[Gnewt]

I fully agree that meditation is less complicated than advertised. However I'd like to state that "contemplation" and "deep thought" are alternative terms for a specific type of meditation called mindfulness meditation: "the intentional, accepting and non-judgmental focus of one's attention on the emotions, thoughts and sensations occurring in the present moment."

When I meditate, my goal is not actually to contemplate anything at all -- it is to clear my mind, whittle my senses down until the only thing I feel is consciousness. Ultimately, in a state of deep meditation, my goal is a fully blank state, in which I'm doing nothing except existing.

I find that this helps me tremendously in my mindfulness in normal life, but I don't attempt to be mindful _during_ meditation in the same way.

[fnordsensei]

Absolutely, this was not intended to be about semantics. The alternative interpretations were given so as to make it easier to dispel the cumbersome connotations that usually comes with the word "meditation", not to make it seem like it's about a particular school of thought or anything like that. It's just to make it easier to sit down and try it out with fewer preconceived notions as to what it's supposed to be.

I think it's the privilege of the practitioner to formulate what meditation is to them, and the easier it is to establish a personal relationship to the practice unhindered by baggage (cultural, institutional, linguistic or otherwise), the better.

[NhanH]

Since we're discussing semantics here, "deep thought" is not something I'd think as mindfulness meditation either: you're not supposed to be chasing your thought while meditating. You should just be observing them as they come ("the intentional, accepting and non-judgmental focus of one's attention on the emotions, thoughts and sensations occurring in the present moment." as you said), and then let it pass by, which is pretty much actually the opposite of deep thought.