What Is Meditation?

You are right, there are different definitions and practices. Some do contradict each other.

I practice vipassana (mindfulness) in the Goenka style. It's a very deep practice, without any chanting, no visualisation or beliefs. It's about staying in the moment and 'scanning' the body with equanimity and awareness. Deep traumas rise up and dissolve, the mind gets sharper, your ability to cope with daily struggles jumps up dramatically.

This practice must be experienced to be understood. I could write all day about my experience, and not be properly understood at all except by other meditators.

The Goenka folk will only let you learn by doing a ten-day retreat (which is free, but a big commitment). This is to make sure that participants have the best chance to settle their minds down and learn how to meditate correctly.

It's not for everyone. I don't recommend the retreats to people any more unless they ask, even though every retreat I've gone on has been profoundly positive. In my experience each retreat was so, so hard; in very unexpected ways.

It wasn't until my third retreat that I really understood what the practice is about. I thought I had it, but there were holes in my knowledge. It's easy to get the wrong idea, and sit there "playing games of sensation", instead of being aware and equanimous. My sincere advice would be to try and go on retreat every year. The experience can change remarkably as your understanding grows.

So, I would tell you not to try and get into meditation flippantly, or expecting an easy fix. For some people it clicks really quickly, but that is not always the case. Either way, it's a life-long practice. Even the Buddha meditated daily; he said it was "like breathing". Good luck...

Goenka course info - https://www.dhamma.org/en-US/index

Btw, if you just want a 'quick fix' without commitment, check out the Wim Hof method. It's learnable from YouTube, there's an app, and it does have positive quick results at no cost.

For me it is the awareness of your thoughts basically. I had no clue how to do it until I watched the awesome headspace series on Netflix: https://www.headspace.com/netflix

They visualize the concepts really nicely. Check it out if you have no clue what meditation is about.

In most basic terms realizing that you’re watching a movie.

Observing your mind in certain ways, focusing your attention in certain ways results in perceiving yourself as more than the thoughts, emotions, and the general fluctuations of the mind.

There are gazillion ways of meditating. Try as many as needed until one clicks.

> I have difficulty understanding what it is

It's not just one thing.

> too many interpretations that contradict each other

No, they're not interpretations, they different definitions. Just as different people have different ideas of what it means to be a friend or to be in love.