Samyama and the Internal Limbs of Yoga

The first challenge with meditation is to find a good object to focus on - some objects are better than others. One should also take one’s personality into consideration - for instance, an object that works well for someone who is religious may not work well for an atheist, an object that works for an intellectual type may not work well for a heart-centred person etc..

It is very difficult for a teacher to determine the right object of meditation for the student. Pattabhi Jois used to say that you can teach and correct the external limbs of yoga (the first five steps of Ashtanga Yoga), but not the internal limbs (dharana, dhyana and samadhi) - these evolve through the perfection of the external limbs. One suggestion is to initially just sit in silence - at some point one may feel the intuition as to the appropriate object.

The process of getting from concentration to samadhi - the practice of samyama - is explained in the Yoga Sutra in verses III.i - iii is as follows:


देशबन्धश्चित्तस्य धारणा
deśabandhaścittasya dhāraṇā

तत्र प्रत्ययैकतानता ध्यानम्
tatra pratyayaikatānatā dhyānam

तदेवार्थमात्रनिर्भासं स्वरूपशून्यमिव समाधिः
tadevārthamātranirbhāsaṃ svarūpaśūnyamiva samādhiḥ

The first sutra explains concentration (dharana) as fixing your mind in one place. In the second sutra, Patanjali says: once all thoughts flow in the same direction, this is considered to be meditation (dhyana). In the next sutra he explains samadhi - total absorption - as the condition when only the object meditated upon shines in the mind. He calls this sequence of events “samyama” and says that this process takes place at every level of cognitive samadhi.

There are three types of object that can be used for meditation according to Patanjali - an object that can be cognised by the mind, the organs of cognition (mind and senses) and the cogniser (not the purusha, but the pure I-sense).

Although the Samkhyites suggest a progressive meditation through all 24 elements (tattvas) of material nature (prakriti) in order to get to the inner core of being, originally the yogic tradition advocated meditation on one point - the lotus of the heart, though later, the tradition recommended 6 or 12 different points in the body.

“Smaller than a grain of rice is the Self; smaller than a grain of barley, smaller than a mustard seed, smaller than a canary seed, yea, smaller even than the kernel of a canary seed. Yet again is that Self, within the lotus of my heart, greater than the earth than the heavens, yea, greater than all the worlds.”

- Chandogya Upanishad

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In this course of study we explore the science of meditation as explained in the Yoga Sutra from the theoretical and practical perspective. We will experiment with some different types of object and practices - starting with some pranyama and pratyahara techniques and progressing through the internal stages of ashtanga yoga.

An in Depth 10 Week Exploration of the Yoga Sutra’s Philosophy and Practice
In Karkur, Israel and Streamed Online via Zoom

https://www.integralashtanga.com/samadhi

The Art of Yogic Meditation and the Exercise of all Eight Limbs of Ashtanga Yoga
Sitges, Spain - March 17-19
https://en.ashtangasitges.com/event-details/el-arte-de-la-meditacion-yoguica-y-el-ejercicio-de-las-ocho-ramas-de-ashtanga-yoga-y-mysore-auto-practica