Yoga is samādhi
Like a flame in a windless place.
Ancient Contemplations
The land known as India, straddling the Indus Valley, Himalaya, Tamil Nadu, has promulgated techniques and concepts globally, for eons, to those who occupy, trade, and tour. This dissemination has encouraged communal and self-directed approaches to the nondual state, via techniques often named meditation, for the good of humankind, which is also the self.
Vivekananda at the World’s Parliament of Religions in 1893 started the spread in earnest. In the mid twentieth century meditation was still mysterious, synonymous with the word yoga and the lotus sitting posture, and possibly heretical. Cue TM and The Beatles, exploration of consciousness through psychedelics, and growing academic enthusiasm. That progress firmed through the new millennium toward secular mindfulness, stress reduction, and mental health first aid, now even delivered through smartphone apps. The flourishing aspect of Sanskrit texts was easily misplaced. At the same time, the hot yoga craze tugged popular connotation of the word away from consciousness toward exercise, traditionally a small part of the works.
In 2026, meditation in Australia has narrowed. We see eight-week stress courses and breath awareness through a phone app. These help many people, and they draw on a small part of an inheritance running back thousands of years. But the contemplative practice native to India remain a vast inheritance, and ancient texts are increasingly discoverable, along with a range of commentaries and techniques known to scholars, teachers, and students, here and abroad.
Taken as a whole, Vedic metaphysics represent a rich, consistent, and ancient contemplative science, describing the nature of consciousness, mind, self, and physical reality. Its account of meditation is the widest of the Indic contemplative maps, accommodating Buddhist and Śaiva streams comfortably. Over thresholds of time and increasingly subtle epiphany, we all come to a personal epoch of remarkable benefit.
Forms of Meditation
First is seen what looks like a star, then a well-cut sparkling diamond and a bright mirror, thereafter the disc of the full moon, then the circular radiance of gems, the splendour of the noon-day sun, and then a ring of flaming fire.
Maṇḍalabrāhmaṇa Upaniṣad
Recognition
A well-educated yoga teacher is likely most of the way to a qualification in formal meditation, if not already there. Those who have done more than one teacher training or apprenticeship will usually have the base training in what we broadly know as meditation.
From there, the path is structural augmentation. Yoga treats meditation as an applied science of the subtle body, sūkṣma śarīra. Teachers learn dhāraṇā and the mechanics of kumbhaka to regulate the nāḍīs, pierce the granthis, and settle the citta-vṛtti. They map the pañca-kośa from the physical sheath to the bliss eternal, observing how prāṇāyāma brings singularity to the nervous system. Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad gloriously specifies yoganidrā moving through waking, dream, deep sleep, and the fourth state, turīya, all awareness. Famed Haṭha Yoga Pradīpikā pivots on nāda, absorption through inner sound, as does Śaṅkarācārya’s Yoga Tārāvalī, ultimately awakening kuṇḍalinī and the rising of amṛta.
Becoming a Yoga Professional, our national curriculum, runs across twelve competencies and four levels, from Provisional teacher to the Level 3 (Senior). And meditative practices are well-embedded in the journey to mastery. Teachers learn the structure and states of mind as the Vedic corpus describes them, concentration an absorption practices, combined with breathwork and prāṇāyāma, to establish the ideal.
Research
The settling that comes early, the steadiness of regular practice, is well evidenced, but the aspirant’s progression toward absorption that follows has been examined far less. Yoga charts that progression stage by stage. Our syllabus marks it out to be observed and studied over time, a project we are currently undertaking with university contemplative-studies researchers.
Western fields now take contemplation and concentration seriously. University centres for contemplative studies regularly publish findings that align perfectly with the tradition. Private Health recognises yoga teachers as professionals equipped to dispense meditation as a treatment. Contemplative practice meets neurobiology quite well, in fact!
Psychiatry has entered the field. Psilocybin and MDMA have undergone legal therapeutic trials since 2023. Preparation and integration in those trials are contemplative from end to end, and yoga teachers often provide the support.
Proliferation
Prapañca, proliferation, the spreading out of the world through differentiation. Each distinction only stands because the others stand, so nothing in the swarm is independently real. That is the swarming loop, the spray that goes out, curves back, and feeds the source that fired it.
Opposition cannot defeat the swarm, merely another differentiation, another shot in the dark. Argument, correction, refutation, all of it reinforces. Meditation is nirodha, the withdrawal of reinforcement, and the swarm loses coherence by starvation, by lack of supporting resonance.
Patañjali sequences it as layers dropping away, vitarka, vicāra, ānanda, asmitā, each one a support removed. Sāṃkhya calls the same movement pratiprasava, the return of the guṇas from whence they came.
Asked often
Do I need to do postures before I can meditate?
Postures prepare the body and stay the friendliest introduction for most people, but meditation can be practiced on its own, and plenty of Registered Teachers deliver dedicated classes. Start where you like.
Is meditation religious?
The methods arose inside spiritual traditions that existed well before the word “religion” came to be. Contemplative practice invites attention beyond the physical skull and bones. An element of trust and faith can be helpful when developing any skill, and a good teacher can meet each student where they stand, from the secular to the devout.
Is meditation safe for everyone?
For most people meditation is supportive and steadying, with a strong evidence base for attention, stress, and mood. Sustained intensive practice can surface difficult material, which is why our teachers train within a scope of practice and know when to refer to a health professional. That referral pathway is part of the standard, and it is one reason to choose a Registered Teacher.
What is contemplative science?
It is the meeting of two kinds of rigour, the first-person discipline of trained introspection and the third-person discipline of measurement. Yoga’s texts are among its oldest literature, and Australian universities now have centres devoted to its study. The two approaches read each other’s results.
I’m a health professional. Where do I start?
Our CPD resources are open to allied health and medical professionals who join at our Yoga Enthusiast level or higher, and several registered trainings bridge contemplative practice and clinical care. Write to us and we will point you in the right direction.
Can my meditation training count toward registration?
Often, the answer is yes. We assess training across the contemplative spectrum and map it against our levels. Send your certificates and we will show you where you stand.
I am the all-witness, the Ātman of all, the dweller in the caves of all beings.
Tejobindu Upaniṣad
