Dharana (Concentration — Yoga Sutras)
Dharana — the deliberate binding of attention to a single point — is the sixth limb and the foundation of all deep meditative states. Every other advanced yoga practice rests on the ability to sustain concentrated awareness.
Dharana (from 'dhr' — to hold, to bear, to carry) is the practice of 'desha bandhas chittasya' — binding the mind-field to a place (3.1). This 'place' can be anything: a point in the body (the eyebrow center, the heart, the navel), an external image or flame, the formless presence of awareness itself. The key quality is sustained single-pointedness — the willingness to return the wandering mind, again and again, without frustration or judgment, to the chosen focus. This repeated returning is itself the practice; the moments of distraction are not failures but opportunities for the training muscle to be exercised. Every time the mind notices it has wandered and returns to the focus, the capacity for sustained attention is strengthened. This noting-and-returning is itself the abhyasa (repeated effort) of sutra 1.13, on which the whole path is built.
The binding of the mind to a single point is Dharana.
Psychologist William James wrote in 1890 that 'the faculty of voluntarily bringing back a wandering attention, over and over again, is the very root of judgment, character, and will.' This definition of the faculty that Dharana trains anticipates a century of cognitive research confirming attention control as the master skill of the mind.
Yoga Sutras of Patanjali