Meditation Techniques in Yoga and Buddhism

The mind produces thoughts continuously. This is what it does. Meditation is not a technique for stopping that process — it is a way of relating to it differently. Both the yoga tradition and Buddhism have developed sophisticated approaches to this work over several thousand years, and while they share common roots, they have also developed distinct techniques with different emphases.

In this article, we will explore the main meditation practices from each tradition. Some are primarily concerned with stabilizing attention; others focus on developing insight into the nature of experience itself; others cultivate specific qualities such as compassion or equanimity. Understanding these distinctions helps us use the practices more intentionally, rather than treating all meditation as interchangeable.

What is meditation?

Before exploring specific techniques, it is worth clarifying what the word actually refers to. In Sanskrit, the closest equivalent is dhyana — translated as meditative absorption, or the uninterrupted flow of attention toward an object. In Pali (the language of early Buddhist texts), the equivalent is jhana.

In practice, most meditation traditions distinguish between two broad modes. The first is concentration — training the mind to hold its attention on a chosen object without wandering. The second is insight — using a stabilized mind to observe the nature of experience: how it arises, changes, and passes away. Many traditions sequence these: concentration first, insight after. However, some approaches work with both simultaneously from the beginning.

Yoga meditation techniques

Dharana and Dhyana

In Patanjali’s eight-limbed path, dharana (concentration) and dhyana (meditation) are the sixth and seventh limbs. Dharana is fixing the mind on a single point — a physical object, a part of the body, a mantra, or a mental image. Dhyana is what follows when that concentration becomes sustained and uninterrupted, and the sense of separation between the meditator and the object begins to dissolve.

Patanjali does not prescribe a single object or method. What matters is the quality of attention: continuous, steady, without force. This leaves room for a wide range of practices within the same framework, depending on the student and the teaching they receive.

Trataka

Trataka is a concentration practice in which the gaze is fixed on a single point — most commonly the flame of a candle, placed at eye level roughly an arm’s length away. The eyes remain open and steady, without blinking, for as long as is comfortable. When the eyes close, the inner image of the flame is held in the mind’s eye.

Trataka is described in the Hatha Yoga Pradipika as both a purification practice (shatkarma) and a method for developing single-pointed attention. It is direct and concrete: there is no ambiguity about whether the mind is wandering, because the flame tells you immediately.

Yoga Nidra

Yoga Nidra (yogic sleep) is a guided practice in which the practitioner lies down and is led systematically through a rotation of awareness — from body sensations to breath, from the experience of opposites (heavy and light, warm and cold) to visualization, settling finally into a threshold state between waking and sleep. In that state, the mind is said to be deeply receptive.

Traditionally, yoga nidra is used to plant a sankalpa (a resolve or intention) into deeper levels of consciousness. In contemporary contexts it is often used for rest and recovery. Both uses are legitimate. The depth of relaxation it produces is real, and it is one of the few practices accessible to people who find more active forms of meditation difficult to sustain.

Buddhist meditation techniques

Shamatha (Calm Abiding)

Shamatha (Sanskrit) or samatha (Pali) means calm abiding — the practice of stabilizing the mind through single-pointed concentration. The most common object is the breath: the sensation at the nostrils, or the rise and fall of the abdomen. When the mind wanders, the instruction is simply to notice this and return, without judgment or frustration.

Shamatha is the foundation. A mind that cannot stay with a chosen object for more than a few seconds is not yet equipped to examine its own nature clearly. In Buddhist teaching, concentration is not the goal — it is the prerequisite. Insight depends on it.

Vipassana (Insight Meditation)

Vipassana (Pali) means clear seeing, or insight. Where shamatha stabilizes the mind, vipassana uses that stability to examine the nature of experience directly. What is actually happening, moment to moment? What arises? How long does it last? Does anything remain constant?

The practice leads to direct observation of what Buddhism calls the three characteristics of existence: anicca (impermanence — all experience is in constant flux), dukkha (unsatisfactoriness — nothing conditioned provides permanent happiness), and anatta (no-self — what we call “I” is a process, not a fixed entity). These are not ideas to be taken on faith. They are meant to be observed directly, through practice, until the observation becomes one’s own.

Metta (Loving-Kindness)

Metta is one of the four brahmaviharas (divine abodes or immeasurable qualities): loving-kindness, compassion (karuna), sympathetic joy (mudita), and equanimity (upekkha). In metta practice, the practitioner generates a feeling of warmth and goodwill — beginning with themselves, then extending progressively to loved ones, neutral people, difficult people, and eventually all beings without exception.

The practice deliberately moves against our instinct to restrict warmth to those we already like. That is precisely its value. Metta does not wait for reasons to feel goodwill — it trains the capacity to feel it independently of conditions. Over time, practitioners find this shifts not just how they sit in meditation, but how they encounter difficulty in daily life.

Tonglen

Tonglen (Tibetan: “sending and taking”) is a practice from the Mahayana tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. It reverses the ordinary self-protective impulse: on the inhalation, one breathes in suffering — one’s own or that of others; on the exhalation, one breathes out relief, space, or wellbeing. The movement is deliberately counterintuitive, training the mind to move toward pain rather than away from it.

Based on what I have studied, tonglen is more nuanced than a brief description can convey, and is best learned from a teacher within a lineage that uses it regularly. I mention it here because it represents an approach to compassion practice that is quite different from anything in the classical yoga tradition, and because it illustrates how far the Buddhist repertoire of meditation techniques extends beyond simple breath awareness.

Conclusion

Yoga and Buddhism developed these techniques in different contexts and with different ultimate aims. Yoga is oriented toward samadhi — the union of individual and universal consciousness. Buddhist practice is oriented toward nibbana (liberation) — the freedom from suffering that comes with directly seeing the impermanent, interdependent nature of experience.

However, for most of us practicing today, the practical overlap is substantial. Concentration, clear awareness, and the cultivation of compassion are useful regardless of which framework you work within. Does this mean you need to choose one tradition and commit to it exclusively? Not at all. What matters is that the practice you choose is actually practiced — returned to regularly, with enough consistency to notice its effects over time.

If you are new to meditation and unsure where to begin, shamatha — simple breath awareness — is the most reliable starting point. Sit down. Watch the breath. When the mind wanders, return. Everything else builds from there.