If anyone has precise definitions for specific Meditation Schools please post here so we can establsh bench marks for discussion:

Meditation Schools

There seems to be a lot of misunderstanding concerning various subjects on this board due to a failure to have a meeting of the minds on definitions, meanings and the like… Either Socrates or Aristotle said: “If you would talk to me… define your terms.” In America we don’t easily separate the common vernacular from the precise meanings that “schools of thought and practice” develop for their own purposes specific to the training and practice.

I practiced what we called “Yoga” in its broadest concept… in the West, “Yoga” is confused with “Hatha Yoga” a body manipulation system… that is only one form of Yoga… there actually is a “Yoga” for the awakening of each Chakra… (but that is another subject)…

“Yoga” is a Sanskrit word meaning ‘Yoking… as placing a yoke on an oxen to pull a plow or some such thing. The “Yoking”… image that “Yoga” is meant to evoke is a “yoking” to God… or the Eternal Self… “The Disk (???)”… “Oversoul” (???)

Let’s work on Meditation:

The school I grew up in regarded “meditation as a specific phase of consciousness which evolved out of practicing mind control, there were five phases of mind as follows:

1. Interest: 

    If one used a candle flame, one, attempted 
    to become interested in the flame as a focal point.

If you sustained interest it would evolve into…

2. Concentration:

    This is a highly specialized state of single minded   
    focus, wherein only the candle exists while in the
    state of concentration one could in theory know all
    there was to know about that candle.

If you sustained the state of concentration it would evolve into…

3. Meditation:

    This is a very specialized state of consciousness and 
    what we understood as an expansion of conscious   
    awareness… you would now, begin to gather in all
    the information about that candles history… for 
    example, and this would be relative to your personal
    desires to have information about the candle… you
    could pursue the manufacturing history of the candle
    and the people who were responsible for its
    existence… there would be many pathways to
    follow… such as finding an being connected with the
    candle’s existence and his history…

Note: The word meditation is used very loosely and broadly, but, as you can see in Yoga is it a stage in an overall sequence of consciousness phasing and not an end in itself. This is of course confusing if you are not on the same page with definitions and is easy to lose track of in conversation and writing unless you really find out who you are talking to and what their idea of meditation is all about.

If you sustained the state of meditation it will phase into…

4. Contemplation:

    This is a very difficult state to achieve and is highly
    prized as an accomplishment… you will suddenly
    discover yourself in the Quantum world… that candle
    reveals itself as an atomic/quantum structure with all
    sorts of energy fields and is a gateway into the
    secrets of creation itself…

If you can sustain the state of Contemplation, you finally will arrive at…

4. Samadhi:

    This is the “Yoga”… the Yoking to God. In Samadhi
    you will first become one with the candle and thru
    the candle one with the Universe and merge into
    Oneness with God… Pure Unconditional Love…
    https://www.opendrive.com/files/5756959_2pcEO/song.mp3 (Sound familiar)… LOL!!







3. Meditation: