Pratyahara — Withdrawal and the Inner Life
Pratyahara (withdrawal of the senses) is the bridge between outer and inner Yoga — the practice of consciously withdrawing attention from sensory objects to discover the consciousness that underlies all perception.
Pratyahara (from Sanskrit: prati = against, ahara = food/that which is brought in) is the fifth of Patanjali's eight limbs of Yoga and a fundamental practice in the Tantric tradition. The Yoga Sutras define Pratyahara as the condition where the senses cease following their objects and conform to the nature of the mind (awareness itself). This is not suppression of the senses but their natural withdrawal when the mind is completely absorbed in awareness. The Tantric approach to Pratyahara is distinctive: rather than renouncing sensory experience, the practitioner learns to perceive consciousness in sensory experience — turning every sight, sound, and taste into a meditation on the Self. The Vijnanabhairava Tantra describes many 'Pratyahara meditations' — holding a beautiful object with full awareness until the experience of beauty dissolves the boundary between the observer and the beautiful.
Pratyahara is not the suppression of the senses but their transfiguration — from chasing objects to resting in the source of all experience.
Patanjali defines pratyahara as the senses withdrawing from their objects and following the mind inward; it is the fifth limb, the hinge between the outer disciplines and the inner concentration of dharana.
Yoga Sutras of Patanjali