Short answers, pulled from the story.
Buddhist meditation refers to a range of mental cultivation practices pursued as part of the path toward liberation from defilements, clinging, and craving, culminating in the attainment of nirvana. The classical Buddhist languages use two main terms: bhavana, meaning mental development, and jhana or dhyana, a state of meditative absorption resulting in a calm and luminous mind.
Samatha refers to calming or tranquilizing the mind, while vipassana refers to cultivating insight into conditioned phenomena. In the Pali Canon the Buddha describes them not as separate techniques but as two qualities of mind to be developed together. Theravada traditions, particularly the Burmese Vipassana movement, have sometimes treated them as distinct stages, while the Thai Forest Tradition stresses their inseparability.
Jhana, or dhyana in Sanskrit, is a state of meditative absorption central to early Buddhist practice. Scholars such as Vetter, Bronkhorst, and Analayo regard the four dhyanas as among the oldest Buddhist meditation practices, said to lead to the destruction of deep-rooted mental corruptions. Vetter has argued that dhyana may have constituted the core liberating practice of early Buddhism, with the Buddha drawing on techniques learned from Brahmin teachers Alara Kalama and Uddaka Ramaputta while transforming them through an emphasis on mindfulness and insight.
The central Vajrayana practice in Tibetan Buddhism is Deity Yoga, involving visualization of a yidam or deity, mantra recitation, and contemplation of a mandala. Advanced practitioners imagine themselves as the deity and develop what the tradition calls divine pride. Other Tibetan methods include Mahamudra, Dzogchen, Dream Yoga, Tummo, and the shared preliminary practices called ngondro.
Teachers including Jon Kabat-Zinn, Jack Kornfield, Joseph Goldstein, Sharon Salzberg, S. N. Goenka, Thich Nhat Hanh, and Pema Chodron played a significant role in integrating the healing aspects of Buddhist meditation with psychological awareness and well-being. Mindfulness meditation has received the most research attention, while loving-kindness and equanimity practices are increasingly studied in psychology and neuroscience.
The Visuddhimagga, or Path of Purification, is a fifth-century meditation manual composed by Buddhaghosa and is the most influential presentation of Theravada meditation. It describes forty meditation subjects and centers its method on kasina meditation, a form of concentration focused on a mental object. Thanissaro Bhikkhu has noted that the Visuddhimagga's understanding of jhana differs significantly from the usage in the earlier Pali Canon.