Patanjali's extraordinary eight-step (ashtanga) method of meditation can lead you to the state of samadhi. His ancient teachings become much more accessible with the help of modern psychology and personal insights gained through decades of practice.
Psychology of Meditation playlist: • Psychology of Samadhi ...
0:00 Pratyahara - Sense Withdrawal
8:51 Dharana - Concentration
18:27 Dhyana - Meditation
The first four of Patanjali's angas are called bahiranga sadhana or external practices because they involve matters external to your mind. The final four angas are called antaranga sadhana, internal practices, because they directly concern your mind. Those angas are pratyahara, sense withdrawal; dharana, concentration; dhyana, meditation; and finally, samadhi, absorption.
In the Bhagavad Gita and other scriptures, pratyahara is compared to the behavior of a tortoise that pulls its head and limbs inside its shell. Its four legs and tail represent your five senses, and its head represents your mind. Pratyahara is the direct result of narrowly concentrating your attention. When your concentration is so completely constricted that it's focused on a single point, a single vritti or mental event, that state is called ekagrata, one-pointedness. Ekagrata is the goal of dharana, concentration, which is the sixth of Patanjali's eight angas. Pratyahara and dharana are intimately related, like two sides of a coin. That's why Patanjali placed dharana immediately after pratyahara.
The object on which you choose to focus or concentrate is called alambana by Patanjali. Alambana literally means something you hang on to. Here it means something you fix your attention on. There are many options for an alambana. With your eyes open, you can concentrate your attention on a candle flame in a practice known as trataka. Or with your eyes closed, you can concentrate on a mental image, like a flame shining brightly in your heart and radiating throughout your body. Or you can visualize a yantra, a sacred geometric form that's rich with symbolism. Many Hindus like to visualize the form of their chosen deity, their ishta devata
Another kind of alambana that's commonly used is to focus on a particular point on your body or inside it. For example, in the practice of Kundalini Yoga, you have to concentrate your attention on various energy centers known as chakras that are said to be located along the length of your spine. A more common practice is to concentrate on the point in between your eyebrows, which is known as bru-madhya. But, according to Patanjali, through the practice of pratyahara, sense withdrawal, your attention should be completely withdrawn from your body. For this reason, it's usually best to choose an alambana that's not associated with your body. An alternative that's widely used and extremely effective is to choose a sacred mantra as your alambana.
Whereas dharana trains your mind to concentrate with single-pointed attention on your alambana, your chosen object, dhyana prepares your mind to go beyond that alambana and rest in perfect silence. That is, dhyana leads to the complete absence of all mental activities, the complete restraint all mental chatter, all vrittis. According to Patanjali, this uninterrupted flow of mantras is the state of dhyana. He says, tatra pratyaya ekatanata dhyanam, tatra, there, directed towards your alambana, the ekatanata, single-pointed uninterrupted flow, of pratyayas, of mantras or vrittis, is the practice of dhyanam, meditation.
Swami Tadatmananda is a traditionally-trained teacher of Advaita Vedanta, meditation, and Sanskrit. For more information, please see: www.arshabodha.org/