When you sit on your yoga mat and dive into any of the practices that are currently called ‘meditation techniques,’ you are actually engaging in Dharana: learning how to meditate. You are practising how to focus and still the mind and hold your attention in one spot or on one thing.
Whereas Dhyana is, by definition, meditation, Dharana is the practice by which you learn how to meditate. In yogic terms, Dhyana is the seventh of the eight limbs of yoga, following Dharana.
Quieting the Mind
The two practices are more like interconnected processes which naturally lead from one to the other. When you practice Dharana (concentration techniques), you are actively engaged in a process of mental effort. You are willingly inviting your mind, over and over again, to become quiet and to hold a focus. Your focus may be on the sound of your breath or perhaps on an object of visualization.
“I” and “it”
In this state of concentration, you will probably find that you are aware of a strong distinction and separation between yourself, the ‘concentrator,’ and the object of your focus. Then, maybe one rainy day, when you get back on your yoga mat or meditation pillow, wrap yourself up in your blanket, and ease yourself into lotus pose, you find that your mind fluidly slips into a calm lake of focused attention. This is the beginning of meditation.
Meditation is a State of Mind
Meditation, or the state of Dharana, is differentiated from Dhyana mainly by effort. Meditation begins when your mind moves from a state of actively doing to more passively being. In other words, meditation is a state of mind, not a practice.
In a meditative state of mind, you lose that distinction between the self and the object of your focus. You might be concentrating on sustaining a static image of a lotus flower in your mind when a subtle yet dramatic shift happens. You no longer notice the ‘you’ that is sitting on the yoga mat.
Imagine you are visualizing an imaginary flower on a rainy day and think about how difficult that might be as the flower keeps changing colour with the sound of each raindrop against the window. In a state of Dharana, you would not be distracted, because there is no ‘you’ anymore. All that exists is that perfect flower, which doesn’t even feel like it’s in your mind anymore. You and the flower are now one in the same.
Am I Meditating?
At this point, when you reach a meditative mental state, words truly fail to describe the experience. This is because your mind is getting to exactly where it is supposed to be in true meditation: beyond the point of human experience in this temporal realm.
All words fly out the window as you enter this uncharted territory. Perhaps the best indicator of whether you are meditating or not is if you ask yourself, “Am I meditating?” If you can ask that question, the answer will always be absolutely not!