सङ्गस्तेषूपजायते
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Attention and Thinking.
Attention is ध्यान / dhyAna, whenever there is विषय / an object and विषयी / a subject.
The consciousness is the individual, the sense of oneself in and yet different in a world of perceptions. Though the object is well-defined, the subject is not clearly so. Still the sense of being oneself is so conspicuous, clear and is evidence of its own itself. It is the attention that only is the point of contact between the object and the subject. The ध्यान / dhyAna, this Attention is therefore the ever present reality wherein and where-from arises the sense of oneself being an individual and seems to move on, shift from one to another object. The subject seems to be the individual one, who though at one end is the constantly changing world of the so various and many objects, while this sense of being the चेतन / conscious as the Attention / is the very underlying principle and remains the Unchanging ground for this whole phenomenon.
The sensory perception and the subject, the many changing objects generate the sense of 'the passage of the apparent, the assumed 'time' .
चैतन्य / The Consciousness is thus split into two, as and in the individual one and individual appears to be different and independent as the conscious one,
Attention too accordingly is divided in the one who goes through experience (the subject) and the object experienced by this conscious individual.
This चेतन / the conscious Attention, who is basically a Whole Undifferentiated Reality, assumes the form of a couple - the experience and the conscious one who appeares to go through and have the experience.
The Attention / Consciousness, the Awareness is thus always identical with this conscious attention but still is experienced as if the one the subject, who has the experience of an object, is different,other and independent of the object.
This gives rise to the notion of the 'self' who exists as a 'person / individual'.
Patanjali points out that the Attention or the Consciousness is verily the same either without division of the subject and the object that is apparently seen as if has split into the personal and the whole.
दृष्टा तु दृशिमात्रः शुद्धोऽपि प्रत्ययानुपश्यः।।
The प्रत्यय / वृत्ति / vritti is the personal 'mind', while the whole mind is one, the underlying Truth. With the rise of the बुद्धि / the intellect, "thought" comes into existence. Thought is thus the vritti / the play of mind. Subsequent to Thought, the "thinker" assumes existence and the thinker and the thought are accepted as two different entities. Thinker is but the shadow of thought only, while thought assumes different forms and modes.
The idea of oneself gets associated with the thinker. As and when the attention is given to विषय / the object, the thought of the same begins in the form of a वृत्ति / vritti.
The पुंसः / the subject who is conscious of the thought is thus gets mixed up with the object and supposedly goes through pleasure and pain, anger and joy, and such other feelings and experiences.
The continuity caused by स्मृति or the वृत्ति / vritti attribute of memory, creates the false sense of reality of change, and so then thinker takes the prominent place, in comparison to the "Thought".
So the only challenge in meditation is how to break this chain of the thinker and the thought.
Having understood this problem, first of all, one has to withdraw Attention from all and every object, whatever is there in the conscious mind. In the योग / Yoga terminology this is called निरोध / stopping of all movement of Attention.
योगश्चित्तवृत्तिनिरोधः।।
Having succeeded in this one has to fix Attention on a single object / Thought.
This is done either through repeating a word or set of words (मंत्र / mantra), or through fixing Attention directly on an object. For example, in the incoming and outgoing breath. When Attention is spontaneous and totally one with the object (the rapt attention), this results into समाधि samAdhi / trans.
Therefore the samAdhi / trans is also accordingly of the two kinds :
सविकल्प / savikalpa, सवितर्का / savitarkA, and निर्विकल्प / nirvikalpa and निर्वितर्का / nirvitarkA.
This is how how Maharshi Patanjali has dealt with the Practice of योग / Yoga in the Text / darshana of Yoga.
The nirvikalpa samAdhi is categorized again in the two kinds :
The केवल निर्विकल्प / kevala nirvikalpa, and the सहज निर्विकल्प / Sahaja nirvikalpa.
A सिद्ध / Siddha is one who has already performed the Practice of Yoga which lead him to the stage of केवल निर्विकल्प / kevala nirvikalpa, and only abiding in that state he had attained perfection.
Such a योगी / Yogi is called one having the सांख्य-निष्ठा / sAnkhya niShThA, while the one who has yet to attempt through effort of practicing nirodha, ekAgratA and samAdhi is called one having the कर्म-निष्ठा / karma-niShThA. The same are respectively also known as the योगारूढ / YogArUDha and the आरुरुक्षु / ArurukShu.
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