[rsinger9]

I recommend going to a group to learn in person. It's easier to decide if you feel at home with a certain group of people than to judge books and theories about meditation when you don't have personal experience.

If you look for Buddhist groups, you'll find different kinds. The best way to avoid new-agey or flakey groups is to check their sources. Do they have a teacher who is a good example? Who was the teacher's teacher? Authentic Buddhist lineages of teacher and student trace themselves back for generations, and the teachers praise their teachers -- not themselves.

There are many authentic lineages. You'll find Japanese Zen schools which prefer a lot of discipline. There are also four Tibetan schools. The school of the Dalai Lama is called the Gelug school. It is the newest of the four schools and strongly emphasizes study and theory. The older Kagyu and Nyingma schools specialize in meditation and direct experience. In my experience, Kagyus tend to be more "learn by swimming" types and the Nyingma prefer a broad overview and more distance. I don't have experience with the fourth school, the Sakya.

I've meditated in the Kagyu school for six years now as part of the Diamond Way centers (http://www.lama-ole-nydahl.org/diamondway-buddhism/). Which group you find isn't important. The important thing if you want good results is that you find something authentic which fits you, and if it fits, stay with one thing without mixing. Different Buddhist schools use the same words for different things and different words for the same things, and it gets even more confusing if you mix Buddhist and non-Buddhist sources.

Good luck!

[michael_dorfman]

I heartily agree with the recommendation of going to a group to learn in person. Learning to meditate from a book is like learning to swim from a book; it may be possible, but it's far from optimal.

Personally, I do pretty traditional shamatha meditation these days.

[locopati]

Even within a single tradition, you may fine that some teachers click with you and some don't. It's a fine balance, but if you find someone who resonates with you, stick around and learn from them.