Dharana

     In Sanskrit, Dharana means "concentration," or bringing your full awareness to one place, object or idea for an extended period of time. In this limb, the practitioner focuses the mind and holds the focuses on a single point allowing the endless thoughts to cease, giving the practitioner to focus on Meditation without distraction.

     The average person has between sixty thousand to seventy thousand thoughts per day. Knowing this we have to accept that it is impossible to empty the mind, but we can train the mind to become so completely absorbed with one thing, that we lose all sense of time and space.

     This practice is the sixth limb in Patanjali's Eight-Fold Path. Patanjali writes in the Yoga Sutras that the last three limbs, Dharana, Dhyana and Samadhi are collectively referred to as Sanyam meaning "control," "integration" or "restraint." Patanjali describes this limb as "the binding of attention to anything more then a single spot" and that the last three limbs are progressive stages of concentration.