What the hell is meditation

With all due respect, dale, I don't think you're fully in touch with the inner dale.

Many (most?) people don't quite understand the difference between meditation and calm, deep thought. The difference is simply this: in meditation you should try your hardest to make your mind a total blank. Try to not think at all. See, the problem with thinking is that we homo sapiens tend to articulate our thoughts in our minds; in other words, we think in words, phrases and sentences. The moment you articulate a perceived truth, you lose it. It's gone. The deepest truths cannot be articulated; they have to be perceived through another avenue, the avenue of meditation.

Try it sometime.

Probably not

Thanks Andy but I quite understand this the current meaning. I was merely remarking how it had so drastically changed

Yes I understand that's the object, much as one attempts when drowsing off. But as I said, we might wonder why sleep might not accomplish the same objective

….while that's possibly why sleeplessness contributes to anxiety

An interesting sidelight pertains to subconscious processing of emotion. Intellectual comments cannot adequately address conditions subliminal and that's why reading doesn't help a lot

I've done so but suppose I'm just too impatient like so many of us

The meaning has not changed at all. The "current meaning" was always the true meaning of the word. I remember learning that before I turned 21 and I'm only a very few years younger than you. Point is, we used to misuse the word in everyday conversation, saying things like, "I will meditate upon that" when what we meant was "I'll think about it."

No, sorry, Andy, I can't agree. As late as 1954, Webster's New Collegiate

contemplate, ponder…..intend, plan….dwell in thought; to muse; reflect; cogitate…….close or continued thought…..deep continued reflection on some religious theme…discourse treating a theme meditatively