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In the previous post in this series, I outlined how I began my practice with the five kleśas as presented in the AMOOKOS practice manual, Tantra Magick. Now I want to turn to an examination of how the kleśas are dealt with in Patañjali’s Yoga Sūtras (YS). Before doing so, however, I want to give a brief introduction to the philosophy that underpins the Yoga Sūtras.
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“The great classic of Sanskrit literature is the Aphorisms of Patajañali. He is at least mercifully brief, and not more than ninety or ninety-five percent of what he writes can be dismissed as the ravings of a disordered mind.”
Aleister Crowley, Eight Lectures on Yoga
Given the general disdain with which physical yoga was viewed at the turn of the twentieth century, Aleister Crowley’s incorporation of yoga into Western Esotericism is all the more remarkable. (He’s also, by the way, the first western esotericist to develop practical exercises relating to the chakras.) However, in bringing elements of yoga practice into his formulation of magic, Crowley left a good deal out – including any suggestion that yoga practices could lead to the flowering of extraordinary abilities ranging from flight to being able to enter the body of another person. In fact, he seems to have been decidedly skeptical of the very idea. Continue reading »
In the previous post in this series, I examined how the powers of yoga were represented in the writings of the leaders of the Theosophical Society, such as HP Blavatsky and William Quan Judge. For the next two posts, I will examine some of Aleister Crowley’s ideas about yoga and yoga powers. First though, I will take a look at Patañjali’s Yogasūtra – which is widely held to be the original source for Crowley’s take on Yoga – and show how the attainment of extraordinary powers is dealt with. Continue reading »
But yoga is known to be of two kinds.
The first is considered the yoga
of non-being. The other is the great yoga, the very best of all yogas.The yoga in which one’s own essence
is known to be empty, free from all
false appearances, is named the yoga
of non-being. Through it, one sees the self.The yoga in which one discerns the self
as eternally blissful, free from blemish,
and united with me is called
the great yoga of the supreme lord”.
Īśvara Gītā 11, 5-7. (transl. Andrew J. Nicholson)
David Gordon White’s The Yoga Sutra of Patanjali: A Biography (Princeton University Press 2014) – part of Princeton’s “Lives of Great Religious Books” series – may seem a little out of place here. However, given that many contemporary Yoga movements (and commentators) see the Yoga Sūtra as the ur-text from which all yoga springs – and often claim a direct chain of transmission to it – I thought it was worth including. Continue reading »
“Whether a Brahmin, an ascetic, a Buddhist, a Jain, a Skull-Bearer or a materialist, the wise man who is endowed with faith and constantly devoted to the practice of yoga will attain complete success.”
Dattātreyayogaśāstra (transl. James Mallinson)
Modern Yoga has been going through some “interesting times” of late. There has been a wave of sex scandals – most recently in Australia and there are growing calls for a Decolonisation of Yoga Practice, including some strident claims that Yoga was banned under the Raj. I thought it’d be timely, then, to review some of the scholarly works on Modern Yoga. Continue reading »
A common refrain in contemporary western culture is that “traditional” religions and roles are in decline and, supplanting them, is a turn to the “spiritual” in which individuals discover and shape their own sources of meaning through a playful and eclectic “pick and mix” approach to religious traditions and practices. This is sometimes referred to as the “subjectivist turn” in social studies, and frequently hailed as a “spiritual revolution” (and occasionally, lamented). But how does this eclecticism – often characterised by the French term bricolage – operate? Why is it that some religious traditions and practices are appropriated, and others not? Why are people attracted to “foreign” religious resources and what role do these practices play in people’s lives?
Véronique Altglas addresses these issues in From Yoga to Kabbalah: Religious Exoticism and the Logics of Bricolage Oxford University Press 2014). Drawing on her transnational research on two neo-Hindu movements – Siddha Yoga and Sivananda Centres in France and Britain; and the Kabbalah Centre in France, Britain, Brazil and Israel – Altglas uncovers the hidden “logics” of bricolage, and in doing so, presents some intriguing and – possibly – uncomfortable conclusions. Continue reading »