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September 30, 2019
But pratyāhāra happens by itself—we cannot make it happen, we can only practice the means by which it might happen.
Dhāraṇā is the sixth limb of yoga.
The essential idea in the concept of dhāraṇā is holding the concentration or focus of attention in one direction.
Dhāraṇā is therefore the condition in which the mind focuses and concentrates exclusively on one point.
In dhyāna, one becomes involved with a particular thing—a link is established between self and object. In other words, you perceive a particular object and at the same time continuously communicate with it.
When we succeed in becoming so absorbed in something that our mind becomes completely one with it, we are in a state of samādhi.
In samādhi our personal identity—name, profession, family history, bank account, and so forth—completely disappears.
Pratyāhāra, dhāraṇā, dhyāna, and samādhi cannot be practiced.
I can, though, create the right conditions to help bring about a state of dhāraṇā;
For this reason the Yoga Sūtra suggests the practice of āsanas and prāṇāyāma as preparation for dhāraṇā, because these influence mental activities and create space in the crowded schedule of the mind.
So when somebody says “I am meditating,” he or she actually means “I am attempting to prepare myself for dhyāna.
When dhāraṇā, dhyāna, and samādhi are concentrated on one object, the resulting state is called samyama.
Instead of choosing one topic today and another tomorrow, I try to understand one particular thing well,
The true goal of saṃyama is to concentrate on one object and to investigate it until we know everything about it.
Kaivalya describes the effect on the personality of being in a continuous state of samādhi. This is the state of inner freedom that yoga strives for.
It is a misunderstanding to think that someone who lives in a state of kaivalya is no longer a real person with normal human needs and functions.
According to yoga, the purpose of the whole of creation is to give us a context for understanding what we are and what we are not. When we understand that, then there is kaivalya, and prakṛti has fulfilled its purpose.
There are two forces within us: one comes from our old conditioning and habits; the other is our new conditioning that develops out of our changing behavior.
But when the old force disappears, the mind no longer swings back and forth.
Pratyāhāra occurs automatically in a state of dhāraṇā.
We must not think that when we are in a state of dhāraṇā, dhyāna, or samādhi, our senses are dead.
The difference between this and our normal state is that here the senses support the focus of the mind on one point.
Pratyāhāra means that the senses serve the mind in the state of dhāraṇā, dhyāna, and samādhi.
The thinking process is there, but exclusively in relation to the object. Memory is functioning only in connection with the object. In this example of pratyāhāra, there is no distraction through our senses because we are so absorbed in the object of our meditation.
Pratyāhāra occurs when we are in the state of dhyāna.
How does dhyāna come about? A: A certain effort is always required, and this involves two things.
There is one force in us wanting us to practice, and another, namely, our old habits, that wants to stop us. This means that when we want to practice, we must make an effort. The moment we no longer have to make any effort at all is the beginning of dhyāna.
After all, the object of meditation is actually unimportant. What is important is that the chosen object does not cause you any problems or hinder you from focusing your mind.
But we should understand these three states as three steps or stages: first, there is dhāraṇā, where we concentrate on our chosen object and close off from external distractions; then there is dhyāna, the connection or communication between self and object. Finally there is samādhi, where we have so deeply immersed ourselves in the object that the sense of self no longer seems to exist.
Does the object of our attention retain its distinct identity in samādhi? A: Of course. It is not the object that meditates—we are meditating.
Our understanding of the subject is what changes because the mind becomes clearer and we can see what was previously hidden from us.
This means that in samādhi we arrive at a real understanding of the object, even if the object is anger.
We know we are experiencing samādhi if we can see and understand things that we could not see or understand before.
our puruṣa sees an object through the mind.
The problems we have to deal with in life arise from the way the consequences of our actions have settled in our mind; that is, they arise from our saṃskāra. We are not able to distinguish the colored image that exists in the mind from the real object.
In the state of samādhi the “I” is almost nonexistent; the confusion of the mind is gone.
When the Yoga Sūtra was written it was taken for granted that students went to a teacher; that is why there is no specific reference to a teacher in the texts. Originally yoga was passed on by word of mouth; only much later was it written down.
It is certainly possible to use the body as your meditation object. In this way, you come to understand more about the body.
There are many possible objects for dhyāna when we are doing āsanas.
The particular meditation object we choose influences our understanding.
What I wanted to say with regard to samādhi is that in this state there are no thoughts. Thinking is absent; there is no need for it because we are so closely linked to our object.
Is it true that every time we learn something, we have a little taste of dhāraṇā, dhyāna, and samādhi? A: Definitely!
As a person gets more involved, he or she spends more time in samādhi, and experiences less restlessness. It may get to the point where that person is always in a state of samādhi. We hope for this!
In the first chapter of the Yoga Sūtra, Patañjali defines yoga as a certain state of mental activity, one that he calls nirodha.
thoughts, feelings, and perceptions come and go in rapid succession. We are hardly aware of them and can find no thread linking them. This level of the mind’s activity is called kṣipta.
The second level of the mind is called mūdha.
Any inclination to observe, act, or react has nea...
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Vikṣipta is the word used to describe the third level of the mind. In vikśipta, the mind is moving but the movement lacks consistent purpose and direction.
This is the most common state of mind.
The fourth level of mind is called ekāgrata. Here the mind is relatively clear; distractions have little influence. We have a direction and, most important of all, we can move forward in this direction and keep our attention on it. This state corresponds to dhāraṇā. By practicing yoga we can create the conditions that gradually move the mind from the kśipta level to the ekāgrāta level.
