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Meditation is the concentration and strong connection of the mind to a subject matter. However it is just a vessel to contain the actual light of the subject matter. One can meditate on all kinds of things - money, sports, food, love, hate etc. One also must concentrate in the learning process. Meditation/contemplation/concentration is a function of Daas.
What we have said in these previous posts is that Kabbalistic Hisbonenus or Iyun is a learning process which is a function of Binah rather than a meditative process which is a function of Daas. Hisbonenus is the analytical explanatory learning process of going over a subject matter and analyzing it in fine detail into its particulars over and over until one knows it well in a particular rather than general way.
The contemplation of Daas is a vessel for the learning. After the learning, the meditative process of contemplating what one has learned serves to get a deeper insight into the concept as it is in Chochmah or even higher.
This contemplation is also called Hisbonenus by the Kabbalists. This is in order to stress that the contemplation is to be done specifically on the subject matter of the Iyun/Hisbonenus/Learning
The above process is relevant to any subject matter. However Kabbalistic Hisbonenus is on the subject matter of Kabbalah which is Hishtalshelus Haolamos - the Chaining Down of the Worlds from the Infinite Light through various Lessenings down to this world. This must be known in a detailed manner with all the worlds and all the Sefiros of each world, Lights and Vessels and Enclothments and with the particular Sefiros of each Sefirah in particular detail. This is known in Kabbala as the Secret of Kabbalah.
There is a deeper level which is usually called Chassidus or Razei deRazin - Secrets of the Secrets. This is the study of the Infinite light before the Lessening all the way up to the Atzmus - The selfness of G-d Himself.
When one learns and then contemplates by an act of will until the intellectual apprehension comes into his heart and becomes a part of him and affects his character, this is called the service of the heart.
When one learns and learns and learns until the contemplation arises automatically and the character is affected automatically, this is called the service of the mind.
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