The Psychology of Kundalini Yoga : Notes of the Seminar Given in 1932 by C.G. Jung
Language: English
Pages: 192
ISBN: 0691021279
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
"Kundalini yoga presented Jung with a model of something that was almost completely lacking in Western psychology--an account of the development phases of higher consciousness.... Jung's insistence on the psychogenic and symbolic significance of such states is even more timely now than then. As R. D. Laing stated... 'It was Jung who broke the ground here, but few followed him.'"--From the introduction by Sonu Shamdasani
Jung's seminar on Kundalini yoga, presented to the Psychological Club in Zurich in 1932, has been widely regarded as a milestone in the psychological understanding of Eastern thought and of the symbolic transformations of inner experience. Kundalini yoga presented Jung with a model for the developmental phases of higher consciousness, and he interpreted its symbols in terms of the process of individuation. With sensitivity toward a new generation's interest in alternative religions and psychological exploration, Sonu Shamdasani has brought together the lectures and discussions from this seminar. In this volume, he re-creates for today's reader the fascination with which many intellectuals of prewar Europe regarded Eastern spirituality as they discovered more and more of its resources, from yoga to tantric texts. Reconstructing this seminar through new documentation, Shamdasani explains, in his introduction, why Jung thought that the comprehension of Eastern thought was essential if Western psychology was to develop. He goes on to orient today's audience toward an appreciation of some of the questions that stirred the minds of Jung and his seminar group: What is the relation between Eastern schools of liberation and Western psychotherapy? What connection is there between esoteric religious traditions and spontaneous individual experience? What light do the symbols of Kundalini yoga shed on conditions diagnosed as psychotic? Not only were these questions important to analysts in the 1930s but, as Shamdasani stresses, they continue to have psychological relevance for readers on the threshold of the twenty-first century. This volume also offers newly translated material from Jung's German language seminars, a seminar by the indologist Wilhelm Hauer presented in conjunction with that of Jung, illustrations of the cakras, and Sir John Woodroffe's classic translation of the tantric text, the Sat-cakra Nirupana.
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insofar as it feels itself bound by the suprapersonal values of anāhata. All culture creates suprapersonal values. A thinker whose ideas show an activity that is independent of the events of daily life could say that he is in the viśuddha, or almost in the ājñā center. But all that is only the sthūla aspect of the problem. The sthūla aspect is the personal aspect. To us personally, it seems as if we were in the higher centers. We think that because our consciousness and the collective
the point where they become conscious of the impersonal character of the problem. And that impersonal thing is really the Western analogy to the Eastern mind. Kundalini is an impersonal thing, and it is extremely difficult for our Western mind to grasp the impersonal in our mind as an objective happening. I will give you an example. I was once treating a writer, a very clever fellow. He was intelligent and very rational and explained everything to the rule: everything had its natural cause, and
Psychotherapie” (Yoga in the light of psychotherapy) that drew the attention of Jung. Hauer commenced by stating: I know possibly enough about it to recognize that yoga, seen as a whole, is a striking parallel to Western psychotherapy (although fundamental differences lie there) but—this I noticed soon—I lack the detailed knowledge and, above all, the crucial experiment to compare the individual parts of yoga with the different orientations of Western psychotherapy with its special methods.57
who is known by the Vedānta. Verse 39 When the actions of the Yogī are, through the service of the Lotus feet of his Guru, in all respects good, then he will see above it (i.e., Ājñā-Cakra) the form of Mahānāda, and will ever hold in the Lotus of his hand the Siddhi of Speech. The Mahānāda, which is the place of dissolution of Vāyu is the half of Śiva, and like the plough in shape, is tranquil and grants boons and dispels fear, and makes manifest pure Intelligence (Buddhi). Verse 40 Above all
Pathology of So-Called Occult Phenomena (1902) On Hysterical Misreading (1904) Cryptomnesia (1905) On Manic Mood Disorder (1903) A Case of Hysterical Stupor in a Prisoner in Detention (1902) On Simulated Insanity (1903) A Medical Opinion on a Case of Simulated Insanity (1904) A Third and Final Opinion on Two Contradictory Psychiatric Diagnoses (1906) On the Psychological Diagnosis of Facts (1905) 2. EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCHES (1973) Translated by Leopold Stein in collaboration with Diana