Has anybody  tried any of the methods of. Christain mysticism.  it seems like Tibetian deity yoga somewhat, whith Christ  as the object of concentration. It looks like it fall into the  Buddhist map of the Jhanas.   

I have a friend who's deeply into doing just that. She's not a member or poster here, though.

I've had some peripheral interest in Christian mysticism but not enough to pass a well-formed reply. Would you be able to link something to which you are referring to?

https://archive.org/details/slackers-guide-to-stream-entry

Also have a Christian friend doing "resting in love of Christ" style meditation. I was hanging out with her earlier today and she gave me a lithograph print of an image showing a globe that looks like a clock with people inside the clock working the gears and has two people on top of the globe pointing out into a starry sky. On the back it has the following text:


We discussed practise and she described the "resting in love of Christ" state as being white and open. It sounds like many of the states they experience are similar to those found in this style of meditation, but the objects are different and how they perceive the resulting states is different. She seemed to consider the nimitta to be an expression of God (if I understood her correctly). In a way she's basically doing a more specific form of metta (and yes it's also like deity yoga) though i'm just guessing, I have minimal experience with deity stuff.

She has also mentioned Galatians a few times. Apparently Paul scolded the Galatians for forgetting how to "rest" and following unskillful practises instead of the path given by Christ, and bickering amongst themselves.

Thanks for those links Derek.  I think christain contemplation might  be my only way to attain jhana

I appreciate this thank you

I heard from Leigh Brasington that Ayya Khema reckoned St. Teresa of Avila was reaching jhana states through contemplative prayer.

If you want to really understand St. Teresa of Avila in depth, I recommend the Collected Works volumes 1 and 2 translated by Kieran Kavanaugh and Otilio Rodriguez. And if you want to understand her background, I recommend the book that she herself read, Francisco De Osuna’s Third Spiritual Alphabet.

I love st theresa.  I think she  achieved  more than jhana.  Possibly went all the way. She described seeing God in everything. Many of her writings reflect path of Insight.  She seems remarkably quiet about her preliminary  practi es.