What IS meditation?

[Cybernetic_Jazz]

Just wanted to start a thread on this to see what people want to add - ie. what is meditation to you?

So far what I'm learning, as I start to see the light of what it's worth, a couple major utilities come to mind:
1) exercising faculties.
2) building preferences.

The first one - like in another thread on here we're discussing visualization, it's building that faculty. Similarly for silence it's building the pathways needing to hold it.

Point two is really an elaborate way of saying the first thing but I think it's important to distinguish on it's own for this reason - it's the process. For instance if you're practicing quieting and trying to keep your mind completely clear of all thoughts and be completely present. If you're like most people it seems like a herculean task when you first start. However as you keep interrupting your mind to assert that you want to 'enjoy' silence you're building a preference. That preference grows and enjoying that preference starts to become its own motivator or end. Similarly to how a lot of people acquire a taste for coffee, beer, or a good cigar rather than loving any of those right out of the gate, most of us have to acquire a taste for silence and receptivity - ie. the natural preset is nothing happening = bored = bad/anxious 'need to fill', etc.. It's that building of an acquired taste, at least in my opinion, that causes clearing meditation to be increasingly successful and - part in parcel - the pairings (the psychological links people talk about with strong habits) that make silence satiating. Thus your mind is getting something it both wants and enjoys.

[Solving Ennui]

Meditation is what you want it to be, it can be consciously training some aspect of the mind, it can be reaching for your HGA or whatever you call your higher self. It seems like most systems have a small number of paths for "right" meditation, but the most rewarding experiences I had in my practice so far, came when the only guidance I had was to close my eyes, breath, and focus for the task I am about to perform, usually 2 or 3 breaths, for the purpose of martial arts. Those experiences I am referring to came around 13, doing my own, unguided self-exploration, and experimenting with everything from binaural beat software to mind altering drugs, as mild as damiana and as strong as LSD. I found samadhi before I ever had a name to give it. I say all of that to say titles are limiting, explore your own depths, and don't let anyone tell you how, or how deep they go.