Preksha Dhyana Contemplation and Auto Suggestion

Author(s): Mahapragna Acharya
Publisher: Jain Vishva Bharati

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as it constantly excretes filthy waste products of metabolism. Perspiration, urine and excreta all give out obnoxious smell and one has to use nicely-scented consmetics to hide the adore. The best dinner instantly becomes foulsmelling if vomit is thrown up even within few minutes after its indigestion. Such contemplation makes one to realise the eternal truth and frees one from the delusive attachment.
Auto-Suggestion (Bhāvanā)
One uses a ferry-boat to cross the river and reach the other side. Similarly, one can ride the ferry-boat of auto-suggestion (Bhāvanā) to cross the river of mundane existence and reach the opposite bank, however distant it may appear to be.
Ehāvanā means frequent and prolonged repetition of an idea. Just as the efficacy of a herbal medicine can be raised manifold by applying repeated thin layers' of a precious mineral, repetition of an idea can bring about a radical attitudinal reform and bring one nearer to his goal.
Maharshi Patanjali, in his Astanga (eightfold) yoga, has prescribed three stages of meditational practice viz. Dhāranā single-point thinking), Dhyana (meditation) and Samadhi (euphoric meditation). Prekṣā system of meditation also prescribes three phases viz. Bhāvanā, Dhyāna and Samādhi. There is no basic difference between, dhyana and bhavand. Dhārană means a fully controlled mental lexercise concentration one single object or idea. When such an exercise is prolonged and profound, it becomes meditation and when it takes the form of a euphoric trance, it is called Samadhi. Thus the same process is prescribed as a threetiered exercise, Bhāvanā means conceptual concentration i.e. when one a single object or idea, it becomes bhāvanā. Thus bhāvanā may be defined as intense concentration of mind on a single object or idea.
The mental faculty or function which is directed to conscious and intentional action is called will If one applies one's will- power with a resolute determination that some thing shall
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