Poised for Grace
Douglas Brooks
Language: English
Pages: 132
ISBN: B003XOC2EC
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
A Professor of Religion at the University of Rochester, Douglas Brooks is among the world's leading scholars of Hindu Tantrism and the esoteric traditions of the Goddess. In Poised for Grace, he writes a masterful and unique commentary on one of the world's most widely interpreted texts, the Bhagavad Gita. Using a Tantric perspective while simultaneously touching upon the various philosophical interpretations of this beloved Hindu classic, Poised for Grace offers Dr. Brooks' insightful ideas along with notable excerpts from the text. A must for any aspiring yoga instructor or serious student of yoga philosophy, Poised for Grace illuminates the wisdom of the Bhagavad Gita in a refreshing and thought-provoking way.
Every paragraph of Poised for Grace is packed with a wealth of knowledge and penetrative insights ~ John Friend
Hey, John Friend certainly fell from grace, but Douglas Brooks is a very interesting scholar.
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all creatures” (5.7) and so actually “does nothing” (5.9) since action cannot taint one’s truest nature. Krishna’s point is that there is a part of each of us that cannot be violated or bound: we are free intrinsically. While we may each require a process – and different processes such as renunciation or various acts of the body, mind, and spirit (5.11) – the unhappy consequences of karma can be renounced in one’s heart (manasaa samnyasyaaste, 5.13). Such recognition leaves the soul dwelling in
closely ideas in the Upanishads (see Katha, Isha, and Shevatashvatara Upanishads) and the devotionalist Vedantin Ramanuja’s view that God’s higher nature should not be confused with material reality, which is none other than God’s body (see van Buitenen, p. 165). “All this is strung on me, like pearls on a strand,” Krishna says, and “nothing transcends me” (7.7). But how could anything transcend Krishna if everything is Krishna? Krishna then starts a process of analogical thinking that will
patience, simplicity, service, purity, and stability from within the body’s material resources (13.8-10). Samkhya views mental activity, including the feelings and thoughts we might think of as “spiritual,” as aspects of the material (prakriti) person. Such knowledge distinguishes the yogin from the ignorant, and as Abhinavagupta puts it, the yogin who knows there is nothing other than the Supreme Lord (…paramaamano maheshvaraadanyadaparam na kimcidasti, 13.12) embarks upon a yoga where devotion
wisdom of the past, for in the teachings of yoga there is genuine hope for transformation. Faith will be a key teaching of Chapter Seventeen. Noteworthy Phrases and Interpretations • “tasmaac chaastram pramaan.am te kaaryakaaryaavyavasthitau…” (16.24). “Therefore let the teachings be the measure to establish what is to be done and what is not.” • “pravr.ttim ca nivr.ttim ca janaa ca vidur aasuraah…” (16.7). “Demonic people know neither when to turn toward or to turn away [from action]…”
by devoting himself to God, and that he, Arjuna, is truly free to do as he pleases. What shall it be? • It might appear that Krishna turns at last to bhakti-yoga, the yoga of love and commitment, as the ultimate resolution, the place where all other forms of yoga converge. What do you think Krishna wants us to do? What is the conclusive teaching on yoga that Krishna believes we must not forget? Finale Centuries of traditionalists from India commenting on the Bhagavadgita in Sanskrit,