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Home > Archive > Yoga > November 2004 > The Post-Classical Era of Yoga
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The Post-Classical Era of Yoga
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| Craig Jensen 2004-11-08, 7:12 pm |
| The world's stage, for the nondualist, looks quite different. The
play, while different than real life, is not separate from it. The
play can't exist without the actors, who are real people, but
playacting is only one aspect of who the actors are. The actors are
real people; the roles they play, the script, the music are all
contained within real life. Anyone who views the play as its own
reality, separate from everything else, will get terribly confused.
It's somewhat easier to see the Divine in the mundane when you take
the nondualistic view of reality, because the Divine is everywhere and
in everything. When Atman or purusha is separate, how can anyone
glimpse its luminous nature in everyday life? Patanjali never really
answered that question, but later commentators explained that by
practicing yoga (the eight-limbed path), the yogi attains the highest
level of existence. At this point prakriti becomes so transparent and
illuminating (sattvic) that purusha, the transcendental Self, shines
through and reveals himself. The path toward true liberation lies in
experiencing (not just believing) the universe as one. This
combination of jnana yoga (yoga of wisdom and knowledge) and karma
yoga (yoga of taking action) is similar to the ideas espoused in the
Bhagavad Gita.
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| Patanjali produced a manual for practice and seems to have
left out what he thought was not essential for human
evolution.
eg, although he stresses surrender to god, he provides other
methods as well.
He left out names of Hindu gods etc . It seems his focus
was on nature, man and consciousness. such candour is rarely
found in hinduism.
"Craig Jensen" <suria333@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:10f778c2.0411080911.49ec4ac@posting.google.com...
> The world's stage, for the nondualist, looks quite different. The
> play, while different than real life, is not separate from it. The
> play can't exist without the actors, who are real people, but
> playacting is only one aspect of who the actors are. The actors are
> real people; the roles they play, the script, the music are all
> contained within real life. Anyone who views the play as its own
> reality, separate from everything else, will get terribly confused.
>
> It's somewhat easier to see the Divine in the mundane when you take
> the nondualistic view of reality, because the Divine is everywhere and
> in everything. When Atman or purusha is separate, how can anyone
> glimpse its luminous nature in everyday life? Patanjali never really
> answered that question, but later commentators explained that by
> practicing yoga (the eight-limbed path), the yogi attains the highest
> level of existence. At this point prakriti becomes so transparent and
> illuminating (sattvic) that purusha, the transcendental Self, shines
> through and reveals himself. The path toward true liberation lies in
> experiencing (not just believing) the universe as one. This
> combination of jnana yoga (yoga of wisdom and knowledge) and karma
> yoga (yoga of taking action) is similar to the ideas espoused in the
> Bhagavad Gita.
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