Dhyāna — meditation

ध्यान

Also written: dhyana · meditation hinduism · how to meditate vedic · samadhi · ध्यान

Meditation here is not relaxation and not visualisation for its own sake. It is the sixth, seventh and eighth limbs of yoga — a graded narrowing of attention until the one attending is no longer standing apart from what is attended to.

Stage	Sanskrit	What is happening
Concentration	Dhāraṇā	Attention bound to one place, and returned there each time it leaves
Meditation	Dhyāna	Attention flows unbroken toward that place — the returning is no longer needed
Absorption	Samādhi	The object alone remains; the sense of a separate meditator has dropped

Methods the tradition actually teaches

Mantra japa — repetition, aloud, whispered, then mental, until the mantra continues on its own.
Breath: watching the flow, the turning points, and the pause.
A form: the iṣṭa-devatā held steadily, feature by feature, until the effort of holding ceases.
Nāda: attention to the inner sound, through its coarser and finer stages.
Enquiry: 'who is it that is aware of this?' — pursued rather than answered.
Trāṭaka: steady gaze at a flame or point, then the after-image held with eyes closed.

Patañjali's nine obstacles

Illness, dullness, doubt, carelessness, sloth, craving, false perception, failure to attain a stage, and instability in a stage attained — with pain, despondency, unsteadiness of the body and disturbed breathing as their companions. His single prescribed remedy is practice on one principle, sustained.

Dhyāna — meditation

Methods the tradition actually teaches

Patañjali's nine obstacles

Yoga — the paths of union

Svara Yoga — the science of the breath

Mantra and japa

Pūjā — daily worship