Dhyana in Hinduism

Term for contemplation and meditation
Meditation concept in Pali called Jhana

Dhyāna (Sanskrit: ध्यान) in Hinduism means contemplation and meditation. Dhyana is taken up in Yoga practices, and is a means to samadhi and self knowledge. The various concepts of dhyana and its practice originated in the Sramanic movement of ancient India, Dhyana is also found in other Indian religions such as Buddhism and Jainism. These developed along with dhyana in Hinduism, partly independently, partly influencing each other. All the while similar traditions developed within Zoroastrianism in Persia under the label daena. The term Dhyana appears in Aranyaka and Brahmana layers of the Vedas but with unclear meaning, while in the early Upanishads it appears in the sense of "contemplation, meditation" and an important part of self knowledge process.

Dhyāna (Sanskrit: ध्यान, Pali: झान) means "contemplation, reflection" and "profound, abstract meditation". The root of the word is dhi, which in the earliest layer of text of the Vedas refers to "imaginative vision" and associated with goddess Saraswati with powers of knowledge, wisdom and poetic eloquence. This term developed into the variant dhya and dhyana, or "meditation". Thomas Berry states that dhyana is "sustained attention" and the "application of mind to the chosen point of concentration". Dhyana is contemplating, reflecting on whatever dharana has focused on. If in the sixth limb of yoga one is concentrating on a personal deity, dhyana is its contemplation. If the concentration was on one object, Dhyana is nonjudgmental, non presumptuous observation of that object. If the focus is on a concept or idea, dhyana is contemplating it in all its aspects, forms and consequences. Dhyana is uninterrupted train of thought, current of cognition, flow of awareness. A related term is nididhyāsana, the pondering over Upanishadic statements. It is a composite of three terms, namely dhyai, upasana ("dwelling upon"), and bhavana ("cultivating").

The term dhyana is used in Jainism, Buddhism and Hinduism, with somewhat different meanings. The origins of the practice of dhyana, which culminates into samadhi, are a matter of dispute. According to Bronkhorst, the mainstream concept is evidenced in Jain, Buddhist and early Hindu scriptures. Dhyana, states Sagarmal Jain, has been essential to Jaina religious practices, but the origins of Dhyana and Yoga in the pre canonical era (before 6th century BCE) is unclear, and it likely developed in the Sramanic culture of ancient India, Several śramaṇa movements are known to have existed in India before the 6th century BCE (pre Buddha, pre Mahavira), and these influenced both the āstika and nāstika traditions of Indian philosophy. The earliest Jaina texts, on Dhyana such as Sutrakranga, Antakrta Dasanga and Rsibhashita, mention Uddaka Rāmaputta who is said to be the teacher of some meditation methods to Buddha, as well as the originator of Vipassana and Preksha meditation techniques. Buddhism introduced its own ideas, states Bronkhorst, such as the four dhyanas, which did not affect the mainstream meditation traditions in Jaina and Hindu traditions for a long time. All traditions, Jainism, Buddhism and Hinduism, introduced unique aspects and context to Dhyana, and mutually influenced each other. According to Bronkhorst, while Jaina and Hindu meditation traditions predate Buddhism, the Buddhist terminology such as Samadhi, may have influenced the wording found in one of the several types of Dhyana found in the Mahabharata as well as parts of Patanjali's Yogasutras. Alexander Wynne interprets Bronkhorst as stating that dhyana was a Jaina tradition, from which both Hinduism and Buddhism borrowed ideas on meditation. Wynne adds that Bronkhorst opinion "understates the role of meditation" in early Brahmanical tradition. Dhyana was incorporated into Buddhism from Brahmanical practices, suggests Wynne, in the Nikayas ascribed to Alara Kalama and Uddaka Rāmaputta. In early Brahamical yoga, the goal of meditation was considered to be a nondual state identical to unmanifest state of Brahman, where subject object duality had been dissolved. The early Buddhist practices adapted these old yogic methods, pairing it to mindfulness and attainment of insight. Kalupahana states that the Buddha "reverted to the meditational practices" he had learned from Alara Kalama and Uddaka Rāmaputta. In Hinduism, state Jones and Ryan, the term first appears in the Upanishads. Techniques of concentration or meditation are a Vedic tradition, states Frits Staal, because these ideas are found in the early Upanishads as dhyana or abhidhyana. In most of the later Hindu yoga traditions, which derive from Patanjali's Raja Yoga, dhyana is "a refined meditative practice", a "deeper concentration of the mind", which is taken up after preceding practices such as mastering pranayama (breath control) and dharana (mental focus).

The Brahma sutras, which distills the teachings of the Upanishads and is one of three foundational texts of the Vedanta school of Hinduism, states that Dhyana is not Prativedam (or, one for each Veda), and meditation belongs to all Vedic schools. His discussion there is similar to his extensive commentary on Dhyana in his Bhasya on Bhagavad Gita and the early Upanishads.

The stage of meditation preceding dhyāna is called dharana. Dharana, which means "holding on", is the focusing and holding one's awareness to one object for a long period of time. In Yogasutras, the term implies fixing one's mind on an object of meditation, which could be one's breath or the tip of one's nose or the image of one's personal deity or anything of the yogi's choice. Vivekananda explains Dhyana in Patanjali's Yogasutras as, "When the mind has been trained to remain fixed on a certain internal or external location, there comes to it the power of flowing in an unbroken current, as it were, towards that point. This state is called Dhyana". While Dharana was the stage in yoga where the yogi held one's awareness to one object for a long period of time, Dhyana is concentrated meditation where he or she contemplates without interruption the object of meditation, beyond any memory of ego or anything else. In Dhyana, the meditator is not conscious of the act of meditation (i. e. is not aware that he/she is meditating) but is only aware that he/she exists (consciousness of being), his mind and the object of meditation. Dhyana is distinct from Dharana, in that the yogi contemplates on the object of meditation and the object's aspects only, free from distractions, with his mind during Dhyana. With practice, the process of Dhyana awakens self awareness (soul, the purusha or Atman), the fundamental level of existence and Ultimate Reality in Hinduism, the non afflicted, conflictless and blissful state of freedom and liberation (moksha).

The Dhyana step prepares a yogi to proceed towards practicing Samadhi. Swami Vivekananda describes the teachings of Yogasutras in the following way:

Michael Washburn states that the Yogasutras text identifies stepwise stages for meditative practice progress, and that "Patanjali distinguishes between Dharana which is effortful focusing of attention, Dhyana which is easy continuous one pointedness, and Samadhi which is absorption, ecstasy, contemplation". A person who begins meditation practice, usually practices Dharana. Samadhi is oneness with the object of meditation. There is no distinction between act of meditation and the object of meditation. Samadhi is of two kinds,
Samprajnata Samadhi, also called savikalpa samadhi and Sabija Samadhi, is object centered, and is associated with deliberation, reflection, blissful ecstasy that has been assisted by an object or anchor point. and Nirbija Samadhi: Samyama, asserts the text, is a powerful meditative tool and can be applied to a certain object, or entire class of objects. Vācaspati Miśra, a scholar of the Vedanta school of Hinduism, in his bhasya on the Yogasutra's 3.30 wrote, "Whatever the yogin desires to know, he should perform samyama in respect to that object". Moksha (freedom, liberation) is one such practice, where the object of samyama is Sattva (pure existence), Atman (soul) and Purusha (Universal principle) or Bhagavan (God). Adi Shankara, another scholar of the Vedanta school of Hinduism, extensively commented on samyama as a means for Jnana yoga (path of knowledge) to achieve the state of Jivanmukta (living liberation).

By the time the Yogasutras were compiled, the Hindu traditions had two broad forms of meditation, namely the ecstatic and enstatic types.