Dhyāna
The seventh limb of Patañjali's yoga, attention flowing unbroken toward its object, like oil poured in one stream.
How to explore it
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Compare the three rungs, dhāraṇā is attention returned again and again; dhyāna is attention that no longer leaves; samādhi is attention in which only the object remains.
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Notice in your own sitting where you spend most minutes, that is dhāraṇā, and it is the honest stage.
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Watch for the moments the returning stops being needed, brief, un-dramatic continuity; that taste is dhyāna.
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Read Yoga Sūtra 3.2 alongside a sitting practice, not instead of one.
Effects & fruits
- Names precisely what all the practices in this module aim at
- Distinguishes concentration (dhāraṇā), meditation (dhyāna) and absorption (samādhi)
- Prevents the common confusion of relaxation with meditation
- Gives the tradition's measure of progress, continuity, not fireworks
Precautions
- Reading about dhyāna is not dhyāna; this entry maps the territory, the practices walk it
In the tradition
Sūtra 3.2 is one of the shortest definitions in world literature, tatra pratyayaika-tānatā dhyānam: there, the single-minded flow of the same idea is meditation. The image the commentaries love is poured oil, one unbroken stream, not beads. Everything on this site marked “practice” is a device for reaching that flow; this entry is only its name.
Sources & further reading
- Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali , Patañjali (3.2, "tad eka-tānātā dhyānam" (the continuous flow of attention is meditation))
- Yoga Yājñavalkya & commentarial tradition , the classical commentaries