Sitting in perfect lotus pose on a rocky outcrop overlooking a placid lake sits the solitary meditator. With eyes-closed, palms upturned, thumb and index finger gently touching, she drops into a state of deep meditation. The serene tranquility of her mind reflects the depth and stillness of the lake before her.
This pretty much sums up the stereotypical image that most of us fabricate when thinking about meditation. Even yoga students and teachers, after many exasperated hours on our yoga mats trying to still our minds, continue to hold onto this ideal meditation experience. But if this image is a mere abstraction, then what is meditation?
Meditation vs Concentration
There are two distinct ideas in yoga that come together in contemporary yoga practice to form what we now define as meditation. Originally, within the Patanjali’s ‘Yoga Sutras’, there are two separate stages of mental yogic gymnastics: dharana (concentration) and dhyana (contemplation, or meditation).
What is Concentration?
Dharana, a sanskrit word, translates as: holding, bearing, supporting or maintaining. These words signify your mental state while you practice concentration techniques. You are striving to maintain and carry steady focus on your point of concentration. Conversely, you try to calm the mind and stop its natural desire to jump from idea to idea, thought to thought, emotion to emotion — all the internal disorder that makes us run away from the present moment like a train without brakes.
Runaway Train
This idea of our minds as a runaway train is pretty easy to identify with. Just sit down, close your eyes, and try not to think of anything. Impossible right? At best, you might find yourself thinking about not thinking about anything, and then realizing that you are still thinking.
Start to Meditate by Not Meditating
This is why we begin with trying to concentrate on one thing. It takes a massive amount of time, patience and practice to slow down — let alone stop our racing mental trains. We need to ease on the brakes slowly, or else we risk derailing the train completely.
Dharana practice is really where we all begin when we start to meditate, and it is why most of us stop meditating. Here we are actually not meditating; we are concentrating. Now think about that idealized meditator you met on the lake only moments ago. It is easy to see why we get frustrated and quit, because we usually imagine that we should be able to still our minds and pressure ourselves to get into that deep meditative state rather quickly. Then we give up when we realize that this not only quite difficult but seemingly impossible.
Focus on a Flower
Begin your concentration practice by finding a quiet space alone and setting a timer for 5 minutes. Get comfortable, sitting or lying down on your yoga mat, just don’t fall asleep! Close your eyes and engage dirgha breath. Imagine an object to hold in your mind’s eye. This could be a lotus flower, as is traditional to yogic and buddhist practice. See every detail of your object, and suspend it at the center of your attention until the alarm goes off. Pretty challenging right?
Stick with your practice everyday, and you will notice your ability to concentrate, on and off your yoga mat, gradually increase. Now, are you ready to know what mediation really is?