Meditation and Concentration: Concentration - Dhayana

By Dipankar Khanna

Meditation and Concentration: Concentration - Dhayana

According to the renowned German scholar Max Mueller, the study of mental states is unique to India. He also opined that ekagrata or one-pointedness that India spoke of was unknown, and to a large extent, incomprehensible to the Western world. And this viewpoint holds true even today.

Dhayana or meditation is a state of concentration or mental activity in which the mind can stay focused on an object chosen for concentration without wavering and without getting distracted. When we are engaged in an activity, which will increase our attention span on `our chosen object of concentration' then we are trying to generate a meditative experience by improving our concentration or attention span.

According to the Yoga- Samkhya system of Indian Philosophy, concentration or dhyana is difficult to come by. In Maharishi Patanjali's eight-fold path, dhyana or meditation is achieved after a lot of perseverance and practice of several orders of preliminaries. In fact, dhayana is step number seven in the eight-fold path. Only after stabilising the moral and ethical codes and precepts, gaining physical mastery, control over the senses and contemplative stabilisation of the mind can we achieve a state of superior mental states, leading towards experiences of meditation or dhayana.

In the Rajayoga system or tradition too, as expounded, in the early part of the 20th century by Swami Vivekananda, meditation or dhayana was given a semblance of an objective dimension - almost in a technical manner. According to Swamiji, our average span of attention on a particular object is around three seconds. If we are able to increase this attention span and concentration at an object of our choice for 12 seconds then we are practicing Patanjali's sixth stage of yoga or dharana , which translates as contemplation. And If we can further increase our concentration ability to 12x12 seconds or for 144 seconds, which is approximately equal to 21/2 minutes then we have reached the mental plateau of meditation or dhayana . It will be worthwhile to mention here that the word Dhayana gave rise to the Chinese equivalent word for meditation ` Chan' and which later got Nipponised to Zen on reaching the shores of Japan.

Swami Vivekananda further went on to attribute values to the exalted state of samadhi or transcendental conscious mental state in value terms as arising from a meditative or concentration span of 12x12x12 seconds, which is 30 minutes or half an hour. In ancient times, it was firmly believed that sages or rishis had cultivated the advanced practices of superior concentration or samadhi. They could abide in this states or super-consciousness for days, months, years and yes - even eons. For those who are not familiar with the expression, an eon is like a geographical period marked by distinct species and climatic conditions, and lasts millions of years.

For, in the Himalayas ranges of India, Tibet and Nepal have been found the mortal coils of advanced mediators with their hands resting on their laps and their nails grown in the manner to encircle their bodies several times. This may be hard to believe but it is true and has been documented. But what is most important to understand is that dhayana or concentration is important because it leads to jnana or knowledge.

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See also: Meditation and Concentration, Meditation, Meditation for Beginners, Meditation Techniques)