Does anyone on here practice Raja yoga? It's a wonderful, powerful way to delve into meditation, for it is concerned with the necessities of penetrating into ecstacy, minus the fluff.

Sivananda wrote probably the best book on this style of yoga, simply titled raja yoga.

The steps basic steps of Raja yoga are simple:
1. Ethical conduct, because it establishes peace of mind.
The Buddhist precepts cover ethics just fine; No harming, no stealing, no harmful speech, no sexual misconduct(rejection of nocturnal emissions as well), no intoxicants, and one that has helped me was no competitive games.
2. Asana or posture, simply sit with your back straight or prone like a corpse.
3. Pranayama, literally meaning energy-restraint, is a way of directing the life energy from within the ego to the spirit or soul, and normally to accomplish this one simply breathes in deeper than the exhale and visualizes the energy of the semen rising to the pineal gland.
4.Pratyahara is silence of the mind, but this cannot be force, it is a state that will become natural with practice of concentration and the former.
5. Dharana is concentrating on the meditation at hand.
6.Dhyana is when concentration becomes eased and enjoyable leading into--
7. Samadhi or ecstacy of consciousness, which the goal of the contemplator, here is where knowledge comes.

This is just a brief into, but if anyone practices Raja yoga or meditation at all: I'd love to hear from your experiences.