"One final thing to keep in mind; you absolutely do not have to be a Buddhist to meditate in this way, and this practice won’t turn you into one, either."
Which isn't to knock Buddhism in the slightest, but just a reminder that it's possible and useful to consider the practice of meditation as a separate thing from the Buddhism, or mysticism, or whatever-else-ism that it's often packaged up with in popular consciousness, and which might put off some people from trying it.
Real Buddhists are likely the most expert meditators you can find. And meditation, like anything worth doing, benefits from good teaching. Buddhism is not an evangelical religion. Thus a real Buddhist teacher will be happy to teach you meditation without requiring you to "profess your faith" or any of that silly nonsense.
This is a gift. Not only can meditation be a "separate thing", but those who are the most expert will be happy to unpack it from their own beliefs and teach it to you as separately as you like, because of those beliefs.
Isn't that beautiful? Does it remind you of open source at all?
(Also - if you decide to go further with this, you might make up your mind whether there is some reason Buddhism and mind training correlate so highly, beyond history.)
I have a buddhist friend and we're having a great, balanced relationship. I can confirm everything you said about the "modularity" of their approach. I also meditate from time to time but I find it great for relaxation and energy recharging, as opposed to training the focus.
http://hivelogic.com/articles/an-introduction-to-mindfulness...
In particular, this line:
"One final thing to keep in mind; you absolutely do not have to be a Buddhist to meditate in this way, and this practice won’t turn you into one, either."
Which isn't to knock Buddhism in the slightest, but just a reminder that it's possible and useful to consider the practice of meditation as a separate thing from the Buddhism, or mysticism, or whatever-else-ism that it's often packaged up with in popular consciousness, and which might put off some people from trying it.