# The Yoga Tradition  ## Metadata - Author: [[Georg Feuerstein and Ken Wilber]] - Full Title: The Yoga Tradition - Category: #books ## Highlights - As a form of psychotechnology, Yoga deals first and foremost with the human mind or psyche. But, according to the yogic visionaries, our inner world parallels the structure of the cosmos itself. It is composed of the same fundamental layers that compose the hierarchy of the external world. Hence, the “maps” put forward by Patanjali and other spiritual authorities are psychocosmograms, or guides to both the inner and outer universe. Their principal purpose, however, is to point beyond the levels, or layers, of psyche and cosmos, for the essential nature of the human being, the Self or Spirit, is held to be utterly transcendental. ([Location 8249](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B009W9ZELK&location=8249)) - the Self is the principle of pure Consciousness (cit), or sheer Awareness (citi). It is absolutely distinct from the ordinary consciousness (citta), with its turbulence of thoughts and emotions, which Patanjali explains as the product of the interaction between the transcendental Self (purusha) and insentient Nature (prakriti): The Self’s “proximity” to a highly evolved psychophysical organism creates the phenomenon of consciousness. But Nature itself—the human body- mind on its own—is utterly unconscious. ([Location 8306](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B009W9ZELK&location=8306)) - How this absolutely transcendental Self, or pure Awareness, could have any effect at all on the ongoing processes of Nature is a philosophical conundrum that none of the spiritual traditions of the world has solved. In particular, Patanjali’s metaphysical dualism does not lend itself to such a solution, and yet he tries to overcome the problem by suggesting that there is some kind of connection, which he calls “correlation” (samyoga), between the Self and Nature—that is, between pure Awareness and the complex of the body and personality. That connection is made possible because at the highest level of Nature we find a predominance of the sattva component. The transparency of the sattva factor of Nature is analogous to the innate transparency or luminosity of the Self. Therefore, Nature (in the form of the psyche or mind) in its sattvic state acts like a mirror for the “light” of the Self. ([Location 8310](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B009W9ZELK&location=8310)) - Ultimately, the personality in its highest or sattva aspect must be so pure that it can mirror the light of the transcendental Self without distortion. ([Location 8498](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B009W9ZELK&location=8498)) - Consciousness (citta) is connected with the life force indwelling in all beings. Like a bird tied to a string, so is the mind. The mind is not brought under control by many considerations. The means for its control is nothing else but the life force. (59-60) ([Location 8609](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B009W9ZELK&location=8609)) - This presupposes a total turnabout, or parâvritti (Greek: metanoia), in their consciousness, a complete transformation of the body-mind. It cannot be accomplished through sheer exertion of will. Rather, yogins must empty and open themselves to the higher Reality beyond the ego-personality. Since this is not something they can initiate at will, the moment of radical opening is often described, as we have seen, in terms of the intervention of grace. ([Location 8773](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B009W9ZELK&location=8773)) - There also is a passage describing the practice of the inner sound (nâda), which can be located in the right ear during meditative absorption. Through repeated practice this sound can become so prominent that all external sounds are drowned out by it. It also gives rise to a variety of other inner sounds resembling those produced by the ocean, a water fall, a kettle drum, a bell, a flute, and so on. The inwardly perceived sound becomes increasingly subtle, until the mind becomes so completely one with it that the individual forgets himself or herself. The mind undergoing this process is compared to a bee that is only interested in the nectar of a flower, not the scent that attracted it. The end state is one of total mental repose, perfect indifference to worldly existence. The yogin who has achieved this sublime state is described as being a videha-mukta, or one who has reached disembodied liberation. ([Location 10724](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B009W9ZELK&location=10724)) - In Chapter 4, the ideal of living liberation (jîvan-mukti) is referred to. The Self-realized adept, who experiences his or her perfect identity with the Divine while being embodied, is called a jîvan-mukta. By contrast, the videha-mukta is described as having abandoned even the knowledge of being identical with the Absolute. ([Location 10789](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B009W9ZELK&location=10789)) - For the same reason, dietary restrictions do not apply to the liberated sage, for, as the ancient Taittirîya-Upanishad teaches, the released being is always both food and the consumer of food: The transcendental Self is forever devouring itself in the form of the multiple objects of the phenomenal world. ([Location 10832](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B009W9ZELK&location=10832)) - It is always fear—the fear of losing oneself—that prevents the ultimate event of enlightenment even in those who are advanced on the spiritual path. Thus, in the Tibetan Book of the Dead— the Bardo Thödol—the person preparing for the great transitional process of death is specifically instructed not to be afraid of the Clear Light that he or she will perceive in the after-death state. ([Location 10851](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B009W9ZELK&location=10851)) ## New highlights added January 28, 2024 at 11:59 AM - Through deep meditation upon the Divine, the disciple can hear the “unstruck sound” (anâhad shabad, Sanskrit: anâhata-shabda), which liquidates the ego and makes a gurmukh (“guru-facing”) adept out of the man-mukh (“self-facing”) or self-cherishing individual. ([Location 11389](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B009W9ZELK&location=11389)) - Orientalist and art historian Ananda Coomaraswamy made this pertinent observation: The last achievement of all thought is a recognition of the identity of spirit and matter, subject and object; and this reunion is the marriage of Heaven and Hell, the reaching out of a contracted universe towards its freedom, in response to the love of Eternity for the productions of time. There is then no sacred or profane, spiritual or sensual, but everything that lives is pure and void. This very world of birth and death is also the great Abyss.4 ([Location 11521](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B009W9ZELK&location=11521)) ## New highlights added April 9, 2024 at 8:36 PM - This philosophy is best characterized as a form of idealism in which Brahma, standing for the Cosmic Mind, is the generator of all ideas under whose spell we fall as long as we do not recognize our true nature as the singular Self. ([Location 10316](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B009W9ZELK&location=10316)) - What is the world [apart from the Self]? Why are you [still] uselessly bewildered? (64) ([Location 10521](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B009W9ZELK&location=10521)) - “I am ever of the form of the unborn [ultimate Reality], I am dispassionate and untainted. I am pure. I am awakened. I am eternal. I am mighty.” —Tejo-Bindu-Upanishad1 (3.42) ([Location 10523](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B009W9ZELK&location=10523)) - Upon seeing this supreme Self, the knot at the heart is pierced, all doubts are removed, and his karmas disappear. (24) ([Location 12415](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B009W9ZELK&location=12415)) - means, including concentration and meditation, are transcended. When the supreme Absolute is known, (then the yogin] is through with all rules, measures, and regulations. What use is a palmyra fan when the wind blows from [Mount] Malaya? (28) For him who sees himself as om [i.e., the Self], there is no binding of the life force (dsika) and no binding of the nostrils (nasikd); there is no discipline (yama) and no self-restraint (niyama). ([Location 12423](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B009W9ZELK&location=12423)) - Actions done after the attainment of wisdom do not touch the knower of Reality, just like [muddy] water [does not stain] the leaves of the lotus. (127) ([Location 12627](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B009W9ZELK&location=12627)) - Bhogar declares: Time was when I despised the body; but then I saw the God within. The body, I realized, is the Lord’s temple; And so I began preserving it with care infinite. ([Location 12750](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B009W9ZELK&location=12750))