Attention & Focus · “You Become What You Hold”
Dharana on the Lotus of the Heart
Hold the mind fixed on a single chosen point — the lotus of the heart, the centre of the head, or the tip of the nose — until concentration stabilises.
Vivekananda’s dharana: Sit erect, mind already settled. Choose ONE point — the lotus of the heart, the centre of the head, or the tip of the nose — and fix the mind there. Picture a point of light or a lotus if it helps. Hold it; when the mind drifts, bring it back, gently, every time. As the steadiness lengthens, let the concentration flow on its own into meditation.
What it is
Dharana is the sixth limb — concentration, the holding of the mind to one point. Vivekananda gives it a specific, embodied form: “Fixing the mind on the lotus of the heart, or on the centre of the head, is what is called Dharana.” He also offers the simple external anchor: “Sit straight, and look at the tip of your nose.” After pratyahara has gathered the mind, dharana binds it to a single location and keeps it there.
Crucially for Vivekananda, this is where the prana gathered in pranayama and the mind steadied in pratyahara are concentrated — and sustained dharana ripens of itself into dhyana (meditation). He frames concentration as the whole secret of Raja Yoga: the mind made one-pointed becomes a lens.
The Method
Faithful to Raja Yoga (1896):
- Sit erect and settle (the seat, the preliminary breath, the gathered mind of pratyahara already in place).
- Choose one point. Vivekananda’s preferred internal anchors are the lotus of the heart and the centre of the head; a simple external one is the tip of the nose (“Sit straight, and look at the tip of your nose”).
- Fix the mind there and hold. Dharana is the mind “holding on to some object, either in the body or outside the body, and keeping itself in that state.” Place attention on the chosen point and keep it there.
- Use imagination as an aid. Vivekananda allows visualising a luminous point or lotus at the centre to give the attention something to rest on — “the imagination can help you a great deal.” Picture, for instance, a lotus or a point of light at the heart, and let the mind rest in it.
- Return, gently, every time it slips. When the mind wanders to other “waves,” bring it back to the one point without frustration. He describes a “particular kind of mental wave” at that spot gradually becoming prominent while the others “recede and finally disappear.”
- Let it deepen. As returns grow fewer and the steadiness lengthens, the concentration flows on its own — which is the passage into dhyana. (Sourcing note: quoted phrases are short renderings from Raja Yoga (1896), attributed; the protocol is a faithful description.)
Source & Lineage
From Swami Vivekananda’s Raja Yoga (1896), his exposition of Patanjali’s sixth limb. Vivekananda treated concentration as the master-key of the whole system — “the more concentrated the mind, the more power is brought to bear on one point.” His named anchors (lotus of the heart, centre of the head, tip of the nose) are drawn from the Yoga/Upanishadic tradition, and his permission to use imagination as a scaffold is characteristic of his practical, encouraging style. → (Vivekananda, vivekananda swami).
Common refinements
Gripping too hard. One-pointing is steady, not strained; a forced stare at the nose-tip or a clenched focus on the heart brings headache, not concentration. Hold it “as if resting a feather on a still surface.”
- Switching anchors. Pick one point and stay; hopping between heart, head, and nose scatters the very thing you’re training.
- Frustration at wandering. The wander-and-return is the exercise; each gentle return strengthens it.
- Refinement: when steadiness lengthens, stop making it concentrate and let it flow — that easeful continuity is dhyana beginning.