Dhyana — Meditation, the Continuous Flow of Awareness
Dhyana (meditation) is the seventh limb — distinguishable from Dharana by the continuity of awareness: in Dharana the mind periodically wavers; in Dhyana attention flows continuously toward its object like unbroken oil.
Sutra 3.2 defines Dhyana: 'tatra pratyaya ekatanata dhyanam' — the continuous flow (ekatanata — one-stretched, unbroken) of that same cognition (pratyaya) toward the object is meditation (dhyana). The distinction from Dharana is one of continuity: in Dharana, the meditator repeatedly brings a wandering mind back to the object; in Dhyana, the mind has stabilized sufficiently that attention flows to the object in an unbroken stream, like oil poured from one vessel to another. The meditator is still present and engaged with the object — this distinguishes Dhyana from sleep or trance — but without the interruptions of distraction. This is the state that produces the spontaneous insights and experiential openings that contemplatives across traditions describe.
The continuous flow of awareness toward the object is meditation.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's concept of 'flow' — the state of effortless, continuous, intrinsically motivated engagement with a challenging task — is the closest secular description of Dhyana, matching its essential qualities of effortless continuity, time distortion, and intrinsic satisfaction.
Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
Written about in
- What the Yoga Sutras say about a steady mind
Meditation, in this text, is what concentration becomes when the returning is no longer needed and attention runs unbroken. The difference between the two is continuity, not effort.