I agree that it’s difficult to suggest a good book on meditation without simultaneously suggesting a “brand” of meditation. I’ve noticed a trend in the U.S. to try to say, as @AdamJay did, “mindfulness meditation” as a way of bypassing those challenges, seeing it as a general tool that doesn’t necessarily have as many strings attached. That seems really wise to me, so I agree with the above, and encourage some open-minded exploration, probably even some trial and error. Some would say that improvising on Elektron equipment can be a form of meditation or a practice of being mindful, present, in the moment, or awake…and I’d say that some of the same tools that lead to that kind of experiential learning are quite relevant to both.
So with the caveats aside, but really meaning it when I say your conscience (or however you would like to frame it) can be your guide, I’m going to mention two books that are deeply tied to specific practices but that I’ve found useful. I’ve been practicing, and sometimes wrestling with, mindfulness for decades, including a Master’s in Fine Arts degree from the only fully-accredited Buddhist university in the U.S., where meditation was required in order to graduate.
So thought one is a founder of that school, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche. He was a reincarnated tulku, but also someone who, for better or worse, was a little nutty and helped to bring Buddhism to America, and maybe even vice versa. His Shambala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior is probably the best-known work, but Cutting through Spiritual Materialism is up there too.
The second thought might be just as controversial because it’s Transcendental Meditation, but the musician, director, and painter David Lynch wrote an unusual kind of self-help book or guide to creativity called Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity. Maybe it’s best to flip through them at a library or bookstore? Neither one strikes me as altogether heavy-handed or preachy, but both are deeply connected with specific practices and even dogmas.
So I guess I’m hemming and hawing because I feel a little weird suggesting what some might even call religious texts here on a synthy discussion board that, at least sometimes, inspires passionate debate–but in context I think there are some generally applicable aspects of creativity that make me willing to say that, based on what’s coming up here in this thread, those two might prove to beneficial, or they might not. Then, to offer something a little different but that I can endorse more fully, Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity isn’t about meditation as much as developing a solitary practice of creativity, but it’s something that has helped lots of people become more attuned to being creative. She can seem a little preachy, but the truth’s that she helped write the movie Taxi Driver, wrote for Rolling Stone, and worked on a hit 80s tv show about crime and drugs in Miami. So her brand is probably trying to get people to buy more of her books, but I doubt anyone could take The Artist’s Way seriously and then conclude that one wasn’t worth the price of admission.
And I will check out the books @konputa and @AdamJay recommended, because those sound great, where the science of meditation and the need for proactive health changes are both things I’m really into right now. All best wishes on all of this!