The Essence of Yoga: Essays on the Development of Yogic Philosophy from the Vedas to Modern Times

The Essence of Yoga: Essays on the Development of Yogic Philosophy from the Vedas to Modern Times

Language: English

Pages: 192

ISBN: B008VRYYKQ

Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub


A collection of classic essays by two highly regarded scholars on the development of yoga and its rapport with other religious traditions. 

Georg Feuerstein, one of the world's foremost scholars of yoga, and Jeanine Miller, long recognized for her insightful commentaries on the RgVeda, here pool their considerable talents in a look at the development of yogic thought across the ages and its similarities with the Christian mysticism of Meister Eckhart. Two of their essays included here, one concerning the essence of yoga and the other looking at the meaning of suffering in yoga, have long been singled out by indologists for correcting prevalent misconceptions and providing a conceptual framework for many of the subsequent studies in that field. The reprinting of these important essays in The Essence of Yoga gives new readers a chance to share some of the authors' earliest insights into yoga and their deep conviction that these discoveries are of the highest significance for a proper understanding of the human condition.

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the devas—is rooted in the very origin of life, in the primordial One. Thus the poet cuts the Gordian knot as to the eternal why of all this by ascribing this urge for life to the very essence of being: the need to be; it is inwoven in the rhythm of the one life and expresses itself in the recurrence of the ‘days’ of Brahma; the counterpart of this urge to activity being the urge to rest, the other facet of the eternal rhythm, the great breath of the One. This eternal why has been the subject of

in so far as we speak of a two-phase cosmic-isation, a physical and a supraphysical. In the first phase the yogin imitates the empirical universe, in the second he, through the power of samādhi, identifies himself with the subtle or sūkṣma (Lt. subtīlis) aspects constituting the ‘fourth dimension’ or the ‘spiritual depth’ of the cosmos. But to reach the transcendent reality, the ‘wholly other’ (Ganz Andere)27 he has to abandon any form of cosmic existence whatsoever. This includes, as Patañjali

rhythm of birth, growth, death, the universal equilibrium, the rhythm which is the very breath of divine action. All cosmic processes are rooted in ṛta, are effects or reflections of an inner harmony, a divine order, a supreme law, expressed in the vedic word ṛta. The sacrifice of which Agni is the supreme ministrant is one aspect of the cosmic truth: at the level of the ritual it aims at reflecting the divine sacrifice on which the world is founded,66 at the personal level at mirroring the

our ambassadors of the Absolute.47 Eckehart formulates his exact standpoint thus: That a man has a peaceful or reposing life in God—that is good; that a man bears a troublesome life with patience—that is better; but that one has peace in a troublesome life—that is the best of all.48 Accordingly, the sign of the God-realised man is not the number of days he is able to spend in samādhi or the size of his following, but the attitude he shows towards his fellow-beings. Eckehart’s ethics demand

of the mind [i.e. the subtle body] into another body [is possible] by loosening the causes of bondage [between the physical and the subtle body] and by knowledge of the projection [of the subtle body].’ (bandha-kāraṇa-śaithilyāt pracāra-saṃvedanāc-ca cittasya para-śrīra-āveśaḥ.) 31 Ezekiel III. 12. J. B. Taylor, Ezekiel: An Introduction and Commentary (London, 1969). 32 Revised version, King James authorised and Septuagint versions. 33 J. B. Taylor, Ezekiel, p. 66. 34 M. Eliade, Yoga:

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