user38: I know there are a lot of practices in many different traditions. Can you redirect me to some source where different types of practice are somewhat classified? I'm not clear how this could be done, but maybe something in the lines of this book?

user199: As has been pointed out, this is a vast question, and I doubt it's answerable in anything other than a pile of doctoral theses and then some, but I'll make a small attempt at a piece of it. 
I'll point you to one comparative study that could maybe act as a lead in your search. It is "Self-transformation According to Buddhist Stages of the Path Literature" by Jared Lindahl. In it Lindahl compares in some detail the path described by Buddhaghosa in "The Path of Purification" (the Visuddhimagga), with an ostensibly different path described by Dakpo Tashi Namgyal in "Mahāmudrā: The Moonlight".
Obviously this is very far from a complete taxonomy as you were asking, but it at least shows that a comparison/contrast can be done. All you have to do now is repeat what Lindahl has done, for every known practice area, and voila! Let us all know when you're done ;-)
P.S. Dan Ingram talks about connections between the different practice "maps" (as he calls them), in his "Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha". Ingram himself says his primary influence is Therevadan practices, especially those taught by Mahasi Sayadaw, but he seems to know enough to be able to make linkages between various attainments outlined on that path and similar attainments on other paths. So that book is (with my usual "don't get too caught up in the Dark Night panic" caveat) is worth a look.

38: <p>I know there are a lot of practices in many different traditions. Can you redirect me to some source where different types of practice are somewhat classified? I'm not clear how this could be done, but maybe something in the lines of <a href="http://www.sbinstitute.com/node/219" rel="nofollow">this book</a>?</p>
 199: <p>As has been pointed out, this is a <em>vast</em> question, and I doubt it's answerable in anything other than a pile of doctoral theses and then some, but I'll make a small attempt at a piece of it. </p>

<p>I'll point you to one comparative study that could maybe act as a lead in your search. It is "<a href="http://www.shin-ibs.edu/documents/pwj3-14/06Lindahl.pdf" rel="nofollow">Self-transformation According to Buddhist Stages of the Path Literature</a>" by Jared Lindahl. In it Lindahl compares in some detail the path described by Buddhaghosa in "The Path of Purification" (the <em>Visuddhimagga</em>), with an ostensibly different path described by Dakpo Tashi Namgyal in "Mahāmudrā: The Moonlight".</p>

<p>Obviously this is very far from a complete taxonomy as you were asking, but it at least shows that a comparison/contrast can be done. All you have to do now is repeat what Lindahl has done, for every known practice area, and voila! Let us all know when you're done ;-)</p>

<p>P.S. Dan Ingram talks about connections between the different practice "maps" (as he calls them), in his "Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha". Ingram himself says his primary influence is Therevadan practices, especially those taught by Mahasi Sayadaw, but he seems to know enough to be able to make linkages between various attainments outlined on that path and similar attainments on other paths. So that book is (with my usual "don't get too caught up in the Dark Night panic" caveat) is worth a look.</p>
