Dhyana in Hinduism

Dhyāna (Sanskrit: ध्यान) in Hinduism means contemplation and meditation. Dhyana is taken up in Yoga practices, and is a means to samadhi and self-knowledge. The various concepts of dhyana and its practice originated in the Sramanic movement of ancient India, which started before the 6th century BCE (pre-Buddha, pre-Mahavira), and the practice has been influential within the diverse traditions of Hinduism. It is, in Hinduism, a part of a self-directed awareness and unifying Yoga process by which the yogi realizes Self (Atman, soul), one's relationship with other living beings, and Ultimate Reality. Dhyana is also found in other Indian religions such as Buddhism and Jainism. These developed along with dhyana in Hinduism, partly independently, partly influencing each other. All the while similiar traditions developed within Zoroastrianism in Persia under the label daena. 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" and an important part of self-knowledge process. It is described in numerous Upanishads of Hinduism, and in Patanjali's Yogasutras - a key text of the Yoga school of Hindu philosophy. Dhyāna (Sanskrit: ध्यान, Pali: झान) means "contemplation, reflection" and "profound, abstract meditation". The root of the word is Dhi, which in the earliest layer of text of the Vedas refers to "imaginative vision" and associated with goddess Saraswati with powers of knowledge, wisdom and poetic eloquence. This term developed into the variant dhya- and dhyana, or "meditation". Thomas Berry states that Dhyana, is "sustained attention" and the "application of mind to the chosen point of concentration". Dhyana is contemplating, reflecting on whatever Dharana has focused on. 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 non-judgmental, non-presumptuous observation of that object.