dharana

According to Patanjali meditation consists of Dharana, Dhyana and Samadhi, Dharana being the first stage. It is Dharana that inspires the notion that meditation is about stopping the movement of the mind. However, this is a superficial and incomplete notion.

Firstly the transformation of awareness of the mind’s activity has occurred spontaneously. It is not the result of intent directed towards the stopping of the mind. The initial utilisation of intent is applied only and directly to the physical processes of establishing the body in comfortable stability without tension and elucidation of the breath. This process, however, especially with regard to the breath is one of letting go rather than imposing. It is one of relaxing into that which is arising, rather than imposing on it according to some preconceived ideal or conceptualised agenda. Of course, because the mind has been conditioned to move away from discomfort into reactive patterns of evasion, a certain effort is initially required to undermine this habit. However it is an effort that is applied to awareness itself, rather than to the content of awareness. It is one by which attention is brought back towards that from which it habitually turns away (vrtti). This bringing back is not in fact an expression of intent in the moment. Rather it is an expression of attention returning to an initial comitment (sauca) or orientation that is the basis of that which is happening.

If a deep, honest commitment to investigate the true nature of the self actually exists, when the drifting of the mind is noticed, this drift is immediately cut off, and attention returns to the matter at hand. This can be the body as a structure in a yoga posture, or the body in its functioning as the breath. So, in fact, the returning of attention to the activity of the present moment is not brought about by intent, willpower or effort. It is brought about through the agency of Niyama: our content and passionate commitment to enquiry into the nature and source of the self. In other words, the stilling, or stopping, of the mind, results not from intent applied directly to the mind but from immersing oneself in an enquiry guided by Yama and Niyama.

Secondly the mind has not actually stopped. Through the progressive resolving of the split between thinker and thoughts the flow of perception appears to slow down. This slowing down refers not to chronological but psychological time. What is occurring is that the spaces between perceptions are expanding due to the resolving of the split. This expansion can reach the point where there is no sense of movement. What may be a milisecond can seem like eternity. This is a function of perception, rather than an absolute cessation of mental activity or time.

 

to learn yoga practice as a clarification of Patanjali click below