> bogus nonsensical ones that say you need to light candles and get into some funky position and whatnot.

It usually helps when investigating something you're a novice in to at least attempt to clear your mind of preconceptions. Do you know posture makes no difference? Where did you get that information from if you're a complete novice? Do you know setting (candles, incense) makes no difference? Where did you get that information from? Untrained intuition?

It's notable that 'spiritual'* traditions from many different places and times emphasise posture & setting. It wouldn't do any harm to at least consider whether there may be more to this than you're assuming.

* see (amongst many possible sources) John Vervaeke's fascinating 'Awakening from the Meaning Crisis' lecture series for why this doesn't necessarily connote other-worldly metaphysics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54l8_ewcOlY

Try the app HeadSpace. Super easy to use and very clear instructions. No candles or funky positions.

Also, I would say, the most important thing about meditation is not the technique but the habit.

There must be over a hundred or a thousand different meditation techniques, but if you don't practice them regularly, they are all worthless.

The most simple one for my taste: sit down (whichever way you want, ideally in a quite place where you won't get disturbed), close your eyes and count your breath from 1 to 10; once you reach 10, start over from 1. If you get lost (I know, sounds impossible, but it happens a lot), start over from 1.

>count your breath from 1 to 10; once you reach 10, start over from 1

Thank you for this. I have been trying to count to 10 without any other thoughts entering my mind. Some reflections:

1. I can't get to 10. I always start thinking of something and my minf wanders on about that.

2. How desperate, addicted my mind, body has become for constant stimulation and gratification. It always wants to make the pain insidd myself go away

3. How extremely tired and burned out my mind is.

Unfortunately I have particularly hard traumas and hate in my life to deal with, which might make my experience unique. But after just 20 minutes of trying this it has helped me. I have tried meditation before but this method made it a new experience for me.

Maybe this last part sounds unusual, but I just focus on letting the oxygen absorb into my brain without using it back up. And also trying to get outside of my mind -- to kind of transcend it and get into third person. I know I am explaining nothing more than feelings and psychological phenomena, but in there is some kind of truths that I dont know how better to describe at the momdent.

Counting breaths from 1 to 10 is not that easy, especially if you are tired or burned out. Personally, how far I can get from 1 to 10 is a pretty good measure of how exhausted or how good/bad I'm feeling at that moment.

> Maybe this last part sounds unusual, but I just focus on letting the oxygen absorb into my brain without using it back up. And also trying to get outside of my mind -- to kind of transcend it and get into third person. I know I am explaining nothing more than feelings and psychological phenomena, but in there is some kind of truths that I dont know how better to describe at the moment

That's great! One of the main goals of meditation practice is being present. When we are present, we start perceiving the stuff that is always there but we ignore.

The things that you describe are important, I'd encourage you to keep exploring them. Everyone's journey is unique.

Why Buddhism is True [0, 1] does an excellent job of covering the modern neuroscience that overlaps much of Buddhist teaching, such as the hedonic treadmill [2], while ignoring the more new-agey / spiritual / not-evidence-based aspects often associated with Buddhism and other eastern religions, such as reincarnation, "auras", etc.

When I started my meditation practice, the guided meditations in the Calm app [3] helped me a lot.

0: https://amazon.com/Why-Buddhism-True-Philosophy-Enlightenmen...

1: https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?stor...

2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedonic_treadmill

3: https://www.calm.com/

Legit links need quite a bit of research, like reading a 700 pages book only to realise that it consists on references to older more authoritative and much bigger books written a couple centuries earlier. These "sources" look like a tree with a few "root" ones written or said supposedly by a buddha. The closer the book or it's author to the root, the more legit it is. Technically, you can start from any author in this tree and discover the rest via references. One of the most cited authors is Atisa, who lived about 1000 years ago.

I highly recommend 8 Minute Meditation - https://www.amazon.com/Minute-Meditation-Expanded-Quiet-Chan...

Joy on Demand.

Free to read on Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/Joy-Demand-Discovering-Happiness-With...