The Missing Practice
We are all familiar with the physical practice of asanas (postures) and breathing exercises - pranayama, and also with the idea of meditation, though few are able to achieve it. Asana and pranayama are known as external features of ashtanga yoga, while meditation is considered to be internal. The external could also be termed gross while the internal could be called subtle.
It is well known that ashtanga yoga constitutes eight distinct features - there are four external and four internal limbs of ashtanga - yama, niyama, asana, pranayama, pratyahara, dharana, dhyana and samadhi. The external limbs are a preparation for the internal limbs and the internal cannot be achieved without mastery over the external.
How does one get from the gross external to the subtle internal steps? Ashtanga yoga culminates with three practices - concentration (dharana), meditation (dhyana) and samadhi: these three are connected - they merge or blend one into the other - the three are always connected in what Patanjali calls samyama. Concentration brings the mind to a point, meditation makes all thoughts flow in the same direction and samadhi is the culmination: a total merging of the mind with the object contemplated upon.
But how is concentration achieved? It has been found that asana and pranayama is not sufficient to bring the mind to meditation. The mind first needs to become introverted: it needs to become inwardly directed.
What causes the mind to be extroverted and incapable of concentration? The senses. The senses are connected to the mind. Only when the senses stop receiving information, does the mind become inwardly focused. This process is called pratyahara. Although pratyahara is sometimes called an external practice and sometimes regarded as an internal practice, a better designation would be to call it transitional: it moves the mind from the external to the internal.
In practice, the individual limbs overlap, depend on each other, merge into each other or are causes for each other. The progression is not necessarily linear: much depends on the individual practitioner, the practice and other conditions. Breath control can only happen in a physical posture, for example. Breath control can lead to meditation or it can be a feature of meditation practice. Meditation can also be spontaneous, not depending on any external features.
But something must arrest the activities of the senses so that the mind can introvert - this is pratyahara.
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Pratyahara means to introvert the senses - these five senses along with five organs of action are connected to the lower mind, or manas. But in order to bring the senses under control, we first need to control the motor organs - the limbs, hands, mouth, digestion and sex organs - which are also connected to manas.... Because - you can't stop your ear from hearing or your nose from smelling, but you can stop your hands from grasping, your tongue from tasting etc - this is the first step.
Once these have been brought under control through yama, niyama, asana and pranayama, the sense organs are the next target. There are many texts that explain pratyahara and there are quite a few variations in these descriptions. Some explain pratyahara as the perfection of pranayama while others list up to 6 different methods or types. In the yoga sutra, which does not explain the process, Patanjali explains pratyahara as the consequence of concentration:
“when the mind is concentrated through the practice of pranayama, the sense organs and organs of actions follow suit - they also become absorbed in their source - which is the mind.”
Vyaasa, in his commentary on the Sutra explains it as follows:
"Due to lack of contact with their corresponding objects, the senses, as it were, imitate the nature of the mind. Like the mind which has suspended its functions, they also cease their functions, (rendering unnecessary the application of other means for control of the senses). Just as bees follow the queen bee and rest when the latter rests, so when the mind stops, the senses also stop their activities. This is Pratyahara."
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There are various types of pratyahara practices described in the yogic literature but for some reason, no one seems to teach or practice them today. Perhaps this is why people find meditation so difficult.
I will be teaching one such beautiful pratyahara practice during this online retreat:
Subtle Yoga - Beyond Asana - 5 Day Summer Immersion - Virtual Retreat
August 21-25 - 4-6.30 PM Israel Time - 9-11.30 AM New York Time
https://www.integralashtanga.com/virtual-studio