[MiniBoy]

sometimes i wish that i had not heard about other people's experiences with meditation, because it makes me wish for similar experiences. i hear about a person who has been meditating for much longer than i have, and hear about an obe or something of the sort. so then i meditate with that sole intent, and do not feel satisfied when it is not achieved. all the other benefits (which are the real "point" of meditation) i am disappointed with.

one of the things i have learned about meditation is that one cannot go into it expecting something. all one can do is, like others have said, to experience the now and see where it takes you. if you can't shut off your mind, don't worry about it. there is no right or wrong way to do it. just focus your consciousness on yourself at this very moment, and let it take you places. personally, breathing exercises do wonders for helping me enter a meditative state, but there are many practices which i enjoy. i started by concentrating on the present, and then began to practice conscious breathing. from this point, once i felt like i could enter the meditative state, i would concentrate on the down-pouring infinite intelligent energy of love/light that my spirit was reaching up for. i would visualize/experience this energy flowing into me from infinity, and then proceed to see it energizing my energy centers. i have tried concentrating on specific centers for any given period of meditation, and i have tried concentrating on everything that is. do whatever resonates "inside" yourself.