Jain meditation (Sanskrit: ध्यान, dhyana) includes various practices of reflection and meditation. While Jainism considers yoga and dhyana as necessary practices, it has never been a fully developed practice, but "an adjunct to austerity" to still mental and physical activity. According to the Jain-canon, the only means to attain liberation is sukla-dhyāna, but essential knowledge of dhyana may have been lost early in the Jain-tradition, and the Tattvārtha-sūtra (2nd-5th c. CE) "states that pure meditation (sukla-dhyāna, e.g. samadhi) is unattainable in the current time-cycle." Nevertheless, sāmāyika (equanimity) is an essential practice in Jainism.
The oldest descriptions of Jain yoga and meditation can be found in the Acaranga Sutra (300 BCE), which describes the solitary ascetic meditation of Mahavira. It mentions Trāṭaka (fixed gaze) meditation, and uses the phrase "kāyaṃ vosajjamaṇgāre" (ĀS1, 9.3.7.), "an ascetic who has given up the body," which may be an early reference to Kayotsarga, "giving up the body," an essential Jain meditative practice, in which one stands motionless, signifying the death of the body, achieving tranquility and purity of mind, resembling the three limbs of dharana, dhyana, and samadhi of Patanjali's eight limb yoga. The Sutrakritanga (2nd c. BCE) mentions preksha (self-observation), and states that "the ultimate means for emancipation are dhyana, yoga and titiksa (tolerance). It also states that yoga and meditation can be completed by kayotsarga.
