What Is Samyama?

      According to the Patanjali Yoga Sutras, 'samyama' is a technical term which describes the three-fold process by which the true nature of an object is known.
      For me, Samyama has been and continues to be, the most radical spiritual practice i have ever done in that it shifted the center of my awareness from my mind to my heart and eventually became a way of being in life, rather than a practice to do. My devotion to Samyama came about as I experienced radical healings, awakening consciousness, and profound Silence. As I was guided to use it in my sessions with psychotherapy clients and students, I witnessed their extraordinary healings and openings to the Silence.
       The practice of Samyama (I didn't know it had a name at the time) dropped into my morning meditation one day after 20 or so years of meditating, and I followed the guidance to direct my attention to my heart and keep it there while I felt what was there. I still remember that first experience: I was feeling a lot of grief and I had to work to keep bringing my attention back to my heart. My mind wanted to go over the story, understand, interpret, and analyze, but the guidance was so clear that I was to keep coming back to focus in my heart on the feeling.
      The Inner Witness appeared and as I focused into my heart and felt my grief deeply, I noticed that the longer I stayed focused and present to my grief, it began to dissolve. I felt the shift in my body as well. I could hardly believe it so I sat in meditation again that day, focused on what I was feeling in my heart, and the same thing happened. I was going through a very big change in my life at the time, so there were many deep and intense feelings arising. I did the practice whenever I felt emotional pain, not just when I sat to meditate. Before long, I was trying it out when I felt happy or joyful or peaceful. It didn't seem to matter what I felt, the practice brought me into direct experience of whatever it was and taught me what it was to be fully present to my own heart, my own self. I became fascinated with the process and jumped into it fully, having always been in love with the structure of experience and consciousness.
      I came to understand that I was not in a 'spiritual bypass' as I was feeling every bit of feeling, and sometimes layers of feelings would be revealed. Increasingly, I was less drawn to what my mind had to say about what was going on. What was happening in my heart was far more interesting! I didn't know that this was an ancient spiritual practice, or that it had a name, until a few months later I 'happened' to be reading the Patanjali Sutras and there it was. I was amazed. The practice was called samyama and the sutra said it had three stages or steps to it. There was nothing said about focusing attention into the heart.
      If the sutras said samyama was a process to discover the true nature of an object, then what could be discovered about my heart, the heart?
      I came to realize that the Heart is a very powerful and mysterious portal to the Silence, to direct unitive experience, to opening to love, to being love and all of its expressions, as well as a vessel for alchemizing and transmuting all that appears to be obstacles to human love and Big Love. Samyama led me to embrace my broken human heart which then opened my awareness to the Great Heart, the Heart of all Hearts, which for me is the altar for the deepest surrender and devotion I have ever experienced.