There are some common ideas about concentrating on a meditation object in Buddhism and also Yoga, that the meditator basically concentrates on the object of meditation until the concentration becomes strong, and the mind becomes unified in concentration, as subject and object merge.
As far as I know, this sort of method is taught in the Vimuttimagga, the Visuddhimagga, and in the Mahāyāna Śūraṅgama Sūtra (and probably in many others as well). In the yoga traditions, it is often assumed but there is actually not much emphasis on it in actual texts.
In the early Buddhist texts, the most prominent meditation methods I am aware of are mindfulness of breathing and mindfulness of impurity. Occasionally meditation on the elements is also introduced. In the AN/EA, there are also the “Ten Forms of Mindfulness.”
In the EBT’s, is there any actual framework describing the development of mindfulness for other arbitrary meditation objects? Or are these just yogic ideas that were floating around in India, and used by various traditions?