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Wellsprings
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Meditation (Dhyāna)

Attention flowing unbroken toward one object — the steady deepening just before absorption.

Dhyāna is meditation in the precise sense: once attention has been fixed on an object (concentration), dhyāna is the steady, unbroken flow of that attention, like oil poured in a continuous thread. It is the seventh of Patañjali's eight limbs, the deepening that ripens into full absorption. The word and the practice radiated far beyond the Yoga school — across the Vedānta traditions and, in its Pali form jhāna and Chinese form chan/zen, into the wider Buddhist world.

How it traveled

  1. Bhagavad-gītā
    Kuru-Pañcāla region · -150
    applies
  2. Yoga-sūtra
    Kāśī (Varanasi) · 375
    explains
  3. Gheraṇḍa-saṃhitā
    Kāśī (Varanasi) · 1700
    explains

Key passages(20)

Bhagavad-gītā · Vyāsa (Yoga-bhāṣya commentator)

Very high

Gheraṇḍa-saṃhitā · (attributed to Gheraṇḍa)

Very high

Chāndogya Upaniṣad · Vedic Revelation (śruti)

Very high

Gheraṇḍa-saṃhitā · (attributed to Gheraṇḍa)

Very high

Tantrasāra · Abhinavagupta

Very high

Yoga-sūtra · Patañjali

Very high

Yoga-sūtra · Patañjali

Very high

Bhagavad-gītā · Vyāsa (Yoga-bhāṣya commentator)

High

Vijñāna-bhairava · Anonymous (Bhairava Āgama / Tantra)

High

Gītārtha-saṃgraha · Yāmunācārya (Ālavandār)

High

Vivekacūḍāmaṇi · Śaṅkara (traditionally ascribed; authorship doubted)

High

Praśna Upaniṣad · Vedic Revelation (śruti)

High

Vijñāna-bhairava · Anonymous (Bhairava Āgama / Tantra)

High

Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad · Vedic Revelation (śruti)

High

Aṣṭāvakra-gītā · Aṣṭāvakra

High

Haṭhayoga-pradīpikā · Svātmārāma

High

Haṭhayoga-pradīpikā · Svātmārāma

High

Paramārthasāra · Abhinavagupta

High

Kaṭha Upaniṣad · Vedic Revelation (śruti)

High

Spanda-kārikā · Bhaṭṭa Kallaṭa

High