You seem wedded to your presuppositions that are not in any way buttressed by Scripture.
We can agree to disagree, but I can back my position with Scripture, while — I submit — you cannot.
And, it is completely unfair and inaccurate to portray Eastern meditation and Western contemplation as basically equivalent, .... but I repeat myself.
St. Paul said pray without ceasing.
Christianity and Buddhist meditation are not equivalent, but they share similarities - just as several religions share similarities of ‘prayer’. My previous statement was just to clarify terms. In the West (and Eastern Orthodox Christian) the term ‘contemplation’ is more closely compared to other Eastern religions’ use of the term meditation.
For information on Christian prayer other than vocal and petitionary, see the Desert Fathers and Lectio Divina among others.
thanks for your reply.