Tag: eight limbs

Dharana

Dharana means concentration or meditation on a single point. When we achieve Dharana, we are actively concentrating on a point of meditation, whereas we release all of the effort fully in Dhyana (next week!).

Pratyahara

When we practice Pratyahara, we withdraw the senses. It’s not that there is nothing to taste; it’s that we are choosing not to taste it. Sounds will inevitably happen around us. We choose not to hear them. Taste doesn’t just happen. Neither does smell. How we process, label and experience them is wholly done in the mind.

Pranayama

Breath is connection. It brings the outside world, quite literally, in. We consume it in much more intimate way that we do food. Think about it: food is chewed, swallowed and goes through a lengthy digestive process.

The Niyamas: Iswara-Pranidhana

If you simply reframe your current activity — the thing you’re doing right now (presumably reading this blog) — as being in service rather than self-serving, you’ve done it. You’re there. Sutra 45 tells us that if we do something fully in service, we gain Samadhi.