Samyama: The Trinity of Dharana, Dhyana, and Samadhi

by Ram

Misty Morning on the Seine, Sunrise by Claude Monet

In earlier posts I discussed the first five of the eight-fold path or eight rungs/limbs/steps of Yoga as described in the Raja Yoga section of the Yoga Sutras by Patanjali. Each step or limb prepares us for the next higher step. Thus, the first three limbs (yama, niyama, and asana help to prepare the body and enable practitioners to become more flexible, stable, and grounded. The fourth limb, pranayama, consists of breath practice and is designed to allow you to gain mastery over the respiratory process while building a connection between the breath, the mind, and the intellect. The fifth limb, pratyahara, helps us to discriminate between the harmonious and disharmonious impressions that we draw in through the five senses.

Pratyahara serves as a fulcrum regulating external practices like asana and pranayama to internal observances like dharana (focus), dhyana (meditation) and samadhi (deep absorption). The three internal observances that also constitute the last three limbs in the Yoga philosophy have been described as “trayam ekatra samyama” and translates as “the three processes of dharana, dhyana, and samadhi, when taken together on the same object, place or point is called samyama”. While the first five limbs help us develop our power of focus and concentration, we continue to get distracted by our actions and our attention travels as well. Our focus constantly shifts as we try to become more adept at a particular posture or breathing technique. With a balanced breath, it becomes easy for the mind to focus on a single object or thought process while avoiding other mental dramas.

Dharana

Think about dharana or focus as the preparatory step towards attaining a deeper meditative stance. Dharana helps to reduce the chattering of the mind and filters out all irrelevant thought processes. To attain mastery over dharana, start out by focusing on any sound or a mantra (the silent repetition of a sound), or practice with an image or an object in mind. The most important thing to remember is that the goal is in the practice. If your mind wanders, just gently bring it back to focus without any judgment. Bringing the mind back to the object or the mantra—as many times as it takes—is what dharana is all about. The practice of dharana is not concentrating on the object rather it is the awareness with which you redirect the mind, again and again. This very practice—the mind running or getting distracted, you bringing it back—in essence is dharana.

Dharana does not have to happen only when we sit down to meditate. You can practice dharana when you are on your mat as well. Notice how your senses are acting during a pose: are you inundated with lot of thoughts, action, and dramas about the specific pose or are you intimidated by your neighbor’s perfect pose? Notice if your mind is very busy, constantly judging yourself or your neighbors. Can you gently practice pratyahara, let go of your sensory impressions, and start focusing on the pose itself? To “be in the pose” requires practice of dharana, letting go of the ego and focusing just on the pose so as to find your true self. Dharana gets easier as you practice it. When you get familiar with dharana, the mind becomes a much less restless place to be. Notice the joy, the pleasure, and bliss when you are able to successfully focus on something.

Dhyana

Since Dhyana (meditation) is a progression of dharana, the same techniques of dharana can lead you to dhyana. An extended period of focus prepares the path for dhyana. When the mind stops wandering and maintains a continuous period of stillness, at that point you are in dhyana. Dhyana or meditation is a state of being in which you are keenly aware without a need for focus and with the mind at its quietest. In that state of mind you no longer possess bodily awareness, the sense organs are not distracted, and the stillness produces few or no thoughts at all. In this state there is nothing else you can think about.

We can experience this state on the yoga mat as well. As you come back to a pose again and again, you are now able to do it smoothly and hold the pose without any distress or chattering mind, and you then become so overwhelmed by the pose that it becomes everything that you can think about. You are not distracted and you don’t want anything else as you feel transformed in that pose—you have achieved a complete state of satisfaction—this is dhyana. It comes when a process turns into something totally natural and there is nothing else you want to think about. It is not easy to reach the state of dhyana; one has to work towards it by means of dharana. It is for this reason that in the Yoga Sutras, dharana, dhyana, and samadhi are described as a three-staged process called samyama.

Samadhi

 As you start to focus on an object or a mantra or some task, and as you naturally gravitate towards it and become one with it, you experience samadhi, “the insight.” Patanjali describes this eighth and final stage or limb as insight, rapture, or a state of ecstasy—a state in which the individual merges with his or her point of focus and transcends the self altogether.

Having a continuous practice of meditation helps the individual to achieve the state of samadhi. As you sit to meditate, both mind and body relax into a state of deep and profound restfulness. Any dramas in the mind or emotional upheavals get dissolved without effort, and a personal experience of complete peace, joy, and creativity unfolds. Anyone can learn this, and it does not require concentration or mental effort. The benefits are immediate, tangible, and cumulative, and the practice itself is relaxing and enjoyable. Seasoned meditators can naturally and effortlessly go into this state of insight. In this meditative state there is no separation between self and the world around; the individual experiences complete oneness and in that state there is only peace. One can get a similar experience on the mat as well.

After an hour of asana practice on the mat, your experience of samadhi is heavily dependent on the status of your mind. You experience oneness and complete peace when you are totally unaware of “I” or “mine” with the body, mind and intellect working in complete unison. This experience may be momentary, maybe even a fleeting second, but it is an experience of truth, uncontrollable joy, and peace.

Thus, the ultimate objective of yoga is reigning in the fluctuations of the mind to achieve complete liberation from mental turbulence—seeing things as they truly are and experiencing only peace. This would be the state of samyama, the ultimate step—peace or enlightenment—which can only be experienced individually. As BKS Iyengar aptly put it, “You must do the asana with your soul.” This would mean being in samyama, which requires cultivating the quality of focus, concentration, and letting go of the ego, including your body image, to feel open, grounded, and calm and experience oneness with your true self. In this state, you experience contentment and enjoy a sense of accomplishment. It’s a great positive spiral and it results in improved health and happiness.

Subscribe to Yoga for Healthy Aging by Email ° Follow Yoga for Healthy Aging on Facebook ° Join this site with Google Friend Connect

Read More

Yoga for Healthy Eating, Part 2

by Baxter

Today, as I was driving to the Farmers Market in Berkeley to enjoy my weekly ritual of buying local grown and produced fruits, veggies and animal protein, I happened to catch a bit of the show “Your Health and Fitness” on KPFA. The host posited the assertion that “health” bestows on each of us the opportunity to live a full life. I gotta say, I loved the simplicity of this notion, and all that it really implies. Then I got home to read the following comment on my recent post regarding yoga for healthy eating, full of more wisdom born out of personal experience. It came from an old friend and colleague of mine, and with her permission, I share it with you now:

“Hey Baxter,

Kudos on taking on such a complicated subject! I have a few ideas I think are worth adding to the discussion on mindfulness and healthy eating, and when I say "ideas", I really mean personal opinions I've formed along the journey of nurturing my personal health.

The first idea that really drives my weight management is focusing on eating more good food rather less bad food. "Eat less" is very common advice, but when we set out attempting to do this, what happens is, we end up eating meals that are less than we need to feel satisfied, and then, when we are inevitably hungry in an hour or two, we reach for a convenient snack. This snack is rarely nutritious, and does two things; it keeps us from our goal of losing weight and gives us a sense that we are inept in managing our food. This second part is often the killer. When people ask me for advice about weight loss, I always say the same thing; "EAT MORE VEGGIES". If you add a large serving of vegetables to lunch and dinner, you will not be hungry in between meals. And these vegetables are of tremendous value to your long term health. Your body will shift naturally a healthier size. Eat more, not less.

Also, I believe that living in the modern world means being absolutely inundated with information about dieting, and most of this information is not helpful. Find a plan that works for your lifestyle and stick to it. I've used the same food plan through two terms of weight loss (one in my early thirties & one after my daughter was born), and I generally use the same plan for maintenance today. Find a plan that works for your lifestyle and stick to it.

Lastly, I think exercise is vital to weight maintenance, not because it assists in weight loss (I've actually found it to hinder my weight loss), but because it helps with stress reduction and confidence in the long run. Stress is perhaps the most important factor in why we eat and why we fail at weight loss. When we find exercise that we enjoy and we can integrate into our lifestyle, we have a useful tool in managing our long-term health through stress reduction. Secondarily, we gain in the process an enjoyment of our bodies that is necessary to continue on a path of nurturing self -care. Exercise we enjoy makes us feel good. Feeling good helps us to want to continue on the journey.

Hope this is helpful to the greater discussion.

Amelia”

Yes, Amelia, I think this is very helpful to the greater discussion around healthy eating. Implied in Amelia’s approach is, as I see it, the idea that a longer vision goal is being set by each of us as we decide to make healthy changes in our eating habits. It seems prudent, as an example, that if my goal is weight loss for me to sit and consider what my expectations are when my goal is reached: do I expect to feel better physically, emotionally or mentally? Do I expect a present health problem to resolve itself secondary to my weight loss goal being met? Is there an expectation of an underlying happiness that will arise? In all likelihood, quiet contemplation around this goal of “weight loss” will reveal these sorts of underlying hopes and expectations that could ultimately be more important than any number on the scale.

The practices of yoga, starting with pranayama as a beginning method to quiet the normal mental chatter and give the busy portion of the mind a rest, can be quiet helpful in this process of introspection.  From there, dharana and dhyana, one-pointed concentration practice and continual meditation practice, will refine and sharpen the ability to be receptive to these deeper goals. One of the qualities that is always mentioned in either succeeding or failing at these sorts of attempted changes is the presence of “will power.”  And according to Stanford psychologist, author and yoga teacher Kelly McGonigal, scientists now consider will power to be like a muscle, versus something you either have or don’t have. We all have the muscle, and you can strengthen it with practice. And yoga is a discipline that teaches us about practice, or abhyasa, as one of the main tools for succeeding in meeting our highest goals. 

So to recap Amelia’s wisdom:

• Eat enough good food (VEGGIES!) to satisfy your energy needs and satisfy you hunger.
• Find a plan that works for your lifestyle and stick to it, ie practice it everyday!
• Don’t underestimate the value of exercise as a stress reducing and confidence-inspiring tool (a strong asana practice could be part of that I’d think!), as stress is a huge trigger for unhealthy eating.  And exercise makes us feel good, which has a positive feedback on motivation.

Keep those comments coming! We love ‘em!

Read More

Thoughts on Dhyana: Meditation over the Holidays

by Baxter

As I pass through yet another solstice and the modern winter holiday celebrations, I appreciate my own meditation practice, however sporadic it is at times. So I thought today would be a good day to begin introducing the topic of meditation on this blog.

Even trying to introduce the topic of meditation is a bit daunting, however, because there are many eastern traditions that have varied and unique approaches and emphases when they define meditation. So let’s narrow the scope and look at hatha yoga or even classical yoga, where we first find Patanjali in the Yoga Sutras placing dhyana or meditation within the context of the eight limbs of yoga, or the Ashtanga Yoga. 

In this model, meditation is considered the second of two stages, beginning with dharana, or one-pointed concentration, and then moving onto dhyana, or continuous concentration or focus on an object. An analogy that Mr. Iyengar and others have used to explain this goes like this: If the mind were a water faucet and the object of my meditation was the bucket below it, when I first begin to focus, the water comes out in drops and moves towards the bucket, but with breaks in between, which represent distraction of the mind from the object. If my practice gets stronger and steadier, a time arrives when my focus is unbroken, represented as a continuous stream of water flowing toward the bucket. This is the stage of “meditation” or dhyana.  I am still aware of “me” as the faucet, and the thing I am observing, the bucket, as separate from me, but I am really starting to understand what “bucket” is on a deep level.

Mushroom at Silver Beach by Brad Gibson

There still exists a subject-object relationship. However, in the process of developing this strong, unbroken focus, the normal everyday mental activity almost completely subsides, leading to a more peaceful yet fully present mind state that yogis felt truly beneficial. Modern PET scan studies of the minds of experienced meditators show dramatic quieting of certain areas of the brain and other brain wave patterns emerging that are often related to the state of consciousness seen just before sleep, as well as patterns seen in creative states of mind observed in artists and musicians.

For us, the process begins on a more practical note, when in our first yoga asana practices we are encouraged to simply follow the flow of the breath with our minds to the exclusion of other possible things to focus on. This is essentially the first stage described above: dharana. Anyone who has tried this, if they are really honest, will admit how hard it is to stay on track. One of my teachers used to say that if you could follow the breath for three full cycles of in and out without another distracting thought breaking your concentration, you would reach enlightenment immediately—his way of saying that this is really hard to do, even though it sounds easy. However, despite this difficulty, I’ve found it to be well worth the effort. On a very basic level, it is one direct way to elicit the relaxation response we’ve talked about in past posts (see here). And if it could eventually lead to some bliss state the yogis also talk about, bring it on!

In future posts we will discuss other meditation techniques, but for the holidays ahead, stick to the basics of simple breath awareness, done seated or in Savasana, and I’ll talk to you in the new year.

Read More