Small Universe

'Descartes proceeds to "reason with" himself in a discursive way, not in the least having taken leave of his normal consciousness. This is not what the word "meditation" means in relation to Hindu and Buddhist thought. In Patanjali's tradition it is said that when the mind is held immobile for the space of twelve restrained and elongated breaths the state of dharana may be said to begin. Dharana is the first stage of concentration in Patanjali's tradition. Dhyana, meditation, and samadhi, trance, are more demanding. One modern authority, Swami Vivekananda, says that samadhi begins after the mind has been immobile for half an hour. Even a minute of mental immobility usually takes training and practice. Descartes probably did not get beyond Patanjali's first stage - perhaps he did not even get to it, since his "withdrawal" from the senses was an accompaniment to discursive thinking, which is a fluctuation in the mind. He had not even begun to "meditate" in the yogic sense of the word.'

Thomas McEvilly, " The Shape of Ancient Thought ," pp 180 - 181