Dharana

While learning concentration there are many areas to concentrate on and gain the highest. Initially, gross objects are the easiest.

- Dr. Jayadeva Yogendra in Parisamvada

For an ordinary person, nothing is easier than concentrating on a table or a chair. It can become subtler, thinking about more details at the physical level. And then it goes into the deeper areas: like a scientist, a physicist, going into the molecules, the nucleus, etc. No doubt he is concentrating on the object, but now it is on the subtle areas. And then comes a stage where feelings of peace or joy are more prominent and his concentration shifts to that area. And the final is where the individual is nearer to the source of knowledge, concentration, which is the “I” sense, the intelligence, which we believe is the highest. The intelligence creates concepts like God, Atma, Brahma. No doubt they are considered as very high, but they are creations ultimately of the mind. Very interestingly the Buddhists, who understood how the mind was all the time working, ultimately wanted to switch off the mind. So, very strangely for them, the highest is Shunya i.e. nothingness. That is the highest in Buddhism. There is no God, no consciousness. It is just nothing. But all these are ultimately creations of thinking.

So in Yogic meditation, they talk first of the very gross objects, then somewhat subtler objects, then feelings, and then finally this intelligence. So these four are called Samadhis because they require high concentration. But they are of a lower order. Thoughts are there.