The Sanskrit word for meditation is dhyana which is made of two words dhi (धि) and yan (यान). Dhi means intellect, and yan means a vehicle. Intellect is one of the parts of the mind which helps us to observe, reason and analyze. Dhyana (meditation) is the vehicle of this intellect (dhi, धि) to reach deeper levels of our being.
We can only go to deeper levels of ourselves once we remove the distractions of random thoughts and train our minds to be one-pointed (ekagraha). To be able to see what’s at the bottom of a lake we need the water to be still on the surface. The more the stillness the more the bottom is visible. Similarly, meditation is a way to still the mind so that you can find yourself.
To still the mind we employ various Concentration techniques (Dharna in Sanskrit). You give your mind an object to focus/ concentrate on, this object of concentration could be your breath, an energetic point in your body, a dot, a flame, etc.
In the initial phases, it is difficult to concentrate. Suppose you start with your focus on the breath after some time you will see that the mind jumps on to another random thought. Then you realize that “aah I was focusing on my breath, why am I thinking about blah blah…”. It’s alright that’s the way the mind works, whenever you realize that bring your awareness back to the breath.
The mind will keep jumping from one thought to another, your work is to keep bringing the awareness back to your breath. This is a practice and takes time ( in a similar way that if you want to get a stronger muscle you need to train those muscles).
Once you have a constant focus (without jumping from thought to thought) on the object of your concentration (breath, energetic point, etc), then you fall into the state called Meditation (Dhyana).
The phrase “falling into meditation” is used which refers to meditation, because you cannot do “meditation” you can do a concentration practice that will gradually take you (make you fall) into a meditative state.