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Dhara?a (from Sanskrit
Sanskrit

Sanskrit is a historical Indo-Aryan language, one of the liturgical languages of Hinduism and Buddhism, and one of the 22 official languages of India....
 ????? dhara?a) is translated as 'collection or? concentration of the mind (joined with the retention of breath)', or 'the act of holding, bearing, wearing, supporting, maintaining, retaining, keeping back (also? in remembrance), a good memory', or 'firmness, steadfastness, ... , certainty'. This term is related to the verbal root dhri to hold, carry, maintain, resolve.

Dhara?a is the sixth stage, step or limb of eight elucidated by Patanjali
Patañjali

Pata?jali is the compiler of the Yoga Sutras, an important collection of aphorisms on Yoga practice, and also the author of the Mahabha?ya, a major commentary on Panini Ashtadhyayi....
's Ashtanga Yoga
Ashtanga Yoga

Ashtanga Yoga may refer to:*Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga, a system of yoga developed by Pattabhi Jois*Raja Yoga or Yoga, a modern yoga system outlined by Patanjali...
 or Raja Yoga
Raja Yoga

Raja Yoga is one of the six orthodox schools of Hindu philosophy, outlined by the sage Patanjali in his Yoga Sutras. Raja yoga is concerned principally with the cultivation of the mind using meditation to further one's acquaintance with reality and finally achieve moksha....
.






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Dhara?a (from Sanskrit
Sanskrit

Sanskrit is a historical Indo-Aryan language, one of the liturgical languages of Hinduism and Buddhism, and one of the 22 official languages of India....
 ????? dhara?a) is translated as 'collection or? concentration of the mind (joined with the retention of breath)', or 'the act of holding, bearing, wearing, supporting, maintaining, retaining, keeping back (also? in remembrance), a good memory', or 'firmness, steadfastness, ... , certainty'. This term is related to the verbal root dhri to hold, carry, maintain, resolve.

Dhara?a is the sixth stage, step or limb of eight elucidated by Patanjali
Patañjali

Pata?jali is the compiler of the Yoga Sutras, an important collection of aphorisms on Yoga practice, and also the author of the Mahabha?ya, a major commentary on Panini Ashtadhyayi....
's Ashtanga Yoga
Ashtanga Yoga

Ashtanga Yoga may refer to:*Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga, a system of yoga developed by Pattabhi Jois*Raja Yoga or Yoga, a modern yoga system outlined by Patanjali...
 or Raja Yoga
Raja Yoga

Raja Yoga is one of the six orthodox schools of Hindu philosophy, outlined by the sage Patanjali in his Yoga Sutras. Raja yoga is concerned principally with the cultivation of the mind using meditation to further one's acquaintance with reality and finally achieve moksha....
. For a detailed account of the Eight Limbs, refer to the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
Yoga Sutras of Patanjali

The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali is a foundational text of Raja Yoga. It forms part of the corpus of Sutra literature dating to India's Mauryan period....
.

Dhara?a may be translated as "holding", "holding steady", "concentration" or "single focus". The prior limb Pratyahara
Pratyahara

Pratyahara or the 'withdrawal of the senses' is the fifth element among the Eight stages of Patanjali's Ashtanga Yoga , as mentioned in his classical work, Yoga Sutras of Patanjali written in 2 BCE ....
 invoves withdrawing the senses from external phenomena. Dhara?a builds further upon this by refining it further to ekagrata or ekagra chitta, that is single-pointed concentration and focus, which is in this context cognate with shamata. Maehle (2006: p.234) defines Dharana as: "The mind thinks about one object and avoids other thoughts; awareness of the object is still interrupted."

Dhara?a is the initial step of deep concentrative meditation, where the object being focused upon is held in the mind without consciousness wavering from it. The difference between Dhara?a, Dhyana
Dhyana

Dhyana or jhana in Pali refers to a stage of meditation, which is a subset of samadhi. It is a key concept in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Sikhism....
, and Samadhi
Samadhi

Samadhi is a Hinduism and Buddhism technical term that usually denotes higher levels of concentrated meditation, or dhyana, in Yogic schools. Nirvana of Buddhism is a step towards Samadhi ....
 (the three together constituting Samyama
Samyama

Samyama . Combined simultaneous practice of Dhara?a , Dhyana & Samadhi . A tool to receive deeper knowledge of qualities of the object. It is a catchall term summarizing the process of psychological absorption in the object of meditation....
) is that in the former, the object of meditation, the meditator, and the act of meditation itself remain separate. That is, the meditator or the meditator's meta-awareness is conscious of meditating (that is, is conscious of the act of meditation) on an object, and of his or her own self, which is concentrating on the object. In the subsequent stage of Dhara?a, as the meditator becomes more advanced, consciousness of the act of meditation disappears, and only the consciousness of being/existing and the object of concentration exist (in the mind).

See also

  • Samyama
    Samyama

    Samyama . Combined simultaneous practice of Dhara?a , Dhyana & Samadhi . A tool to receive deeper knowledge of qualities of the object. It is a catchall term summarizing the process of psychological absorption in the object of meditation....
  • Beginner's mind


External links

  • Comments on the Patanjali’s Scheme.