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objective of including these under the category of dhyana has been to underline the fact that affliction and fury, too, furnish occasion for concentration of the mind. Like joy, sorrow too makes an individual concentrate on one point. Actually, these two forms have nothing to do with dhyana-sadhana proper.
There were only two proper methods of dhyanasadhana-dharmya-dhyana and shukla-dhyana. The first was devoted to the search of truth, the other to sadhana alone. According to a sadhaka's interest and capacity, both these methods were employed. On the basis of these two fundamental sources, new methods were evolved, and sadhaks, too, were placed under different categories. Some of these sources dried up later, and some others became scarce. On the whole, it may be asserted that the tradition of meditation used and demonstrated by Lord Mahavir continues uninterrupted to this day. During the middle ages, it was clogged with impediments here and there. Despite obstructions, however, the tradition did not die out altogether. There was, however, need to develop that tradition anew.
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