These final four limbs are a road map toward union with the divine, but each of these limbs alone provides benefits and practicing them can provide the benefits of meditation.

Pratyahara

Pratyahara is “removing the tentacles of consciousness from the world.” We detach our attention from the world outside of us and let go of our thoughts about these externals. By concentrating on your breath to the exclusion of all else you have already begun the practice of pratyahara. If you’ve ever become so totally absorbed in a task or project that you lost all track of time or consciousness of activity happening around you, you’ve experienced something very like Pratyahara. Pratyahara is a vital step toward disentangling yourself from the world of illusion and a bridge to meditation in the final three limbs of yoga.

Dharana

In dharana we reach out to the divine with the tentacles just removed from the world. We concentrate all of our attention on the infinite. If you don’t understand what it means to reach out in this way, try using the word AUM (or OM) as a focus of concentration. AUM stands for the Creator who transcends the limitations of time (A: the beginning, U: the middle, M: completion).

Dhyana

With Dhyana the effort involved in focusing our consciousness dissolves and we are conscious only of our own existence and the existence of the object of meditation. This state is often described as “bliss” and it is not something we can just choose to “do.” It comes unbidden when we are “doing” other things like pranayama, pratyahara or dharana.

Samadhi

Contact with God is the goal of all eight limbs of yoga and the state of union with God is Samadhi. It is the final step in meditation where the consciousness of being separate from the divine dissolves. One need not be Hindu or practicing yoga to experience samadhi. We can be transported into union with the divine without seeking it. It comes to us most often in nature when we are awed by the mountains, the sea or the opening of a flower.

The Value of Meditation

Meditators experience less stress and fewer of the health problems associated with it. Meditation helps us respond to events in our lives in healthier manner and to enjoy life more, because we are more present in the moment. A less known benefit of meditation is that the calm is catching. Business meetings become more productive and family disagreements less volatile. A study in India (mentioned by Deepak Chopra in one of his books) showed that if just one percent of the populations meditates, violence in that area decreases significantly.

I hope these columns about the eight-fold path (or the eight limbs of yoga) have made the concepts more accessible and useful to you.

Namaste (the spirit in me salutes the spirit in you).

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© 2010 Jinjer Stanton

If we do what must be done, or what is at hand to do, and we let go of the outcome, we take ourselves outside the cycle of suffering. If we do the best that is within our power and turn the rest over to “God,” we let go of huge burdens. We can be happy whatever the outcome of our efforts.

That letting go of outcomes is one of the tougher disciplines. It is also very powerful. Worrying about outcomes keeps us from enjoying the here and now and also, sometimes, from doing the best we can right now or taking advantage of opportunities.

Problems arise when we as individuals think God wants infidels dead and the sinful to be punished. I say, if that’s what God wants, let God take care of it. I’ll do the best I can here and now and strive not to be attached to what other people do or don’t do. I feel happier already.

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Yet, the translation “to burn” also indicates a burning away of whatever prevents us from expressing our truest selves or distracts us from a clear focus on our personal goals. It may seem paradoxical to set tapas beside santosa (contentment). Yet the burning away of irrelevancies in our lives can leave space for contentment to develop.

This was the greatest gift I received from my term as minister at a new thought church. It forced me to focus all of my energies on the job at hand so that my poor habits of thought (negative self-image) got burned away and when I let go of the ministerial job and began living without it I had to learn to live differently because those old habits were gone (at least the biggest, meanest, ugliest ones). I hadn’t purposely chosen to practice tapas, but it’s what happened and I did reap the benefits.

Tapas means dedication to what feeds our souls (yoga or music, nature or cooking) on a par with work, paying taxes or getting the kids to soccer practice. It also means a dedication to achieving our goals in life—including the goals we set for ourselves at the beginning of a new year.

What will it take to keep you focused and clear? Pictures that remind you of what you’re aiming for? Affirmations (“I can do this”)? When you see others who’ve achieved what you hope to achieve saying, “If he (or she) can do it, so can I”? Ask yourself what has motivated you in the past and put that to work for you now.

Namaste, the spirit in me salutes the spirit in you. We’re all in bodies together!

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This time of year carries a lot of stress for many people. Contentment, or Santosa, is a niyama that comes in handy in the face of the hubbub and glitter. It also is perfect for those whose Christmas is being spent away from family and friends. The cultivation of santosa can help us handle both the crazy times and the alone times.

To cultivate contentment, make time to be still. If you are lucky enough to be somewhere with fresh snow, take time to just look at it. Watch it fall. Count your blessings. Borrow a leaf from Oprah’s book and keep a gratitude journal in which you record a minimum of 3 things you are grateful for every day.

Another discipline is to rewrite your life story. So many of us tell our stories to friends, strangers and ourselves in terms of the tragedy and misery we have experienced. This gives those things greater weight than any miracle or kindness. So, retell your story with the successes you’ve had, the people who have helped you and the beauty you’ve experienced as the stars.

This exercise becomes a discipline when you read the story to yourself at least once a day. If you find yourself telling the old story of misery to anyone, switch gears and tell the new story. It changed my life and I saw it change the lives of others. You can go from a habitual feeling of anxiety to one of happiness and contentment.

You may protest that there were no successes in your life. I thought the same about myself when first presented with this challenge. I was wrong. I had simply forgotten them selectively.

The cultivation of santosa brings about an environment that can harbor a meditation practice. It’s difficult for a person in the midst of stress and striving to be able to meditate or to have his or her mind become “one-pointed.” This means that we need some level of contentment in order to practice meditation.

B. K. S. Iyengar, one of the major teachers who brought yoga to the United States, says, “A contented man is … blessed because he has known truth and joy.” To “know truth and joy” we need to stop. We need to be still and present to what’s happening right now. We need to see that the sunset tonight has its own glory and the breeze right now carries its own unique perfume.

Do you smell the pine, or the cinnamon?

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