Dhyana Vahini - Post 35

Chapter XIII

Developing One-pointedness

The wayward mind wanders hither and thither,

but it is possible to fasten it on one fixed point by means of steady discipline and persistent training in spiritual discipline. This condition is called one-pointedness (ekagratha). It is also referred to as single-mindedness (dharana). The uninterrupted flow of oil from one vessel to another is a fine symbol of the mental process called single-mindedness.

For novices in spiritual practice, concentration appears to be very difficult to attain because, after some progress is won, they do not usually keep up the practice. Instead, they give it up; even though they do not have peace of mind on days when they desist from spiritual practice.

Concentration endows one with divine joy, wisdom beyond measure, inner vision, insight into the deeper truths, clearer understanding, and unison with the Godhead. This science of spiritual discipline (sadhana) is more wonderful than the three worlds!

Monkey meditation: harmful to spiritual progress

The mind plans and executes innumerable deeds and roams over vast expanses, all in the twinkling of an eye! It operates with unimaginable speed. It conceives an object and dallies with it a little, but it soon discards it for another more attractive object toward which it flees and about which it begins to worry!

The spiritual aspirant has to be ever watchful of this tendency of the mind. When the mind flits from object to object, it must be brought back to the right path and the right object. That is the correct spiritual practice, the path of concentration and meditation. 

If, however, the aspirant does not struggle to achieve this one-pointedness but leaves the mind to itself, following its vagaries from this to that and that to this, the process deserves to be called monkey-meditation (markata dhyana) — a type of meditation that is indeed very harmful to spiritual progress.

 

Force the mind to be one-pointed

In short, the chief purpose of concentration and meditation is to minimize the travels of the mind and force it to stay in one place. Holding it on that fixed stage, one should continue the spiritual practice for a long time. Then there is no limit to the peace and joy that one can have. 

For example, when you meditate on a table, your thoughts dwell on the wood, the size and measurements, the style, the mode of manufacture, etc. No other thought pertaining to anything else should be allowed. If the thought hovers round a cot, the idea of a table becomes hazy, and the cot is also imagined incompletely. Both get confused. 

The state of mind must be single pointed. So too, when the Lord’s form is meditated upon, the mind must dwell upon the form of each part and its beauty and splendor, and these ideas must be coordinated and combined into the complete picture.

That is the modus operandi of meditation. Persistent performance of this meditation will result in the emergence of a particular form. Contemplating on that form, looking at it and seeing it for days and days, finally a stage will be reached when the form will disappear, and you will forget yourself. That is the super-conscious (samadhi) stage. 

In that stage, if one feeling or ideation alone persists, it is called the superconscious state with ideation (savikalpa-samadhi). If no feeling or thought persists, it becomes what Patanjali, in the text on raja-yoga (Rajayoga-sastra), designated as the end of ideation (bhava-nasana).

While doing meditation, the mind should not be allowed to wander away from the target. Whenever it flies off at a tangent, it must be led back to the form meditated upon. 

Finally, if you so desire, all things can be subsumed in that form itself. Nevertheless, only one form must be meditated upon in the beginning. You should not change daily from one to another. Again, during the spiritual practice, you should not indulge in thoughts about things you do not like, that cause pain, or that shake your faith. If any such peep in, learn gradually to welcome them as beneficial and seek to grasp the good in them, instead of the bad.

Introspection

Swami has elaborately dealt with “single pointedness” in meditation, in today’s post.

Whether it is Bhakti Marga or Dhyana/Jnana Marga, this is the stage after which the real meditation takes off.

Mind runs into 1000 different thoughts because of the factors that influence our mind, broadly understood as our vasanas or deep rooted impressions and our attachment (Raga or Dvesha, Positive or negative attachment).

That is why, in all path, at the initial stages, an object is given as our goal, whether it is the enchanting form of Krishna in path of devotion or it is Jyothi or light, in the path of Jnana or any other object. 

The purpose of setting an object as the focus is to gather our mind, withdraw our mind from 1000s of thoughts and to bring our mind to one single thought on the single object set before us as the object of our meditation.

This is the intermediate stage in meditation process and only after the single pointed devotion is achieved, the real dhyana, the real experience in meditation begins to unfold itself.

Swami Rama has clearly given the difference between Dharana (Single pointed meditation) and Dhyana ( the real expansion that takes place once Dharana is achieved. 

He says,

“There is difference in dhyana and dharana. Dharana means making mind one pointed. Dhyana means expanding that one-pointed mind to Universality. Dhyana is expansion. Dharana is narrowing down. 

When all the waves of the ocean are swallowed by one wave that is called Dharana. You see. When there are no desires, no thoughts disturbing your one thought, which is thought of determination, that is called dhyana. Dhyana means expansion. That expansion should lead you to the Eternal, that leads you to samadhi.”

 

Love.