The nature of what you focus your thought on doesn't matter, the object can be anything.

> Makes sense that you can effectively train your consciousness by rote in much the same way that you can train your arms/hands to juggle.

It does, so why are you arguing against it? You claimed it only has an effect by some kind of vague suggestion.

Of course, strictly, it's also false that working out with weights will increase muscle mass. You are just being needlessly pedantic. Your claim has shifted from "I think all effects of meditation are just a kind of self-propaganda" to arguing some crap about the nature of consciousness.

Why do we even need to speak of consciousness? If it confuses you that focussing on a meditation object for 30 mins a day might do something, I dread to think of how the concept of learning or memorisation sends your head into a spin