Reddit mentions of Practicing the Jhanas: Traditional Concentration Meditation as Presented by the Venerable Pa Auk Sayadaw

You're welcome, glad it helped.

http://www.amazon.ca/Practicing-Jhanas-Traditional-Concentration-Meditation/dp/159030733X

I would grab a book like this. These are Pa Auk Sayadaw's students. He teaches in the tradition of the Visuddhimagga - http://www.abhidhamma.org/visuddhimagga-1.htm, which is a classic meditation manual, very comprehensive, this is a free copy.

Leigh Brasington has alot of stuff out there, but then again he couldn't hit Jhana on a Pa Auk retreat, so I tend to shy away from him, as he teaches also to nurture these jhana factors, which is opposite to what the Sayadaw as well as the Visuddhimagga teaches.

Concentration practice is very much about focusing on on one point, cultivating the factors. However, concentration is not the end of practice, there is the insight side, the Sayadaw teaches traditionally, so he starts with concentration, then the sublime abidings and then elemental and vipassana.

I too had a pre-disposition for concentration and after starting sitting (2 weeks in), I obtained full Jhana Absorption, which was profound, just using mindfulness in plain English-
http://www.vipassana.com/meditation/mindfulness_in_plain_english.php, this is mainly about mindfulness.

In the end the importance is the technique and keeping with it. Ajahn Chah said insight leads to concentration, concentration leads to insight, so whichever path you pick, stick with it. Part of the process of cultivating concentration is subduing the hinderances, which in itself can be quite insightful and freeing.

Also this book: https://www.amazon.com/Practicing-Jhanas-Traditional-Concentration-Meditation/dp/159030733X/ref=nodl_

This is a tough question to answer. I was lucky and my practice evolved naturally from more basic meditation to advanced methods without planning it that way. Looking back I would say this was a huge advantage.

I started in college doing simple mantra meditation. One word, repeated calmly with the breath. This is like TM. TM tells you that their mantra is sacred and you need to lick their buttholes and pay their car payments and then they give you a super special exotic Sanskrit mantra or something. Bullshit. You can pick any word you want. In my opinion it's better to pick a word with broad spiritual meaning as opposed to something more specific - use "God" instead of "peace," for example. When I started out I was meditating with a Benedictine monk named Fr. Laurence Freeman and he gave us the Aramaic word (actually, I guess it's a "term") "Maranatha" which means "come, Lord." I did that 20 minutes each morning and evening for a full academic year (at the Georgetown University John Main Center for Meditation as one of the founding scholars-in-residence, mind you [clears throat, pats self on back]). The regularity of those sessions coupled with the support of the group gave me a nice foundation in my practice. I would suggest finding a group if possible but it's not necessary. A $10-$20 "suggested" donation in a little basket by the door is customary. Anything else (aside from the cost of room and board on a retreat) should raise your eyebrows. I would also like to add that although I wasn't a Christian at the time I had no problem using a mantra attributed to Christ. I never thought much about the meaning of the mantra, to be honest. It's all about focusing the mind. You could use a nonsense word like "feminism" and it would work just fine (just kidding, don't do that). Here are Fr. Laurence's books: https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=laurence+freeman

I was and suppose still am a Buddhist and got pretty deep into it. If you're serious about meditation I would suggest sticking to Buddhist meditation because it is far superior to all other systems. Some might argue this point but they would be wrong. I eventually discovered "concentration" or "jhanas" meditation, although most people simple call it "following the breath." All you do is pay attention to your breathing. If you get distracted internally you simply return to the breath. Now, traditionally there are a couple of ways of doing this. Either focus on the rise and fall of the abdomen or the breath as it passes that little divot just under your nose called the "anapanasati" spot. This is what I did and although it sounds weird it works great.

I went on my first retreat at this point with the authors of the book that introduced me to the method. It was incredible. The experience was quite honestly like visiting Heaven. 2 weeks in silence in the forest meditating all day, every day, until my mind was just a glowing ball of joy and wisdom. 10/10 highly recommend. Here is the book I'm talking about: https://www.amazon.com/Practicing-Jhanas-Traditional-Concentration-Meditation/dp/159030733X

Eventually I discovered Dzogchen meditation and it had very dramatic effects. Two great books to check out are "Tibetan Book of Living and Dying" and "Flight of the Garuda."

Her books recommended elsewhere in this thread, yes. But the other is the excellent Practicing the Jhanas by Snyder and Rasmussen. If you just read through the relevant bits, it's probably 80 pages. Who can sit still and read 80 pages these days though? Maybe if the book came with a 9v shocker? ;)

Well, Shaila Catherine did spend quite a bit of time with Ven. Pa Auk Sayadaw, and her book "Wisdom Wide and Deep" (which the venerable one wrote the foreword to) is a very good explication of that style of Visuddhimagga practice (it is a commentary on a commentary, as it were, so just know that :)

I don't discount other folks' experience with deeper states in that style of practice. I just hope people can agree that there is a range of experience to be had with Samadhi and Jhana (again, see Shankman's book). If not, then we just disagree, no biggie. May we all know "samma samadhi" and may it be of service in our liberation.