The Philosophy of Classical Yoga
Language: English
Pages: 152
ISBN: 0892816031
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
This is the first comprehensive and systematic analytical study of the major philosophical concepts of classical yoga. The book consists of a series of detailed discussions of the key concepts used by Patanjali in his Yoga-Sutra to describe and explain the enigma of human existence and to point a way beyond the perpetual motion of the wheel of becoming. Feuerstein's study differs from previous ones in that it seeks to free Patanjali's aphoristic statements from the accretions of later interpretations; instead, the author places the Sutra in its original context and sees it as the source of the whole edifice of classical yoga and not just as a summary of previous developments. This book will be of interest to comparative religionists, Indologists, and practitioners of yoga who wish to deepen their understanding of its philosophical basis.
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(asmitā-mātra) is also the prakritic subject of the activity of cognizing.’ This brings us to the last guṇa-parvan, the level of the particularised phenomena or viśeṣa, that is, the ‘surface structure’ of prakṛti. Contrary to Īśvara Kṛṣṇa, the author of the Yoga-Sūtra does not equate aviśeṣa solely with the tanmātras and viśeṣa with the bhūtas but includes in the category of viśeṣa also the indriyas32 This is hinted at by the phrase bhūta-indriya-ātmaka (II. 18) and possibly also by the compound
“power” element, implicit or explicit as it may be, is intrinsic to the very structure of Yoga, in close correlation with the concepts of purification and knowledge [. . .] Each implies and is implicit in the other: progress in one means progress in the others, nor could any progress be thinkable outside this organic interaction’ (p. 21). Furthermore: ‘As to the “powers” or “perfections” (vibhūtis, siddhis), they are no other [. . .] than specializations of this power [. . .] In consequence,
nolens takes the adept through the depths of cognitive-enstasy (saṃprajñāta-samādhi) and thus inevitably confronts him also with the mysteries of the powers (siddhi) arising from these special states of consciousness. In aphorism 1.40 it is clearly enunciated that by virtue of the stalwart practice of meditative-absorption, leading to enstasy, everything from the most minute to the very largest comes under the yogin’s control.32 This is also known as the supremacy over all states-of-existence
being each identified with each other. Through constraint (saṃyama) [on the distinction between] them, insight into the utterances of all beings is gained.’ As I understand it, this simply means that by nature śabda, artha and pratyaya are experienced as one. A sound uttered by a living being is always the bearer of meaning. It is also accompanied by an image in the mind of the percipient. If the sound is unknown, it can be understood by directly perceiving the idea in the mind of the sender. To
states concisely: ‘The casting of the Self’s reflection into the mirror of buddhi [is the way in which] the Self can know the buddhi’ (buddhi-darpaṇe puruṣa-pratibimba-saṃkrāntir-eva buddhi-pratisaṃveditvaṃ puṃsaḥ). For a detailed discussion of this reflection model see G. M. Koelman (1970, 48 f.). 9 As I have tried to show in a previous study (1979), the idiom of purity/purification is more particularly idiosyncratic of the yoga-aṅga section of the Yoga-Sūtra than of Patañjali’s kriyā-yoga