Classical Vedanta · part of the Mahabharata
Bhagavad Gita 6.19
A lamp in a windless place — the classic image of a steady mind
यथा दीपो निवातस्थो नेङ्गते सोपमा स्मृता। योगिनो यतचित्तस्य युञ्जतो योगमात्मनः॥
As a lamp in a windless place does not flicker, so the yogi of controlled mind remains ever steady in meditation on the Self.
What this verse points to
The most quoted image for meditative steadiness in the entire tradition, and its precision is easy to miss: the flame is not held still, and it is not being forced. It is steady because nothing is moving it. Take away the wind and steadiness is simply what a flame does.
So the work is not to grip attention harder. It is to find and settle whatever is currently agitating it — the unfinished conversation, the shallow breath, the phone within reach.
Sit with it
Before you begin, name the one thing most likely to disturb this sit, and deal with it if you can in under a minute. Then sit.
About the Bhagavad Gita
The Bhagavad Gita is a 700-verse dialogue set on the battlefield of Kurukshetra, in which Krishna counsels the warrior Arjuna at the moment he refuses to fight. Across eighteen chapters it draws together the paths of action, devotion, and knowledge into a single teaching on how to act without being bound by action. It sits inside the Bhishma Parva of the Mahabharata and has been the most widely commented-upon text in the Vedantic tradition, from Shankara onward.
References to this text are given as chapter.verse — here, 6.19.