The EIGHT Limbs of yoga - dharana
Dharana begins the journey of meditation. Hopefully for the past few weeks, we have now prepared ourselves sufficiently. We’ve used our body to leverage our energy (prana), withdrawn inwards to limit our external distractions so we can now start to focus the mind into a state of concentration.
This focus and concentration is achieved by bringing all of our awareness to a single object. The mediation object could be internal or external. Examples of internal objects could be a mantra, the breath or a chakra. External objects could be absolutely anything and common one is usually a candle flame.
The goal is single pointed focus with no distractions. At this point of the practice, the object itself is far less important than the realisation of the focused state. There will be moments of lapse and distraction but you must just simply keep coming back to the object.
This will become the focus of practice this week not just in the early stages of the seated practice but an extra attention of dristi during asana, stillness in body, rhythm and depth of breath. The greater the preparation prior to sitting, the better our chances of Samadhi or attaining our big goals and dreams.