Difference between revisions of "Notes"

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(New page: ==Mar 17: Yoga/Samkya Wisdom 3== ===Patanjali's Yoga Sutras=== ====Part 1: The Aim of Yoga==== "The aim of yoga is to eliminate the control that material nature exerts over the human sp...)
 
 
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==Mar 17: Yoga/Samkya Wisdom 3==
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==Mar 24: Yoga/Samkya Wisdom 4==
  
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===Patanjali's Yoga Sutras===
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===Yoga as "Embodied Awareness"===
  
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====Part 1: The Aim of Yoga====
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*How do we put the physical practice of asanas and pranyama together with the other six limbs of yoga?
  
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"The aim of yoga is to eliminate the control that material nature exerts over the human spirit, to rediscover through introspective practice what the poet T. S. Eliot called the "still point of the turning world." " This is a state of perfect equilibrium and absolute spiritual calm, an interior refuge in the chaos of worldly existence. In the view of Patanjali, yogic practice can break habitual ways of thinking and acting that bind one to the corruptions of everyday life." (Miller, p. 1)
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:Fahri: the body as way of carrying the head around, something to exercise. In contrast, asanas encourage us to start with what we feel, move into stillness,  locate where we are "stuck".
  
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Concise summary of Yoga method: 
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:YS 3.46 "Bodily perfection includes beauty, grace, strength, and a diamond's hard glow."  and in subsequent aphorisms we find a connection between discipline of sense organs and mastery over matter.
  
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:Use the 8-limbed approach to still the mind.  Achieve contemplative poise and the observer standpoint.  This standpoint allows you to perceive the true self, liberated from it's obstacles.  The rationale for this goal is found in the analysis of the current obstacles to self-knowledge. Implicit in this is a claim that we are in a state of self-alienation.   
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:This connection is visualized in a variety of ways: energy in the body as released by practice, chakras, "subtle body".   
  
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5 kinds of "turnings" that are either immune or corruptable:
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:How asanas and breathing affect human physiology.
  
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:1) valid judgement
 
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:2) error
 
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:3) conceptualization,
 
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:4) inference, and
 
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:5) verbal testimony 
 
  
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Doctrine of memory traces - nothing is lost (Later, connected to idea of "seedless Contemplation" and action.
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===Yoga Sutras Parts Three and Four===
  
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YS12-16: Mastery of desire, absence of craving.  (Connection to Stoic/Epicurean thought)
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*Cessation of thought and enlightenement.  Cessation of thought is the overall process, though not the ultimate goal.   
  
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[Note relationship between cessation of thought and wisdom.  Wisdom promotes cessation of thought.  (Consider dynamics.  How would that work?]  But then at YS2.27, Miller p. 50, wisdom is outcome.
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*Stages of yogic development in the Sutras:
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:*Tranquility
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:*Contemplative Poise
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:*Contemplation - seeded and seedless
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:*Observer standpoint - using 3 gunas
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:*Samyama - "perfect discipline" - product of realizing three limbs of concetnration, meditation, and pure contemplation.
  
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Sources of cessation of thought:  YS17-22.
 
  
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Obstacles: disease, apathy, doubt, carelessness, indolence, dissipation, false vision, failure to attain a firm basis in yoga, and restlessness.
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"The light of wisdom comes from mastery of perfect discipline." (YS 3.5)
  
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[Small group topic] Tranquility of thought
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Part Four -- Absolute Freedom
  
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====Part 2:  Practice of Yoga====
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*The perspective in Part Four seems to one in which purusa, thought(in nature), and "objective" nature get resolved into their basic dualism.
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*Substance metaphysics in YS 4.14
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*Moving from thought to spirit as one's standpoint:  YS 4.22 "Awareness of its own intelligence occurs when thought assumes the form of the spirit through consciousness that leaves no trace. Note metaphor of sun in Miller's commentary, p. 79
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*YS 4.25, "One who sees the distinction between the lucid quality of nature and the observer ceases to cultivate a personal reality."
  
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*Forces of corruption - involution and Samkhya metaphysics.  (Feuerstein, p. 76)
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Does the achievement of yogic calm and the Observer standpoint ultimately connect you to a social reality or isolate you? How so?
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*Practical examples of involution.  - in physical and mental awareness
 
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*Purification of body and detachment from it.
 
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*Withdrawl as "transitional phase" moving toward deeper contemplation.
 
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Major Issues for Critical Discussion:
 
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# Is sense withdrawal and the quieting of the mind compatible with active commitment to others and engagement in the world?
 
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# Are we really in a state of self-alienation and corruption?
 
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# Does Yoga turn nature on it's head?
 
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# How the 3 Gunas help you figure out how to move toward the observer standpoint.
 
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# How are the Yamas and Niyamas related to the 3 gunas and involtion?
 

Latest revision as of 21:43, 24 March 2009

Mar 24: Yoga/Samkya Wisdom 4

Yoga as "Embodied Awareness"

  • How do we put the physical practice of asanas and pranyama together with the other six limbs of yoga?
Fahri: the body as way of carrying the head around, something to exercise. In contrast, asanas encourage us to start with what we feel, move into stillness, locate where we are "stuck".
YS 3.46 "Bodily perfection includes beauty, grace, strength, and a diamond's hard glow." and in subsequent aphorisms we find a connection between discipline of sense organs and mastery over matter.
This connection is visualized in a variety of ways: energy in the body as released by practice, chakras, "subtle body".
How asanas and breathing affect human physiology.


Yoga Sutras Parts Three and Four

  • Cessation of thought and enlightenement. Cessation of thought is the overall process, though not the ultimate goal.
  • Stages of yogic development in the Sutras:
  • Tranquility
  • Contemplative Poise
  • Contemplation - seeded and seedless
  • Observer standpoint - using 3 gunas
  • Samyama - "perfect discipline" - product of realizing three limbs of concetnration, meditation, and pure contemplation.


"The light of wisdom comes from mastery of perfect discipline." (YS 3.5)

Part Four -- Absolute Freedom

  • The perspective in Part Four seems to one in which purusa, thought(in nature), and "objective" nature get resolved into their basic dualism.
  • Substance metaphysics in YS 4.14
  • Moving from thought to spirit as one's standpoint: YS 4.22 "Awareness of its own intelligence occurs when thought assumes the form of the spirit through consciousness that leaves no trace. Note metaphor of sun in Miller's commentary, p. 79
  • YS 4.25, "One who sees the distinction between the lucid quality of nature and the observer ceases to cultivate a personal reality."

Does the achievement of yogic calm and the Observer standpoint ultimately connect you to a social reality or isolate you? How so?

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