand why they are vegetarians.
This is MY "religion." I have been lapsing lately.
