470 Meditation - beyond Eckhart Tolle

Dan Harris has written a book I consider one of the most accessible, truthful and - dare I say it - entertaining about meditation and enlightenment:

10% Happier: How I Tamed the Voice in My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge, and Found Self-Help That Actually Works - A True Story

Harris is a correspondent for the US ABC News, an anchor for Nightline and co-anchor for the weekend edition of Good Morning America. His book was published in March 2014. Harris states that the issue that prompted his self-examination, which led him to write the book, was an on-air panic attack. In the book, Harris recounts how - with the help of various mental health professionals, religious leaders, self-help gurus, and news industry mentors - he stopped using drugs (cocaine and Ecstasy), discovered the benefits of meditation, and resolved the apparent conflict between meditation-induced equanimity and the aggressive competitiveness required for success as a TV-news journalist. This is a snippet of the insights Harris touches on:

Essentially what meditation delivers is the ability to respond rather than react; furthermore: You learn to focus on what's happening right now.

This video is about an entirely different angle on meditation, as opposed to the one extolled by writers and gurus like Eckhart Tolle, Deepak Chopra et al ... this Big Think one is on the science behind the benefits of meditation.