Dharana is the sixth limb of the eightfold path. This one is about concentration. We now move away from the external components of yoga practice and more into the internal experience, the essence of who we are. This one is a good one for me to write today because I am a multi tasker and I can sometimes pace around with no real purpose. A lack of concentration can be said to be the root cause of many of our failures and sense of unfulfillment. When we control the senses, we can practice one-pointed attention, like when you are lost and need to re-orient yourself by looking at a map, you tune everything out and get laser focused into the task of finding out where you are and where to go.

This concentration is a taming of the monkey mind we all have, which is a precursor to meditation. Meditation is a merging into wholeness or a recognising of this Reality. What starts as “I am observing that” becomes “I am that”.

No material pleasures can deliver the happiness we receive from devotion, which is presence and renunciation of worldly pulls. Dharana is the art of keeping a specific focused attention. For example, a point of concentration could be an energy centre in the body such as the navel, third eye, throat, mid brain, or heart. It could also be a fixed gaze or a concentration of the breath.

Through concentration, the mind learns discernment through our circumstances. Clarity leads to right thought, speech, and action… so this eightfold path is beginning to look more like an interconnected weave rather than a ladder with one rung after the other. The niyamas and yamas are incorporated into the stillness and centring of meditation.

If we focus our attention on something uplifting, inspiring, or positive, then this disciplinary act is a desirable thing to practice. So a focus of gratitude, lovingkindness, joy, warmth (or whatever you want to cultivate in the moment) can guide us away from ego identification and getting lost into thoughts and into the inner source of wisdom. Energy flows where focus goes. So then choosing where to focus then becomes our experience.

If you have ever been in a phase where you just dislike people in general and think everyone is a slight idiot, I hope at some stage you might recognise that is just a reflection of your inner judgments and it’s not really the truth. I’m sure we’ve all been there (I have), and depending on our moods sometimes, we like to indulge in a bit of ego-justifying negativity for fun. So when we realise this, then its an opportunity to choose a different type of focus, like finding the good in people, even when you don’t energetically connect well. We can keep openness, acceptance, love, kindness, and joy as a centrepiece of our focus, and we can concentrate on that, perhaps it’s by repeating it as a thought in the mind, and then dropping the thought and just being left with the essence of the focus.

Reflect:

When was the last time you had laser-like focus? How did that feel?

When are you best able to concentrate? Perhaps at a particular time of the day? Maybe you can take advantage of this time or environment to practice concentration through thought, visualisation, candle gazing, or something else.