Creating Inner Focus with Pratyahara

One response to “Creating Inner Focus with Pratyahara”

1. 

   Sonyata

   August 24, 2012

   This is the great paradox of the life of an individual soul. For all we know, the entire world and everything outside of us exists entirely within our own imagination. For if it were not for the five senses, we would have no perception of them. Therefore, the five sense organs (touch, taste, sound, sight, and smell) are the instruments through which we sense the world.

   Pratyahara is the fifth step of ashtanga yoga, and this is where we detach from the world outside of us and turn our focus inward. The first five limbs are the lesser, outer limbs, according to Patanjali. The next three (Dharana, Dhyana, and Samadhi), called Samyama, are the inner limbs.

   The quest of yoga is to come to the inner Atman, or Parushu. We can not do this unless we make the journey within our soul. We can not make that journey until we detach ourselves and let go of the things of the world, and along with it the desires within us that have arisen due to these external influences.

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