Dhyana: Resting in Presence
There is a moment in stillness when effort dissolves. When the breath flows quietly, the mind softens, and the heart simply is. This is dhyana—the seventh limb of yoga.
Often translated as meditation, dhyana is more than a technique. It is a state of being. A soft, spacious awareness that arises when we’ve spent time tending the breath, steadying the mind, and drawing inward with care.
Dhyana is what happens when we stop trying to meditate and begin being with what’s here.
Meditation as a Gentle Relationship
I used to think meditation required silence, discipline, or a perfectly still mind. But over the years—and especially through pain and healing—I’ve learned that dhyana is much more tender than that.
It is sitting with yourself the way you’d sit with a dear friend: open, patient, without needing to fix or change anything.
It is staying.
In the discomfort. In the calm. In the mystery.
How I Practice Dhyana
Dhyana often arises naturally after practicing pratyahara (turning inward) and dharana (focused attention). It’s less about doing and more about allowing. About resting in awareness, however it shows up.
Here are a few gentle ways I ease into meditation:
- Silent Sitting with the Breath – Simply being with the breath as it moves in and out, without needing to change it.
- Loving-Kindness (Metta) Meditation – Silently offering phrases of compassion to myself and others: May I be safe. May I be well.
- Guided Stillness – Using a soft voice or recorded meditation to anchor me in presence.
- Open Awareness – Noticing sounds, sensations, or thoughts arise and pass like clouds in the sky.
There is no right way. No goal. Just presence.
Coming Home to Awareness
Dhyana reminds me that underneath all the doing is simply being. That the peace we seek is already within us, waiting in the quiet spaces between thoughts. It’s a returning—a homecoming to ourselves.
Even if you sit for just three minutes today, eyes closed, heart open—you are meditating.
You are practicing dhyana.
And in that stillness, something sacred stirs.
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