Reply #58: There is no such thing as absence of thought

[salvorhardin]

Your brain is always 'on' and there's not anything you can do about. The only real thing that is somewhat under your conscious control is what you choose to pay attention to. Generally in meditation you are choosing to pay more attention to your body and the myriad sensations it experiences every second as opposed to the external world or you are focusing your attention on one stimulus to the exclusion of all others (in so far as that's possible). You are however correct that meditation is beneficial for relieving stress and perhaps other things as well although I'm not aware of the ones you mentioned.

Sorry, this is one of my pet peeves along with the other perennial myth about people only using 10% of their mind.