To hold something exclusively for a length of time is dhāraṇā.

Series

1. How we look at something depends on what is within us.
2. To hold something exclusively for a length of time is dhāraṇā. (This post)
3. No medicine can reduce duḥkha, only kriyā yoga.
4. Where there is duḥkha (suffering), there is avidyā (illusion).
5. Everything we do has an origin.
6. Meditation (Dhyānam) is the process of moving backwards.
7. Nothing destroys vāsana (latent impressions), only they become ineffective.
8. We can have two opposite saṃskāra (tendencies), but only one can act at any one time.
9. But saṃskāra (tendencies) can be fed by vāsana (latent impressions).
10. Saṃskāra (tendencies) is so powerful, it can lead you to act without thinking.
11. What factors promote favourable saṃskāra (tendencies)?
12. Meditation (Dhyānam) is not a technique it is a journey.
13. Unless there is a shift from manas (mind) to citta (psyche) it is not possible to do dhāraṇā (concentration).
14. A busy mind is always telling you where to go.
15. A quiet mind can be told where to go.
16. It is not enough to clean a vessel, you must put something in.
17. Patañjali says that the problem is fed by internal elements......
18. The new is not as strong as the old.
19. For something to work you must participate positively......
20. Recognising AND accepting one's Duḥkham (Suffering) is the first......
21. Kriyā Yoga - Yoga Sūtra Chapter Two verse 1......
22. The Four Royal Insights within the Sādhana of Patañjali......
23. Krishnamacharya's teaching is a Nimitta Kāraṇa......
24. Yoga is a search into the self......
25. Asmitā (अस्मिता) - To confuse memory and wisdom......
26. Rāga (राग) - Something in us needs to be satisfied.
27. We may have intellectual Vidyā (विद्या), but in reality we follow......
28. Avidyā (अविद्या) is anything else other than Vidyā (विद्या).
29. Yama - How we relate, how we face the society we are part of......
30. The more you try to know Īśvara the more you come to know yourself.
31. The original essence of the Yoga Sūtra was passed on by oral tradition......

“To hold something exclusively for a length of time is dhāraṇā.” (Yoga Sūtra C3 v1)
- Notes from my studies of the Dhyānamālika with TKV Desikachar in Chennai 30th December 2000

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