The sixth level, known as dha ̄ran:a ̄, a term that might
best be translated as “mental concentration,” is a form of
eka ̄grata ̄ in which the yogin, under strict guidance of a mas-
ter, concentrates all powerful attention on a single sacred syl-
lable (mantra) or visual diagram (yantra) in such a way that
the mind ceases to wander about in its constant fluctuations
and the yogin comes to know and experience the unity of
his or her soul (a ̄tman) with the soul of the universe.
In these first six stages of the eight-limbed discipline, the
adept subdues and controls the instincts, desires, move-
ments, respiration, senses, and mental activities of the physi-
cal body. This is done in order to prepare for the seventh and
eighth levels of discipline, which may be said to transcend
corporal existence. The seventh stage is known as dhya ̄na
(deep meditation) in which the adept experiences the light
of the Absolute within his or her own eternal soul. The final
stage, sama ̄dhi, brings the yogic discipline to its fruition. At
this point the yogin knows pure being, absolute conscious-
ness, and complete bliss and is released from all suffering en-
tailed in the cycle of rebirth.
Discipline of the mind. Many religions teach that
one’s mind tends to distract one from the necessities of spiri-
tual growth and that it, like the body, must be restrained.
Sometimes religious masters admonish their students not to
daydream. Sometimes they scold their students for being too
analytical. In either case, they encourage them to retain con-
trol over the mind.
The Kat:ha Upanis:ad records a mythic conversation be-
tween Naciketas, a young boy desirous of sacred knowledge,
and Yama, the lord of the dead. One sees reflected in Yama’s
teachings the notion, cited often in ancient India, that the
mind must be restrained the way a charioteer must control
his horses:
Think of the true self as [riding in] a chariot
and that the body is the chariot.
Think of the intellect as the charioteer
and the mind as the reins.
He who has no understanding, whose mind is out of
control—
his senses are unchecked
Like wild horses [when unrestrained by a bad] charioteer.
He, however, who has understanding,
whose mind is always under control—
his senses are checked
Like the obedient horses [of a good] charioteer. (3.3–6)The lord of the dead continues to teach Naciketas that the
search for the absolute truth residing within the self is diffi-
cult because it “cannot be known through language, nor by
the mind, nor by sight” (6.12). According to Yama, one rea-
son it is so difficult to comprehend the nature of the self is
that it has no discernible qualities or characteristics: It is
“without sound, without touch, without form, imperishable
... without taste, eternal, odorless, without a beginning
and without an end, beyond the great, constant.” Neverthe-
less, Yama asserts that “by discerning That, one is liberated
from the jaws of death” (3.15).
Another Upanis:ad notes that the master should accept
as a disciple only a student “whose mind is tranquil and who
has attained peace. He teaches in its very truth that knowl-
edge of brahman [absolute reality] by which one knows the
true eternal soul” (Mun:d:aka Upanis:ad 1.2.12–13).
The adept who disciplines his or her mind undergoes
here a kind of “unknowing” of all of the categories through
which one’s self, the world, and divine reality is normally un-
derstood. Part of this mental discipline involves the practice
of seeing the essence of things as distinct from their form.
In a classic teaching recorded in the Br:hada ̄ran:yaka
Upanis:ad, the Upanis:adic sage Ya ̄jñavalkya repeatedly asserts
(see 4.5.15, for example) that the eternal soul is “not this,
not this.”
Christian mystical traditions centered on the via nega-
tiva present similar teachings regarding the need in one’s
spiritual advancement to break down the categories to which
one’s undisciplined empirical mind clings. In his work The
Mystical Theology, Dionysius the Areopagite (sixth century)
taught that “the universal and transcendent Cause of all
things is neither... a body, nor has He a form or shape,
or quality, or quantity, or weight; nor has He any localized,
visible, or tangible existence; He is not sensible or percepti-
ble” (Happold, 1970, p. 212). Dionysius accordingly en-
couraged his followers to “leave behind the senses and the
operations of the intellect, and all things sensible and intel-
lectual, and all things in the world of being and nonbeing,
that thou mayest arise, by knowing, towards the union, as
far as is attainable, with Him Who transcends all being and
all knowledge” (op. cit., pp. 216–217).
Discipline of the heart. Some religious traditions teach
that the final universal truth centers on a profound, delicate,
and enduring love. According to these traditions, everything
that is real arises from and returns into love; and it is through
the openhearted awareness of that love that one comes closer
to divine truth. The cultivation of those attitudes and actions
that help one see and know that love may therefore be called
the discipline of the heart.
At times such discipline of the heart is described as a way
of seeing the world in its sublime nature. As the S:u ̄f ̄ı poet
Muh:ammad G ̄ısu ̄ dara ̄z (d. 1422) proclaimed,
You look at the beautiful one and see figure and statue—
I do not see anything save the beauty and art of the
creator.
Jala ̄l al-d ̄ın Ru ̄m ̄ı (d. 1273) saw the structures of the natural
world as expressions of universal love:
If this heaven were not in love, then its breast would
have no purity,
and if the sun were not in love, in his beauty would be
no light,
and if earth and mountain were not lovers, grass would
not grow out of their breast.SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINE 8705