DAY 37: JUNE 18
Dharana
धारणा
Dharana means concentration, holding, or focus. Patanjali describes it as ‘binding the mind’ to a place. To focus the attention on a place or an object. He gives a number of options. The only qualification is that it must be uplifting. It could be a candle, a light in your heart, or your eyebrows, or the chakras, or Om. You keep minding the mind, bringing it back to the object of attention over and over until you bind the mind.
Yoga is the movement from distraction to direction. Many commentators of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras define yoga as concentration. Dharana is the 6th anga. In fact, according to Patanjali unless one is a natural born yogi, success of the first 5 angas (limbs) of yoga must be accomplished before dharana is a real possibility.
One look at a text, an email, a sound on your phone can rob you from focus and direction and take away momentum of focus.
Stay alert.
“Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought to a focus.”
~ Alexander Graham Bell
Arjuna’s Arrow is a story from Hindu mythology (Mahabharata) about the greatest archer of all time.
Arjuna’s Arrow
Arjuna had razor sharp focus, and his teacher, Drona Archarya, was the greatest teacher who ever lived. Drona had many students, but Arjuna was the one who excelled the most in archery. According to the tale, one of Drona’s other students criticized Drona for favoritism, and Drona responded by challenging all of the students to take part in an archery contest. He asked them all to try to hit the eye of a wooden bird.
His first student, called Yudhistar, tried the shot, and said that he could see the sun, the clouds, and the trees when he aimed at the bird. He missed the shot. The second student, Ashwathama, tried the shot and could see the bird, the branch on which the bird sat, the mango near the bird, the leaves, and other surroundings. He also failed the shot.
Arjuna was the last to try the shot. When asked what he could see, he replied that he saw the eye of the bird. He did not see the tree, the branch, or even the bird. He saw nothing but the eye and hit his target. The moral of the story surrounds Arjuna’s focus and how it made him great.
~ Rachel Donovan
“The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus.”
~ Bruce Lee