A Brahmana meditating (1851)
Malvina Hoffman, Bronze figure of Kashmiri in Meditation, 1930s, Field Museum of Natural History

Dhyāna (Sanskrit: ध्यानम्) in Hinduism means meditation[1] and contemplation. Dhyana is taken up in Yoga practices, and is a means to samadhi and the realization of purusha, the centerless self.[2]

The various concepts of dhyana and its practice originated in the Sramanic movement of ancient India,[3][4] which started before the 6th century BCE (pre-Buddha, pre-Mahavira),[5][6] and the practice has been influential within the diverse traditions of Hinduism.[7][8] Dhyana is also part of other Indian religions such as Buddhism and Jainism.[1] Several other traditions introduce unique aspects and context to Dhyana, and mutually influence each other.[8]

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".[7][9] It is described in numerous Upanishads of Hinduism,[10] and in Patanjali's Yogasutras - a key text of the Yoga school of Hindu philosophy.[11][12]

Etymology and meaning

Dhyāna (Sanskrit: ध्यानम्, Pali: झान) means "contemplation, reflection" and "profound, abstract meditation".[13]

The root of the word is dhi, which, in the earliest layer of Vedic texts, refers to "imaginative vision" and is associated with goddess Saraswati, who possesses powers of knowledge, wisdom, and poetic eloquence.[7][14] This term developed into the variant dhya- and dhyana, or "meditation".[7]

Thomas Berry states that dhyana is "sustained attention" and the "application of mind to the chosen point of concentration".[15] Dhyana is contemplating, reflecting on whatever dharana has focused on.[16] 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.[17] 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.[18][19][20]

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").[web 1]

Origins

The term dhyana is used in Jainism, Buddhism and Hinduism, with somewhat similar meanings.[2]

Vedic teachings hold that, since the universal divine Self dwells within the heart, the way to experience and recognize divinity is to turn one's attention inward in a process of contemplative meditation.

— William Mahony, The Artful Universe: An Introduction to the Vedic Religious Imagination[21]

The origins of the practice of dhyana, which culminates into samadhi, are a matter of dispute.[22][23] According to Bronkhorst, the mainstream concept, evident in Jain, Buddhist and early Hindu scriptures, involves the progressive cessation of mental and sensory activity and reflects a shared ascetic background.[24][note 1] Dhyana, states Sagarmal Jain, has been essential to Jain religious practices, but the origins of Dhyana and Yoga in the pre-canonical era (before 6th-century BCE) are unclear, and it likely developed in the Sramanic culture of ancient India,[4] 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 (i.e. Theistic and Atheistic) traditions of Indian philosophy.[5][6]

The earliest Jain texts, on Dhyana such as Sutrakranga, Antakrta-Dasanga and Rsibhashita, mention Uddaka Rāmaputta[note 2] who is said to be the teacher of some meditation methods to the Buddha, as well as the originator of Vipassana and Preksha meditation techniques.[4] The Jain tradition believes Rishabhanatha, the first Tirthankara, to have founded meditation, but there is no historical confirming evidence. The earliest mention of dhyana in the canonical Jain texts describe dhyana as a means of emancipation, without emphasizing ascetic practices or the systematic discussion seen in later Jain texts or Hindu texts such as the Patanjali's Yogasutras.[29] There is no archeological or literary evidence, states Sagarmal Jain, about the origins of systems for Dhyana and Yoga, and there is a great deal of similarity between Jain, Buddhist, Ajivika, Samkhya, Yoga and other ancient Indian traditions.[4] The earliest texts, such as Tattvarthasutra suggest that these ideas developed in parallel, sometimes with different terms for similar ideas in various Indian traditions, influencing each other.[29]

Buddhism introduced its own ideas, states Bronkhorst, such as the four dhyanas, which did not affect the mainstream meditation traditions in Jain and Hindu traditions for a long time.[30][note 3] All traditions, Jainism, Buddhism and Hinduism, introduced unique aspects and context to dhyana, and mutually influenced each other.[8] According to Bronkhorst, while Jain 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.[8]

Alexander Wynne interprets Bronkhorst as stating that dhyana was a Jain tradition, from which both Hinduism and Buddhism borrowed ideas on meditation.[32] Wynne adds that Bronkhorst opinion "understates the role of meditation" in early Brahmanical tradition.[32] Dhyana was incorporated into Buddhism from Brahmanical practices, suggests Wynne, in the Nikayas ascribed to Alara Kalama and Uddaka Rāmaputta.[33] 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.[34] Early Buddhist practices adapted these older yogic methods, pairing them to mindfulness and attainment of insight.[34] Kalupahana states that the Buddha "reverted to the meditational practices" he had learned from Alara Kalama and Uddaka Rāmaputta.[35]

In Hinduism, state Jones and Ryan, the term first appears in the Upanishads.[2] 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.[9] In most of the later Hindu yoga traditions, which derive from Patanjali's Raja Yoga, dhyana is "a refined meditative practice",[2] a "deeper concentration of the mind",[2] which is taken up after preceding practices such as mastering pranayama (breath control) and dharana (mental focus).[2]

Discussion in Hindu texts

Vedas and Upanishads

The term dhyanam appears in Vedic literature, such as hymn 4.36.2 of the Rigveda and verse 10.11.1 of the Taittiriya Aranyaka.[36][37] The term, in the sense of meditation, appears in the Upanishads.[1][37][38] The Kaushitaki Upanishad uses it in the context of mind and meditation in verses 3.2 to 3.6, for example as follows:[39]

— Kaushitaki Upanishad, 3.2[39][40]

The term appears in the context of "contemplate, reflect, meditate" in verses of chapters 1.3, 2.22, 5.1, 7.6, 7.7 and 7.26 of the Chandogya Upanishad, chapters 3.5, 4.5 and 4.6 of the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad and verses 6.9 to 6.24 of the Maitri Upanishad.[38][41] The word Dhyana refers to meditation in the Chandogya Upanishad, while the Prashna Upanishad asserts that the meditation on AUM (ॐ) leads to the world of Brahman (Ultimate Reality).[9]

The Shvetashvatara Upanishad emphasizes dhyana (meditation) as a means to realize the divine. In verse 1.3, it describes how those who meditate can perceive God, the self, and divine power, all of which are typically hidden by one's own qualities. This verse highlights the idea of a singular divine being governing everything, from time to individual selves. Verse 1.14 describe meditation as positioning the body as a foundation and repeatedly focusing on AUM to access divine vision, much like uncovering something hidden through focused effort.[42]

Agnihotra

The development of meditation in the Vedic era paralleled the ideas of "interiorization", where social, external yajna fire rituals (Agnihotra) were replaced with meditative, internalized rituals (Prana-agnihotra).[9][43][44] This interiorization of Vedic fire-ritual into yogic meditation ideas from Hinduism, that are mentioned in the Samhita and Aranyaka layers of the Vedas and more clearly in chapter 5 of the Chandogya Upanishad (~800 to 600 BCE),[note 4] are also found in later Buddhist texts and esoteric variations such as the Dighanikaya, Mahavairocana-sutra and the Jyotirmnjari, wherein the Buddhist texts describe meditation as "inner forms of fire oblation/sacrifice".[46][47] This interiorization of fire rituals, where life is conceptualized as an unceasing sacrifice and emphasis is placed on meditation occurs in the classic Vedic world, in the early Upanishads and other texts such as the Shrauta Sutras and verse 2.18 of Vedic Vaikhanasa Smarta Sutra.[48]

Beyond the early Upanishads composed before 5th-century BCE, the term Dhyana and the related terms such as Dhyai (Sanskrit: ध्यै, deeply meditate)[49] appears in numerous Upanishads composed after the 5th-century BCE, such as: chapter 1 of Shvetashvatara Upanishad, chapters 2 and 3 of Mundaka Upanishad, chapter 3 of Aitareya Upanishad, chapter 11 of Mahanarayana Upanishad, and in various verses of Kaivalya Upanishad, Chulika Upanishad, Atharvasikha Upanishad, Brahma Upanishad, Brahmabindu Upanishad, Amritabindu Upanishad, Tejobindu Upanishad, Paramahamsa Upanishad, Kshuriki Upanishad, Dhyana-bindu Upanishad, Atharvasiras Upanishad, Maha Upanishad, Pranagnihotra Upanishad, Yogasikha Upanishad, Yogatattva Upanishad, Kathasruti Upanishad, Hamsa Upanishad, Atmaprabodha Upanishad and Visudeva Upanishad.[10]

Dhyana as Dharma

Practice righteousness (dharma), not unrighteousness. Speak the truth, not the untruth. Look at what is distant, not what's near at hand. Look at the highest, not at what's less than highest. (...) The fire is meditation (dhyana), the firewood is truthfulness (satya), the offering is patience (kshanta), the Sruva spoon is modesty (hri), the sacrificial cake is not causing injury to living beings (ahimsa), and the priestly fee is the arduous gift of safety to all creatures.

— Vasistha Dharmasutras 30.1-30.8 [50][51]