Dhyana is meditation and nowadays everyone’s talking about meditation. Without being asked, they’ll list off endless benefits of dhyana and why you should do it.
There’s one thing they always skip, and that is the single most compelling reason you should practice dhyana.
In this article, we’ll dive deep into the psyche, the nature of the mind and existence and discover the connection between your authentic self and the secret strength of dhyana.
Dhyana is one of the 8 limbs of yoga as enumerated by Sage Patanjali thousands of years ago.
What are the Eight Limbs of Yoga?
yama niyama–asana pranayama pratyahara dharana dhyana samadhayo-‘stavangani
|2.29| Patanjali Yoga Sutras
Restraint, observance, postures, regulation of breath, substitute food for the mind, ability of the mind to focus, meditation and higher states of consciousness are eight limbs of yoga.
The limbs of yoga develop together; similar to how pulling one leg of a chair results in the entire chair coming toward you, when you practice one limb of yoga, the other limbs begin to develop as well.
First let’s talk about the nature of life and human behaviour
You were born years ago into this beautiful world. You were a delightful child and generally happy as you grew up. That is, until you started to learn more about the nature of society and observed the discontinuities in the behaviour of adults and authority figures in your life.
No one seemed to be true and authentic. Things they did didn’t make sense, and for some reason, every time you spoke up, they turned on you or ignored you. No one wanted to listen to you.
Many things in your life hurt you deeply; your first heartbreak hurt you and your family too! They didn’t love you and accept you for who you were; they wanted you to be a particular way and suffocated you and your dreams to the point where you don’t feel close to anyone anymore.
Why should you have to be so sly and cunning like everyone else? Why can’t they just be as openhearted and transparent as you are?
Alas, the world isn’t your ideal world, so you adapted the best you could.
Time passed, old wounds healed, you’re functioning as smoothly as you can. Every so often, something happens and you’re left breathless, terrified and ready to disappear. Your chest tightens and something inside you wails in despair. You close up, use anger as a cover and disappear into your cave until the feeling passes.
All the while your mind is racing, wondering what’s happening to you and why. What did you do to deserve being treated in that way? When the peak of the emotions pass, you wonder what’s wrong with you and why you always react in such a way.
Life continues defensively, until you’re certain the feelings won’t return. You might develop an aversion to the person or event that triggered you.
Let’s dissect what just happened
In yoga philosophy, there is something called karma. Karma literally means action and is not as simple as “what you do, comes back to you.” It is quite complex and the law of karma says that every action must have a cause.
The key to understanding karma is to understand impressions on the mind. Everything you do, leaves a subtle impression on the mind. That impression affects you on every layer of your being and becomes the root cause of your karma.
If in your life, you’ve found that you are constantly facing the same situation with different people, this is because of the impressions on your consciousness. They lead you to attract similar situations to you; new situations and people will arouse the same feelings of pain and hurt within you. You’ll behave in a manner that has brought you solace before and ride the wave until it passes.
The issue here is that you’ve done nothing to address the root cause of your pain.
You’re keeping that hurt part of you buried deep inside where no one can see, hear or help.
Bottling up your emotions won’t make them go away
You’ve heard it once and you’ll keep hearing it until you release what you’ve been holding on to for so long.
There are many ways in which you can address the deep seated pain you feel. People seek energetic healers, therapists, reiki, hypnosis and other such services, but the most powerful thing you can do to begin to release all of this pain is simply to sit with it.
When it comes up, do not open up a bottle, pull out your phone or indulge in anything else until it passes. Consciously sit with the feeling and listen to its story.
When you can sit and listen without running away from the truth deep inside, that truth will smile and dissolve. It will leave you free.
No more anxiety, no more toxic relationships, no more reliance on toxic substances and bad habits to keep you going in life.
Meditation (dhyana) will help you stop overthinking and unpack all the things that you’ve been suffering through silently.
As you clear out your mental space, you’ll begin to resemble the happy, child-like version of you that is pure and unperturbed by all the little things that bother you now.
And this, this ability to bring about deep healing, erase the impressions on the mind and bring you back to your authentic self is the secret strength of dhyana.
I guess it’s not a secret anymore.
