[nsouth]

Glad to help :-)

Yeah I think hallucinogens activate the same areas of the brain. The only 2 times I've ever felt totally, 100% contented was while tripping on shrooms and through meditation.

I went on a Zen retreat and asked the leader about whether they do energy stuff in Zen, and he just said "It happens on its own". I think all roads lead to Rome all traditions are basically teaching the same core practices. I think optimal results come from doing the breathing practices before mindfulness meditation. In fact, that's exactly what Patanjali wrote in his famous yoga sutras:

Physical postures (asanas) -> breathing (pranayama) -> introversion to progressively deeper degrees.

And once you understand the bigger picture, all the restrictions placed on monks make sense: conservation of semen for guys has a big impact (so either celibacy or tantric sexual practices), minimal diet (difficult to compress the abdomen if it's full of waste), waking early (there seems to be a connection with the circadian rhythm), silence seems to help, etc. Either way, there's plenty to experiment with. Good luck :-)