If you don't have access to meditation center book "Mindfulness in plain english" seems like not newagey introduction to the subject. It describes Vipassana. It

If you don't have access to meditation center book "Mindfulness in plain english" seems like not newagey introduction to the subject. It describes Vipassana. It's almost like Zazen, but slightly different. In my understanding Zazen is Mahayana buddhism version of Vipassana, which comes from Theravada buddhism, but I am just a begginer so I can be horribly wrong. I started meditating recently after reading MIPE. I'll try to find a teacher as soon as I can. What got hooked me up was some research that it improves cognitive performance: http://www.gwern.net/docs/dnb/2010-zeidan.pdf http://www.gwern.net/docs/dnb/2010-zeidan.pdf . There's some evidence that long term meditation changes structure of the brain and improves mood and attention outside of meditation practice: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain_activity_and_meditation#Changes_in_brain_due_to_prolonged_practice_of_meditation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain_activity_and_meditation#C... . This post seems like good encouragement as well: http://programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/38947/is-practicing-meditation-a-good-or-bad-thing-for-programmers http://programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/38947/is-prac... . One thing which I notice the most is increased ability to deal with distractions and staying focused on boring subjects . It is essentially what one practices during meditation. Dealing with distractions is very important skill for programmer: http://blog.ninlabs.com/2013/01/programmer-interrupted/ http://blog.ninlabs.com/2013/01/programmer-interrupted/ . What's more it's kind of skill, that is hard to develop without active practice. I can't think of better way of developing it than meditation.