The Prescription: Part V
The Lion's Backward Glance: Concentration and Meditation
Note: To view the entire article, click the title to see it in your browser. Viewing directly in your email inbox will clip the text.Om Sri Gurubhyo Namah. Salutations to all the teachers.
What is meditation? How should I meditate? What will meditation do for me?
These are some of the questions that we will review today.
Just as a lion pauses to majestically look back over the distance it has traversed, over the past few weeks, we have been looking back over the entire process of Yoga. This is the method of singha-avalokana-nyaya - the Lion’s Backward Glance.
Thus far in our recap, we have covered the purpose of life, the 25 Tattvas, the 5 Bhumis, the classification of all mental activity into the 5 vrittis and 5 kleshas, the nine obstacles to Yoga, as well as the twin foundation of Yoga - abhyaas (practice) and vairaagya (letting go).
We then covered the foundational methods of eka-tattva-abhyaas, the stabilizing techniques, the Brahmavihaaras, and Kriya Yoga.
These foundational methods are ways to weaken the kleshas in the mind, calming it down sufficiently to practice the eight-limbed path.
If you are new to Yoga, or if you feel that your mind is restless, these foundational techniques are the best place to begin.
Then, last time, we began a review of the eight limbs, known as Ashtaanga Yoga.
The eight limbs can be seen as a series of consecutively more inward practices, each limb one level more inward than the previous one. It begins with the most external aspect of our being - our interactions with the external world. Some interactions cause more mental disturbance than others, and so the Yamas - the first limb - provide the Yogi with a systematic method to ensure that their external interactions do not affect the steadiness of the mind.
The next limb is the Niyamas, which provide a set of practices to ensure that the Yogi’s personal conduct is conducive to mental calm and steadiness. This is followed by Aasana, which makes the body steady and comfortable, ensuring that it does not draw out attention.
Next is Praanaayaam, which does the same for the breath and the other life functions. Finally, the fifth and final of the external limbs is Pratyaahaar, which helps the Yogi withdraw from the habitual addiction of senses to their respective objects.
The methods within this fifth limb - Pratyaahaar - are often taught as meditation.
For example, one may learn to observe their sensations, or focus on one particular sense organ (e.g. hearing, touch).
This is a good start, and is the doorway to the next limb - Dhaaranaa, or concentration - where the internal limbs begin.
Samyam as a magnifying glass
A magnifying glass can help us see small things more clearly. However, it can also concentrate the light of the Sun enough to generate fire.
There are three internal limbs - Dhaaranaa (concentration), Dhyaan (meditation), and Samaadhi (meditative absorption). These are collectively known as samyam.
Samyam is like a magnifying glass.
Initially, we use it to simply observe our own mind. We can use it to closely notice the tendencies (aka samskaaras) that serve us well, and those that don’t serve us. However, once we get good at it, we can use it to concentrate our attention enough to burn up existing tendencies and even create new ones.
Like any skill, getting good at samyam requires practice. At first, the mind wanders all over the place, thinking about our external activities, things we have to do, distractions in the body, loud sounds around us, and so on. This is what the external limbs are for - they help to steady the mind in the face of all the goings on of our lives. Then, once the mind is sufficiently steady, we can begin the practice of samyam.
Samyam begins with the practice of Dhaaranaa, or concentration, and deepens into Dhyaan and Samaadhi. They are not three separate techniques, but rather a deepening of the same practice.
In today’s article, we will revisit Dhaaranaa and Dhyaan, and will continue with Samaadhi next time.
Dhaaranaa: Concentration
Setting up for practice
Before beginning Dhaaranaa, it is important to find a clean and comfortable place where you can remain undisturbed, as well as a time when you will not be needed by others around you.
This way, the mind becomes free to go inward without any subtle fear or anxiety.
Additionally, if the place and time are consistent, it creates a new channel in the mind wherein going to your chosen place at your chosen time will become associated with feelings of calm and mental elevation.
Taking advantage of these “hacks” makes meditation significantly easier, and progress much faster.
Next, (perhaps controversially nowadays) it is important to sit in an upright, steady, and comfortable position.
P: Why sit? Can’t I lie down or walk?
Jogi: Walking is good as eka-tattva-abhyaas (the practice of One Thing at a Time). However, at this level of depth, it subtly (and sometimes not so subtly) distracts attention by pulling it outward into the world of sensation, thus making the following limbs impossible.
P: Why not lying down though?
Jogi: Lying down is good during Aasana, when you want to relax the body. It can even be good during Praanaayaam if the goal is to relax the mind. However, we are conditioned to sleep in the lying down position, and so when trying to meditate while lying down, it becomes very easy for the mind to follow its natural habit and become dull (if not go to sleep entirely). Meditation requires absolute alertness, and so sitting up straight is important.
P: What if I can’t sit up straight?
Jogi: That is ok, just find a stable and comfortable position where you can remain absolutely alert, and remain absolutely still for a long period of time without discomfort or even the slightest anxiety.
Finally, it is important to set an intention, or sankalp.
This is not some topic or affirmation such as “love”, “compassion”, “abundance”, and so on (in fact these can detract from going deeper).
Rather, it is as simple as reminding the mind that you intend to sit in your Aasana until the bell rings, and that you will address anything that needs to be done after the session is over.
The practice itself
The practice of Dhaaranaa is extremely simple. It begins with an object to rest your attention upon.
This is known as the aalambanaa, literally “support.”
This can be anything at all - the breath, a mantra, a particular sensation, the stream of thought, a flame, a rock, a deity (if you are so inclined), or even a dot on the wall in front of you.
The actual aalambanaa doesn’t really matter once you dive deeper into the next two limbs.
What matters most is that the aalambanaa is consistent.
In popular culture, people often talk about various “types” of meditation. In Yogic terms, this is a reference to the aalambanaa. For example, “mantra meditation” (aka TM or, nowadays, “Vedic” meditation) is just Samyam using a mantra as the aalambanaa. “Breath meditation” is just Samyam using the breath as the aalambanaa. “Compassion meditation” is just Samyam using the attitude of compassion as the aalambanaa. “Kundalini meditation” is Samyam using visualizations (or other sensory cultivation) of the chakras as the aalambanaa. Even “open monitoring” or “mindfulness” meditation is just Samyam using the stream of thoughts or sensations as the aalambanaa (although this may also be Pratyaahaar, depending on how it is done. This is the breadth of meditation - it is as wide as the number of objects in the Universe.
The goal of Yoga is not breadth, but depth, and so results are quicker if the Yogi sticks to the same aalambanaa.
P: Can music be my aalambanaa?
Jogi: Music is generally attractive to the senses, and is constantly changing, and so it is very easy to get distracted by music and end up just sitting there listening to your favourite songs, rather than exploring your mind. However, while it is difficult, it is certainly possible - provided you are able to use it as a support rather than a regular object of perception, analysis, or enjoyment.
When you focus on the aalambanaa, what you will find is that after a while, the mind wanders. It may wander to any one or more of of the five vrittis - perception, error, imagination, memory, or sleep.
These “distractions” become important later, but for now the practice is to notice, gently let go (with vairaagya), and bring the attention back to the aalambanaa.
A common misconception is that the goal is to remain on the aalambanaa, and that distraction is somehow a failure of meditation. This is not true.
The goal is not to retain focus, but rather to cultivate the moments of awareness where you realize that attention has been pulled away from the aalambanaa. These moments of awareness are, in terms of the gunas, flashes of sattva. The goal of Dhaaranaa is to strengthen and elongate these flashes of sattva until all that is left1 is sattva.
Dhyaan: Meditation
Eventually, within a given sit, the flashes of sattva become so dominant that they are no longer flashes, but the norm.
P: How will I know when this happens? What does it feel like?
Jogi: Right now, you are sitting and reading this, and you have no doubt about the fact that you can sit here without flapping your arms like a bird.
P: Wait, what?
Jogi: Do you have the slightest doubt that you can sit here, or even go the whole day, without flapping your arms like a bird?
P: I don’t doubt that at all. I can easily sit here or even go the whole day without flapping my arms like a bird. How silly.
Jogi: Exactly. You have so much awareness of the movement of your arms that you are fully confident that you will not get up and randomly start flapping your arms. In the same way, you will know when Dhaaranaa stabilizes into Dhyaan when you have the same degree of confidence that the mind will not waver from the aalambanaa. It is not a matter of forcing the mind to stay, just as right now you do not need to force yourself to refrain from flapping your arms.
At first, Dhaaranaa - concentration - can feel like a repetitive, Sisyphean task. The mind wanders, you bring it back, it wanders, you bring it back, and so on forever and ever.
There can be a tendency to try to force the mind to remain on the aalambanaa.
However, this doesn’t really work - and, in fact, can make the mind even more agitated than it may have been before.
Rather, Dhyaan happens when you lean into the aalambanaa with your entire attention, like you may lean into a wall with your entire weight when you are standing for a long time. Another example is the feeling when you are riding a bike, and release your hands from the handlebars, but are able to keeping moving forward in a straight line.
In this way, Dhyaan is not a matter of force, but rather a matter of letting go.
Rather than thinking about it as forcing attention to stick to the aalambanaa, try to practice letting go of everything else so completely that all that is left for attention is the aalambanaa. This is how Dhaaranaa deepens into Dhyaan.
We can understand this more clearly when we better understand the mechanisms behind focus and distraction in the mind.
From a Yogic perspective, focus and distraction are not a matter of pratyayas - active cognitions - but rather a matter of samskaaras - mental patterns, seeds, or tendencies.
One cannot force themselves to focus in a single moment. Rather, focus comes from a long time of repeated practice that results in samskaaras - channels in the mind where attention can automatically flow. This is also true for distraction. Distraction is not a result of a given moment. Rather, it is the result of a long time of practice.
We practice distraction, and so it should come as no surprise that we have become exceedingly good at it.
As a result, the mind is automatically distracted. On the other hand, if we use our lives to practice concentration, the mind will become good at it, and the results will show in meditation.
Using Dhyaan as a tool
Once you start to notice that the mind easily stays on the aalambanaa, you can start to use Dhyaan to weaken unwanted patterns in the mind.
Unwanted mental patterns, like all mental patterns, are like flowers.
Flowers begin as seeds which rest beneath the surface of the soil, grow into saplings, and eventually sprout as flowers. Similarly, thoughts begin as samskaaras - beneath the surface of our conscious awareness - grow into weak thoughts which are difficult to notice, and eventually flower into full-blown distractions and agitations of the mind.
Flowers are the easiest to notice, sprouts are smaller and more difficult to see, and seeds need to grow in order for us to even know that they are there.
Similarly, the easiest thoughts to notice are those which barrage the mind when we don’t want them to. Next are the subtle thought patterns which we hide from. Finally are the samskaaras, which we must coax into growing so that we can pull them out at the root. This is the order in which the Yogi can address their unwanted mental patterns so as to eventually root them out entirely.
In all of these, the practice is the same - move through it by gently placing the entire weight of your attention on it, repeatedly, until it weakens, and eventually stops arising.
During Dhaaranaa - when the mind wanders to a distraction - particular vrittis are more distracting than others. For example, one person may be easily distracted by memories about their workplace, while another may be able to ignore these, but their attention will easily be pulled by imaginations about their love life. A third person may be able to ignore these but get pulled into identifying the sounds that they hear around them. What we are distracted by during Dhaaranaa is an indication of our outgoing tendencies. The practice here is to notice those distractions, lean into them with curiosity, without adding to them (ie. without cultivating additional thoughts about the distraction), and repeating this until the distracting vrittis weaken. Then, bring the mind back to the aalambanaa.
Once these kinds of obvious patterns become sufficiently weak (ie. their hold on your attention becomes weak), the mind starts to feel quiet. This is significant progress, but is just the calm before the storm.
At this point, the Yogi is ready to start intentionally cultivating agitating thoughts. This is an advanced practice, and should only be taken on if you truly feel ready (internal honesty is one of the four keys to practice). Here, the Yogi already knows, from a long time of careful self-observation, the vrittis that trigger more kleshas than others. The practice here is to intentionally cultivate these vrittis (the practice of Bhaavanaa), and to then carefully, with curiosity, apply Dhyaan to the kleshas.
As a word of warning, this technique can also lead to a further strengthening of the kleshas if they are not already sufficiently weak.
Finally, the mind has no more agitation on the surface. It is here that the Yogi starts to dig for seeds.
There are three basic methods to uncover unknown kleshas.
The first is to momentarily let go of the aalambanaa and rest in the silence until the subtle thought patterns begin to appear. This is not unlike standing in darkness until your eyes start to adjust. Then, the method is the same - lean in, with curiosity, and let go.
The second is to reflect on the content of dreams. Dreams help us uncover patterns which do not always appear in our waking minds, and so cultivating thought patterns which lead to agitation in the dream state, the Yogi can apply the same method - lean in with curiosity, and let go.
Finally, the Yogi can use the framework of the vitarkaa - the ten thought patterns that oppose the Yamas and Niyamas - to uncover kleshas which sit at their root. This is a method of inference, and requires a deep reflection of ones thoughts throughout the day prior to meditation. If you keep a journal, even at the early stages of your practice, it will come in very handy here.
The result of Dhyaan is threefold - increased focus, happiness, and resilience.
Focus is perhaps obvious. By creating patterns of focus in the mind during meditation, the mind automatically becomes focused even throughout the day, outside of meditation.
Happiness - in Yoga and Vedanta - arises not from a special type of mental movement, but rather from the absence of mental activity.2 Klishta-vrittis (ie. vrittis with kleshas) are like clouds which cover the Sun. Unhappiness arises from the kleshas obscuring sattva3, and so when the kleshas are even momentarily cleared, such as when a desire is fulfilled and so momentarily disappears, we experience a flash of happiness. When we focus, we retain a single vritti. In doing this, all other vrittis are at rest, therefore allowing happiness to shine through.
Resilience is next. Normally, our thoughts are like words written on stone. Said another way, we hold on to things. Since letting go of distracting thought patterns is fundamental to Dhyaan, through the regular practice of the seventh limb, we get really good at letting go. As a result, we start to notice that our thoughts become like words written on sand, and eventually like words written in water. Things that once “ruined our day” can now be let go just as easily as we let go of the breath every time we breathe in.
TL;DR
Over the past few weeks, we have been reviewing the entire process of Yoga using the method of singha-avalokana-nyaya - The Lion’s Backward Glance.
Thus far, we have gone over the initial framing of Yoga:
We then discussed a few frameworks which are helpful throughout the journey:
The twin foundation of Yoga: Practice and Letting Go
Next, we began a discussion on the techniques, starting with the foundational methods:
Eka-tattva-abhyaas: Focusing on one thing at a time
Six stabilizing techniques: Spot-fixes to calm the mind
The Brahmavihaaras: Four attitudes to calm the mind regardless of external circumstance
Kriya Yoga: The method to weaken the kleshas, and build willpower and discipline
Then, last time, we began our discussion on the eight limbs, specifically focusing on the five external limbs of Yoga. Each of these limbs had several articles, so the first of each has been linked below:
Yama: External observances
Niyama: Personal conduct
Aasana: Posture
Praanaayaam: Lengthening the Praana
Pratyaahaar: Sense withdrawal
This week, we began our review of the three internal limbs, going over Dhaaranaa (concentration) and Dhyaan (meditation).
Next time, we will continue our singha-avalokana-nyaya with the eighth and final limb of Yoga - Samaadhi, or meditative absorption.
Next time: The Prescription: Part VI
This is true only in a manner of speaking. In reality, we cannot completely remove rajas and tamas.
This can often be difficult to accept from a Western frame of reference, where we are conditioned to believe that our value lies in our thoughts, particularly in their volume, velocity, and our ability to hold on to them.
Technically speaking, the kleshas obscure sattva which reflects the Self. It is the Self which is Aananda, reflecting in sattva, which we experience as happiness.