Meditation is a fairly personal thing. You can find some helpful writing about it if you look, but it's all about just finding what works for you. A big misconception that people think is that you're supposed to be able to completely quiet your mind, which in actuality is next to impossible. Think of it this way: instead of actively thinking about things, just try to be a passive observer of your thoughts. Just let them happen instead of making them happen. But don't dwell on them - acknowledge them, and then let them go and move on. It's about mindfulness and experiencing the now, and not worrying about the past or future. There are tricks to keep yourself from going on long mental tangents. You can just focus on your breathing, or count 1 to 10 over and over, or use a mantra. A mantra is a short word or phrase that should be nonsensical. Make it up. You know how if you repeat a word over and over again it starts to lose meaning and not sound like a real word anymore? A mantra is the same idea. It's usually better if you're sitting upright cross-legged on a pillow, because it keeps you relatively alert. Laying usually leads me to just having a nap. Comfortable, but not too comfortable is the point. Turn off any electronic distraction like your computer or phone. Or don't do any of that if you don't feel like it.
kaeth wrote:I usually require a catalyst of some type: psychedelics, drones, strobe lights or dream machines, isolation tank.
These can throw you into that state head-first, but they're kind of cheating in the sense that they don't help you get any better at it. It's a shortcut. It can be seen as a type of state-dependent learning. If you do it too much, you may begin to NEED those things to do it. I'm a bad example. A master of meditation should be able to do it just fine on a busy subway, but you're probably better off starting in a comfortable, quiet, dim room and working your way up.
Any book you find is going to be full of bias, and other people's personal views and philosophy on meditation. There's a lot of interesting stuff as long as you acknowledge that none of it is universal truth. That said, there is definitely some food for thought floating around.
Eastern philosophy often winds up coming to logical paradoxes or nonsense (in a good way). Sometimes the understanding or realization of these contradictions is enough to shock you into a moment of altered consciousness, so books on Taoism and Zen tend to come to mind when I meditate.
Saw that earlier on FB 
