Himalayan Tradition of Meditation

The Tradition combines the wisdom of Patanjali's Yoga-sutras, the philosophy and practice of the Tantras and the specific oral instructions and initiatory experiences passed on by a long line of saints and Yoga masters. 

The principle tenets and practices of all known systems of meditation are included in the Himalayan Tradition and, for the most part, these other systems have arisen out of it. Vipassana emphasizes breath awareness and Transcendental Meditation concentrates on repetition of mantra, whereas most Hatha practitioners pay attention mainly to posture. The Himalayan meditator learns to sit in the correct posture, relax fully, practice correct breathing, and then combine breath-awareness with mantra.

The chief components of the Himalayan system:

Purification of Thought and Emotion - to prevent internal disturbances from extraneous thoughts and sentiments arising during meditation one needs to practice purifications.
Mindfulness - The practice of smrty-upasthana. The practice of self-awareness, deep self-observation in all states of body, breath, and especially the mind.
Breath Awareness - Begins as a part of Mindfulness and becomes the first step in the process of meditation.
Pratyahara - calming the mind. Merging the senses into the calmed mind. Calming the sense faculties. The practice of pranayama kosha. disovering the subtle wind of prana vayu.
Kundalini Breathing - the first step in the Tantric path, the awareness of an energy flow in the spine, imagining and then feeling it. Learning sumeru pranayama. This is taught in an initiatory process.
Sa-garbha pranayama - the practice of kumbhakha with mental concentration on a mantra. This is taught in an initiatory process.
Japa - the many variations of japa practice and the use of mantra.
Shavasana - entering one's subtle body. Practiced at the levels of annamayakosha, pranamaya kosha, and manomayakosha. Method and initiatory grace are required.
Dharana - concentrations on various focal points in the body, at the chakra points, in the tattvas. There are nearly 1300 dharanas enumerated in the Malini-vijayottara-tantra.
Dhyana - meditation beginning at the manomayakosha level.

The purpose of the tradition is to awaken the divine flame within each human being and the goal is for each student to become a master of the Tradition in coming to know his or her true self.

(notes from "The Himalayan Tradition of Meditation" by Swami Veda Bharati)