Meditation, basically, is about being still.
This encompasses the body, the mind and the soul.
Yogis can meditate for hours, even days on end.
In Tibet, monks in monasteries practice meditating outside during winter in sub-zero temperatures in the snow.
Others have been rumored to start levitating while in deep meditation.
Meditation is the "soft" way of practising yoga.
Unfortunately, the demands that the material world imposes on the vast majority of the worlds' population are of such nature, that the mind has diverted and devoted all of its resources to survival, which is brutal and ruthless.
Another phenomenon that has occurred is that peoples' own individual sense of critical discrimination has been lost, literally educated out of them, conditioned by tradition, habit, peer pressure and other combinations such as ego and ignorance.
Almost all pain that exists or is perceived in such a way, that the individual who is subjected to it experiences it as one hundred percent real has its roots, or basic source, in the illusion created by the mind of the notion of "self" or identity.
It is a fact that once a person has convinced himself of who he is, when his personal and material identity has become a habit; when it is "anchored" deep within his subconscious; that it becomes increasingly difficult for this person to dissociate himself from this state of being.
As years go by, this difficulty only grows.
Usually, one refers to this situation as "maya", or veil of illusion, and it is not an exaggeration to state that most people who walk the earth are in a state of maya.
Yogis have understood that this perception of "self", or maya, can be very destructive and it is their goal to escape from this state once and for all.
Aside from the discipline of the practice of yoga, which is a physical and mental preparation or conditioning of the body and mind to prepare for the ultimate goal, which is attaining "samahdi", meditation is also required.
It is considered exceptional for any given person to be able to experience samahdi other than during meditation.
Meditation allows for stillness to set in, be it physical, mental or spiritual, for meditation is nothing more that creating complete silence within.
When this silence is perfect, that is, when no thoughts, emotions, yearnings, ideas or physical discomforts come to disturb the inner silence, then the conditions are set for the veil of illusion to dissipate.
It is then that the path that leads to samahdi becomes clear and that maya is forever lost.
At this point, the adept is no longer a mere pupil, but an adept on his way to becoming a master.