I don't have a good resource for you, but I can definitely say that there is a tremendous difference between just sitting idle and meditating.

Meditation is a form of brain training, requiring a lot of discipline and practice. You are essentially teaching yourself how to alter your brain's function.

The difference is like watching TV versus playing a video game. It may look similar at first, but they are two entirely different things.

This is an interesting read if you're into meditation as it relates to science:

http://psyphz.psych.wisc.edu/web/News/Meditation_Alters_Brai...

Mindfulness in Plain English: http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma4/mpe.html

A good place to start.

Kusula Bishku's podcast is pretty good, too!

Friendly correction: it's Bhikshu

You can find it here: http://zencast.wordpress.com/category/kusala-bhikshu/

Hi there. Sorry I can't provide you with a good online resource, but my suggestion would be to find a good teacher local to you. I found meditation via yoga and it has had a profound effect on my mental state - how I deal with crisis, day-to-day tasks and dealing with people. I'm more focused and calm. I started my first business over 10 years ago and quickly (as I worked near the kitchen) ballooned to look like the Goodyear blimp. It took me a few years to recognise that I needed a healthy diet and my girlfriend introduced me to yoga. It was a revelation and, although I'm in danger of getting all evangelical on you, the combination of yoga, a healthy diet and meditation transformed me so that I can run my business more effectively. I would never try an online resource, book or audio book first though. Its much better to experience it with a good trainer until you can do it yourself. Good luck

I'm currently reading the Tibetan Book of Living and Dying. I'm not Buddhist but I was looking for a good book on meditation. This book has been great, it's got the wisdom of thousands of years of mediators in a format that is very accessible to Westerners. Its explanation of different techniques for meditation is thorough and practical.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0062508342

There was a pretty good discussion on this here on YC:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=454146

Seek out a local Buddhist temple. They will probably have public meditation sessions; novices welcome. The religious aspect is almost absent, especially if you do not understand the language(s) of the chanting.

Wherever You Go, There You Are by Jon Kabat-Zinn

His talk at Google:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nwwKbM_vJc

I think feeling the benefits of deep meditation is difficult for your first few months to years. It requires a lot of dedication. If your research makes you interested, you may even try Yoga as a good bridge into the practice.

You can measure Meditative states on an EEG (Electroencephalography) so something is happening. Granted, that says nothing about how useful meditation is but it is measurable and reproducible.

I'd say that idle and bored are not the same thing (http://chronicle.com/free/v55/i21/21b00601.htm).

In the same vein meditation is not the same thing either. From my point of view it's about being mindful about one's surrounding without analyzing it, just observing. It's a state that I find actually quite difficult to really achive.

That is mindfulness meditation, and yes, it is quite difficult.

Actually, any type of meditation is difficult. (The other general type of meditation I know of is where you focus on a specific sound (or mantra) and repeat it over and over, either out loud or in your mind.)