page_title: Ashtanga (eight limbs of yoga)
section_title: 7. Dhyāna
hierarchical_section_title: Ashtanga (eight limbs of yoga) / Eight limbs / 7. Dhyāna
caption_attribution_description: Meditating woman by the Ganges, a sacred river of Hinduism, at Varanasi
context_page_description: Ashtanga, the eight limbs of yoga, is Patanjali's classification of classical yoga, as set out in his Yoga Sutras. He defined the eight limbs as yama, niyama, asana, pranayama, pratyahara, dharana, dhyana and samadhi.
  The eight limbs form a sequence from the outer to the inner. Postures, important in modern yoga, form one limb of Patanjali's scheme; he states only that they must be steady and comfortable.
context_section_description: Dhyana (Sanskrit: ध्यान) literally means "contemplation, reflection" and "profound, abstract meditation".
  Dhyana is contemplating, reflecting on whatever Dharana has focused on. If in the sixth limb of yoga one focused on a personal deity, Dhyana is its contemplation. If the concentration was on one object, Dhyana is non-judgmental, non-presumptuous observation of that object. If the focus was on a concept/idea, Dhyana is contemplating that concept/idea in all its aspects, forms and consequences. Dhyana is uninterrupted train of thought, current of cognition, flow of awareness.
  Dhyana is integrally related to Dharana, one leads to other. Dharana is a state of mind, Dhyana the process of mind. Dhyana is distinct from Dharana in that the meditator becomes actively engaged with its focus. Patanjali defines contemplation (Dhyana) as the mind process, where the mind is fixed on something, and then there is "a course of uniform modification of knowledge". Adi Shankara, in his commentary on Yoga Sutras, distinguishes Dhyana from Dharana, by explaining Dhyana as the yoga state when there is only the "stream of continuous thought about the object, uninterrupted by other thoughts of different kind for the same object"; Dharana, states Shankara, is focussed on one object, but aware of its many aspects and ideas about the same object. Shankara gives the example of a yogin in a state of dharana on morning sun may be aware of its brilliance, color and orbit; the yogin in dhyana state contemplates on sun's orbit alone for example, without being interrupted by its color, brilliance or other related ideas.
caption: A Hindu woman meditating beside the sacred river Ganges in Varanasi
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