>>7645
>downloaded that book and read a bit through it. It doesn't really attack the key issue effectively. It's more focused on yoga itself that the specific task I'm trying to solve
It's explaining very thoroughly that dharana is one fairly late step in the process, only achievable after you complete physical exercises/poses, breathing exercises and then withdrawal from the external perception. These are all named by their Indian terms which I didn't memorize.

Your appearance here with this discussion fits right into my current progress in yoga, because I am just now ready to start practicing dharana (after 5 years of practicing yoga, starting with physical exercises). Dhyana and Samadhi is achieved by practicing dharana. I'm at chapter 9 of the book now and was able to cross off all the progress described until the end of chapter 8 as mostly done.

>how would I even gauge your advice if you aren't proficient in the exercises I'm trying to master?
Start from the beginning instead of trying to jump ahead into something that may take years to learn.

>Have you even timed yourself?
I don't care, this isn't a competition, it's not a skill I'm interested in having. It's a tool for spiritual practice. I'm giving advice based on what I know, and I'm pretty sure I was clear that I haven't practiced dharana actively while referring to it as such. However, the book I posted above names the step of focusing on a point by looking at a physical object as the first step of dharana, and I have used that exercise since around 1 - 2 years as part of my daily yoga routine. I don't consider this any magic ability, it's part of zen meditation and it's part of qi gong etc. The specific usage in yoga is as part of a very detailed inner process. It's explicitly stated in the Dharana Darshan that you need to go through kundalini awakening to practice dharana.

With your own way of phrasing it, have you even performed kundalini awakening yet?

You can read the previous yoga discussion in the thread I started here:
>>779