True meditation and its power (dharana, dhyana, samadhi)

[Nuralshamal]

"Most people sit in asana for 30 minutes with their eyes closed and believe they have meditated... They haven't!"

This was a truthbomb and a shockingly hardcore quote from an otherwise friendly hindu monk.

It was only 2 years later I truly understood what he meant from personal experience.

He gave a second follow up quote right after:

"If people even meditate for a few minutes per day, true meditation, that person will be a great saint with supernatural powers in a few months".

It was like a one-two punch in boxing: the first quote breaks your ego beliefs about yourself as an expert meditator... You think "oh, could I be in that category? I just sit with my eyes closed, yet I'm not truly meditating?"

The second quote gives you hope, awe and inspiration about the glory of true meditation and motivates you to keep going.

All in all, it's a great quote

So, what is true meditation?

According to Patanjali Yoga Sutra and Hatha Yoga Pradipika, there are 3 levels:
1) Dharana (12 seconds of your attention resting unbroken on an object - no wavering of your thoughts or attention)
2) Dhyana (12x12 seconds = 2m24s of unbroken attention)
3) Samadhi (12x12x12 = 28m48s of unbroken attention)

These are translated as concentration, meditation and absorption respectively. Doing all three one after the other is called "samyama". 

I had heard these quotes and definitions for many, many years, and never quite understood it experientially. Because I was taught that "meditation is a state", and that "meditation happens spontaneously and naturally when the conditions are right", "the most important instruction is: relax your mind and body", "if your attention wavers, don't mind, simply bring it back gently, it's ok", "if you fall asleep, realize you're thinking or going along with an emotion, don't mind it, as soon as you notice your attention has wandered, simply gently bring it back".

These are all expert level instructions helping the mind to relax. If you tell a newbie to focus, he will never be able to go into meditation. He will actually strain and maybe even get a headache.

However, if you follow the above instructions, you'll naturally start to set the right conditions for meditation to occur.

I mastered the above instructions in the sense that I could achieve "presence". I would be mindfully aware of inside and outside, the senses, my reactions etc, yet neutral about these sensations.

However, I couldn't connect the above with the definitions given by the rishis and yogis in the shastras (scriptures).

I meditated in the above way (through sufi, buddhist and hindu methods) for 5 years daily.
 
After this I learnt SKY meditation by Vethathiri Maharishi. After about 2 months of SKY meditation, suddenly I experienced dharana.

In SKY meditation your chakras are opened and empowered by the master, allowing you to actually feel a tangible vibration in your chakra. No more visualisation, guess work, imagination etc, it's a tangible sensation. Your meditation is to simply observe this vibration in the chakra.

After about 2 months of twice daily practice, something incredibly happened. As I was meditating, suddenly the vibration increased about twentyfold from one moment to the next.

I was shocked! But I didn't mind, I just simply brought my awareness back to the vibration. Shortly thereafter, it happened again. Now the vibration was 40 times stronger than normal. 

This happened 3-4 times in that one 20 minute session.

I just thought I had increased my level of energy (pranshakti) in my chakras.

However, after about 2 weeks of this continually happening, one day I remembered dharana, dhyana and samadhi. That day, I noticed it was about 12 seconds for this incredibly boost to happen. It would happen within the very first minute of my meditation.

Then I realized, that after more than 5 years of daily practice, SKY had now in two months permitted me to reach the very first (and most basic!) level of meditation!

It was about one month after that I started going into dhyana from time to time.

After 6 months of practice, I could enter into dharana and dhyana on each chakra in every single meditation within my usual 10-20 minutes.

I wanted to test if this was really true. Had I actually reached dhyan, and does dhyan truly confer the benefits mentioned in the shastras? So, as a test, I would meditate on certain things, and see if dhyana truly permitted you to know about these objects.

I meditated on different herbs, teas, foods etc to know more about their effect on the body. I was shocked. After about 2-6 minutes, I would suddenly know and feel in my own body, exactly how this herb, that herb, this food, that tea etc would affect me.

It is truly like they say in the shastras, if you can do dharana on something, you will connect to it. If you can do dhyana on something, you can know about it.

They say that once you can do samadhi at will, you can know EVERTHING about that object. I have touched upon it a few times, but I haven't mastered it yet.

What I wanted to share in this post is the fact that true meditation can be measured; dharana, dhyana and samadhi. It's scientific and measurable with tangible and observable effects when mastered.

Anyone can train themselves and reach these states with the guidance of a true meditation master and of course daily practice.

I am looking forward to mastering samadhi as well. The few times I managed it, I sat for around 1-2 hours to get one unit of samadhi. When it's mastered, you just sit for the 30 minutes and you'll go into samadhi - however, I've yet to reach that level

And samadhi on different objects of meditation produces the siddhi associated with that object. You can meditate on a mantra, a chakra, a healing qigong talisman, a yantra, the sun, etc. 

When you master samadhi, you can know all things in the universe. You just look up in the different shastras which kinds of objects produce the results you're seeking in you life. Then you can do samadhi on it; say you wanted to heal yourself or others, attract wealth, attract love, acquire the ability to see and read auras, foresee the future, see your own previous lives, see your future lives, anything

It's truly fascinating, and I look forward to continuing this journey of mastering the power of the human mind in order to draw closer to Almighty God and be a blessing to all living beings.

May you all be blessed!

[Learner]

A beginner question Ibhave always wondered but never gotten a simple answer. How do you meditate on something. Do you imagine it and just allow stuff to come up?

 

Secondly can I reach higher states of meditation without a master, on my own.

[Cheshire Cat]

On 26/12/2021 at 12:37 PM, Nuralshamal said:

According to Patanjali Yoga Sutra and Hatha Yoga Pradipika, there are 3 levels:
1) Dharana (12 seconds of your attention resting unbroken on an object - no wavering of your thoughts or attention)
2) Dhyana (12x12 seconds = 2m24s of unbroken attention)
3) Samadhi (12x12x12 = 28m48s of unbroken attention

 

 

 

Where did you get this information?

I'm not sure that  good old Patanjali was that familiar with couting seconds and numbers' multiplications...

Edited July 22, 2022 by Cheshire Cat

[Ajay0]

3 hours ago, Cheshire Cat said:

 

 

 

Where did you get this information?

I'm not sure that  good old Patanjali was that familiar with couting seconds and numbers' multiplications...

 

 Mathematics as in the numeral system, arithmetic and zero, trigonometry and decimal system,  which the world knows today was developed in ancient India. 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_mathematics
 

This was studied by the Arabs later on who expanded on it, and was passed on to the Europeans in the tenth century A.D. There was opposition to the foreign mathematical system in Europe then , which delayed its widespread use by a couple of centuries. European scholars however in time noted its practicality and superiority over the roman numeral system and advocated its adoption. This lead to a quantum leap in the development of western science, technology and accounting.

 

 

 

[Nuralshamal]

@Learner
This is something that took me many, many years to experientially understand

Let me give two explanations for what it means "to meditate on something", a long and a short one.
1) longer and more detailed
You have attention. This attention is physical and tangible. When you think about something, your physical attention goes to it. As you're reading this, your attention is on the screen and the words. If I say "well, what about your right hand?", then your attention would naturally go to your right hand, you feel your right hand, you become aware of it. Then you go back to the screen.

This physical, tangible attention - training and controlling it is meditation. You can put this attention on different places in your body, that's what's done during a "body scan" meditation. It's a great way for getting your attention back into your body.

You can put your attention on your body, your breath, a mantra, or a visualisation. If you visualise something, you build a picture in your mind. Then you hold your attention on that picture, maintaining it for as long as possible. If it goes, you rebuild it and maintain it.

2) short: you put your attention on something.

So, if you were to meditate on a chakra, it means you send your attention to that physical location in your body.

If you want to meditate on the sun, you visualise it and maintain that visualisation.

So, dharana, dhyana and samadhi are tangible measurements for how long you can control your attention without it being diverted.

Can you progress without a teacher?
Yes, of course. But, similarly to reading, writing, doing math etc. Imagine how long it would take to learn on your own, vs how long it takes to learn, if you have a teacher, showing you how to do it.

Meditation is similar to all learning in the world. Whether it's swimming, driving a car, playing a sport, compare mentally how long it would take to learn on your own, vs having it taught to you by someone who's experienced in that.

So I would definitely try to find a teacher, it will save you a lot of time  

Edited July 22, 2022 by Nuralshamal

[Nuralshamal]

In several yoga shastras, they do indeed give measurements.

In the Kurma Purana for example, they state that 12 dharanas equals 1 dhyana, whereas 12 dhyanas equal one samadhi.

 

[Nuralshamal]

I was told as a child that dharana was equal to 7 seconds of continous awareness, meditation 30 minutes and samadhi 3 hours.

Then in my twenties, I read up on it. That's where I found the dharana=12s, dhyana=12x12s and samadhi=12x12x12s.

However, I just lightly skimmed the Hatha Yoga Pradipika and Patanjali Yoga Sutra to check up on it. I couldn't find any times given there.

I think maybe the 12x12x12 is from a particular teacher, who shares his personal interpretation?

However, the Kurma Purana gives 1 x dhyana =12 x dharana and 12 x dhyana =1 x samadhi. However, it uses "1 x pranayama" as the time unit, and not seconds. It's stated in Kurma Purana chapter 11 verse 42.

But like Ajay0 stated, many of the ancient yogis were a kind of scientists. The science of energy, prana or pranshakti, as well as the science of consciousness.

Back then science and spirituality were more intertwined than today. You can read how they classified breathing in the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, as measured by fingers' length. If you're in a normal state, your breath is "12 fingers long", meaning if you hold your hand under your nose, at which distance can you still feel your breath.

If you're calm, it goes to 6 fingers. And if you're meditating, it goes to 1 to 2 fingers or less. So, they measured the interconnectedness of mind (your state of mind and emotions, like angry, sad, happy etc) and your breath/energy (how many fingers). A science of energy and consciousness.

So, they did indeed measure "spirituality" scientifically, with the science that was available in their time, e.g. finger's length. They used a loth of math and calculation for astrology, alongside their access to "yogic knowledge" through meditation.

[dwai]

I know of ratios of inhalation:hold:exhalation:hold in pranayama, but this calculation of multiples of 12 is something new to me. I am skeptical about its accuracy because samadhi is real meditation. Sitting, closing eyes, etc are all preparatory towards samadhi. And samadhi is beyond time (from a subjective perspective - especially the nirvikalpa samadhi). So what does it mean to be in “samadhi” for 5 mins to 50 days? Nothing whatsoever, imho. I’ve regularly entered nirvikalpa samadhi for 40-60 mins. And once we know how to do it, all is needed is to sit and enter samadhi, no transition is required, in my experience. It is not like floors of an elevator, such that first floor is Dharana, second floor is dhyana, and highest floor is samadhi, and you have to go through them step wise. Once you know how to enter samadhi, you just enter it directly.