A report on Meditation and Dhyana in Hinduism

Man Meditating in a Garden Setting
A Brahmin meditating (1851)
The āsana in which Mahavira is said to have attained omniscience
Malvina Hoffman, Bronze figure of Kashmiri in Meditation, 1930s, Field Museum of Natural History
Bodhidharma practicing zazen
Swami Vivekananda in meditating yogic posture.
A statue of Patañjali practicing dhyana in the Padma-asana at Patanjali Yogpeeth.
"Gathering the Light", Taoist meditation from The Secret of the Golden Flower
Saint Pio of Pietrelcina stated: "Through the study of books one seeks God; by meditation one finds Him."
Whirling dervishes
Meditation. Alexej von Jawlensky, oil on cardboard, 1918
Meditating in Madison Square Park, New York City
Young children practicing meditation in a Peruvian school

Dhyana in Hinduism means contemplation and meditation.

- Dhyana in Hinduism

The earliest records of meditation (dhyana) are found in the Upanishads of Hindu philosophy, and meditation plays a salient role in the contemplative repertoire of Buddhism and Hinduism.

- Meditation
Man Meditating in a Garden Setting

3 related topics with Alpha

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The Samādhi Buddha, Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka

Samadhi

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The Samādhi Buddha, Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka
Bodhisattva seated in meditation. Afghanistan, 2nd century CE
A traditional Chinese Chán Buddhist master in Taiwan, sitting in meditation
Ramakrishna in samādhi at the house of Keshab Chandra Sen. He is seen supported by his nephew Hriday and surrounded by brahmo devotees.
The Samadhi of Ranjit Singh is located next to the iconic Badshahi Masjid in Lahore, Pakistan.

Samadhi (समाधि), in Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism and yogic schools, is a state of meditative consciousness.

Sarbacker: samādhi is meditative absorption, attained by the practice of dhyāna.

Statue of Shiva meditating in the lotus position

Yoga

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Group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines which originated in ancient India and aim to control (yoke) and still the mind, recognizing a detached witness-consciousness untouched by the mind (Chitta) and mundane suffering (Duḥkha).

Group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines which originated in ancient India and aim to control (yoke) and still the mind, recognizing a detached witness-consciousness untouched by the mind (Chitta) and mundane suffering (Duḥkha).

Statue of Shiva meditating in the lotus position
A statue of Patanjali, author of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, meditating in the lotus position
Bas-relief in Borobudur of the Buddha becoming a wandering hermit instead of a warrior
Krishna narrating the Bhagavad Gita to Arjuna
Traditional Hindu depiction of Patanjali as an avatar of the divine serpent Shesha
Asanga, a fourth-century scholar and co-founder of the Yogachara ("Yoga practice") school of Mahayana Buddhism
Sculpture of Gorakshanath, an 11th-century yogi of the Nath tradition and a proponent of hatha yoga
Swami Vivekananda in London in 1896
International Day of Yoga in New Delhi, 2016
Gautama Buddha in seated meditation, Gal Vihara, Sri Lanka
Raja Ravi Varma's Adi Shankara with Disciples (1904)
Viparītakaraṇī, a posture used as an asana and a mudra

The term "yoga" in the Western world often denotes a modern form of Hatha yoga and a posture-based physical fitness, stress-relief and relaxation technique, consisting largely of the asanas; this differs from traditional yoga, which focuses on meditation and release from worldly attachments.

It includes a discussion of yogic ethics, dhyana (meditation) and samadhi, noting that debate and philosophy are also forms of yoga.

Buddha depicted in dhyāna, Amaravati, India

Dhyana in Buddhism

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Component of the training of the mind (bhavana), commonly translated as meditation, to withdraw the mind from the automatic responses to sense-impressions, and leading to a "state of perfect equanimity and awareness (upekkhā-sati-parisuddhi)."

Component of the training of the mind (bhavana), commonly translated as meditation, to withdraw the mind from the automatic responses to sense-impressions, and leading to a "state of perfect equanimity and awareness (upekkhā-sati-parisuddhi)."

Buddha depicted in dhyāna, Amaravati, India
Buddha in Dhyana, which in this context means: The meditative training stage on the path to Samadhi.
Bodhisattva seated in meditation. Afghanistan, 2nd century CE
Venerable Hsuan Hua meditating in the Lotus Position. Hong Kong, 1953.
Chinese character for "nothing" . It figures in the famous Zhaozhou's dog kōan.

Commonly translated as meditation, and often equated with "concentration," though meditation may refer to a wider scala of exercises for bhāvanā, development.

At the stage of pratyahara, the consciousness of the individual is internalized in order that the sensations from the senses of taste, touch, sight, hearing and smell don't reach their respective centers in the brain and takes the sadhaka (practitioner) to next stages of Yoga, namely Dharana (concentration), Dhyana (meditation), and Samadhi (mystical absorption), being the aim of all Yogic practices.