Dharana: Gateway to meditation
Dharana is the sixth of the eight limbs, translated as concentration.
Through pranayama, we learnt to control & balance our own energetic & nervous system; this creates stable ground for practice. By practicing pratyahara we learned to stop allowing our senses to drive our awareness & taking us into an unconscious state. Now, through dharana, we learn how to consciously direct this awareness ourselves, creating space within the mind & beginning to soften the individual ego.
Within the 8 limbs, what we generally call meditation, would be defined as concentration.
In the 8 limbs, concentration (dharana) comes before meditation (dhyana). Within this system, meditation is a state of temporary absorption, a loss of the individual self into a state of union with the object of meditation and all around. Essentially, it is a practice of transcendence of the individual self. So true meditation begins where "I" end.
Concentration is the gateway to this. Through continuous one pointed focus on something, the boundaries that make up our individual self begin to blur. If you sit long enough with a relaxed focus on your breath, eventually, you become the breath. If you sit gazing into the eyes of another, you will eventually feel at one with this other. If you meditate on all around you, you will soon feel your sense of separateness dissolve.
During concentration there is a sense of “me who is concentrating on that”, a sense of separation between “I” the meditator & “that” the object of meditation. The mind wanders, we become aware of its wanderings & we bring it back, there is still effort & it is still a practice. We take note of each new wandering, slowly learning the workings of our own mind & bring it back each time.
There's a golden middle with concentration, you don't want to concentrate so much that you become fixated on the idea of "doing" that the whole thing becomes stressful & emphasises the separateness between your mind & the point of meditation. Ever tried a body scan meditation & tried so hard to focus that you just tensed up & stressed yourself out?
Conversely, you also don't want to be so relaxed your mind wanders off in a thousand different directions. Instead, you want to sit in the middle of this, keeping a focus on the object of meditation while allowing the flow of the meditation to unfold, without trying to force it.
Below is a simple vipassana meditation technique for you to try out.
Take a few moments to find a comfortable seat, sitting up with the spine straight & the shoulders relaxed.
To start, spend a few minutes just watching the mind, let it wander & note where it goes, without following the thoughts.
After a few minutes, start watching the breath, watch the sensations of the breath, without trying to alter it in any way, noticing where in the body you might feel the breath the most (belly, chest).
With each inhale, watching the rise of the belly or the chest, simply noting "rising".
With each exhale, watching the fall & release of the belly or chest & simply noting "falling".
Whenever your mind starts to wander, gently bring it back, note where you went (e.g. "future thinking") and gently, without judgement, bring yourself back to the breath.
Similarly, whenever something external such as a sound or smell, takes our attention, note it (e.g. hearing cars), before gently, without judgement, bringing yourself back to the breath.
You can do this for how long you'd like, anywhere from 10 to 45 minutes, I would recommend setting a timer. Initially, the mind will likely wander many times, before coming to a quieter place where the boundaries of our separation begin to dissolve.
