classical yoga · Patanjali's Yoga Sutras (Edwin Bryant translation and traditional commentary)
Dhāraṇā: Fixing the Mind at One Point
The sixth limb of Patanjali's path: binding the mind to a single place — an anatomical point in the body or an external object — as the first stage of concentration, distinguished from meditation by being intermittent rather than continuous.
The theory, briefly
Patanjali defines dhāraṇā in a single terse sutra: "the fixing of the mind in one place" (III.1). The classical commentary (Vyāsa, as discussed by Bryant) fills this out with concrete anchor points a practitioner can choose from: the circle of the navel, the lotus of the heart, the light at the crown of the head, the tip of the nose, the tip of the tongue, or any external object.
What distinguishes dhāraṇā from the meditation (dhyāna) that follows it is not the object but the quality of attention: concentration is intermittent, attention returning to the point again and again after wandering, rather than flowing there without interruption. It is deliberately placed as the sixth limb, after posture, breath, and sense-withdrawal have already been established, since the text treats it as needing that groundwork to be sustainable at all.
The practice
Binding Attention to a Single Point
10–15 minutes · Seated wherever you already are, in whatever way is steady and comfortable (sthira-sukham āsanam), breath settled.
- 1Settle into a steady, comfortable seated posture, wherever you already are, and let the breath settle before beginning.
- 2Choose one point to fix your attention on for this sitting.
- 3If you're drawn to a point in the body, the tradition offers several classical options: the navel, held as a circle of stillness; the center of the chest, held as a lotus; or the space at the crown of the head, felt as a point of light.
- 4The tip of the nose or the tip of the tongue are two subtler, smaller points also given in the text — options for whoever finds a smaller point easier to hold than a larger one.
- 5You can also choose something outside the body entirely — any single external object in front of you works, provided it stays the same one for this whole sitting.
- 6The tradition notes that a genuinely engaging object works especially well for this: when nothing else competes for your interest, holding attention there becomes less effortful, not more.
- 7Bring your attention to the chosen point and hold it there. When you notice attention has wandered, simply bring it back to the same point — this return, repeated, is the practice itself, not a failure of it.
- 8Keep the same point for the whole sitting rather than switching between candidates once you've begun.
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