The Yoga sutras of Patañjali
From the Publisher: A landmark new translation and edition. Written almost two millennia ago, Patanjali's work focuses on how to attain the direct experience and realization of the purusa: the innermost individual self, or soul. As the classical treatise on the Hindu understanding of mind and consciousness and on the technique of meditation, it has exerted immense influence over the religious practices of Hinduism in India and, more recently, in the West. Edwin F. Bryant's translation is clear, direct, and exact. Each sutra is presented as Sanskrit text, transliteration, and precise English translation, and is followed by Bryant's authoritative commentary, which is grounded in the classical understanding of yoga and conveys the meaning and depth of the sutras in a user-friendly manner for a Western readership without compromising scholarly rigor or traditional authenticity. In addition, Bryant presents insights drawn from the primary traditional commentaries on the sutras written over the last millennium and a half.
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- The karmic traditions developed this most completely and thoroughly. You don't need to buy into the supernatural claims to benefit from them.
A great starting point can be Shinzen Young's The Science of Enlightenment and/or Sam Harris's Waking Up.
After that, you might look into Why Buddhism is True or The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali or Mindfulness in Plain English.
The Healthy Gamer Youtube channel also has great videos going into this and how they tie into psychology.
David Chapman's https://meaningness.com/ is also pretty great.
- Ashtanga Yoga is a practical everyday-use discipline based on Samkhya metaphysics/theory Worldview. Without both this background you will not understand the techniques; So i will start from there and give you the full picture;
0) For a general succinct overview of all the major schools of Indian Philosophy see An Introduction to Indian Philosophy by Satishchandra Chatterjee and Dhirendramohan Datta (read chapters on Samkhya and Yoga).
1) For Samkhya (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samkhya) metaphysics see the slim Samkhya Darshan: Yogic Perspective on Theories of Realism by Swami Niranjanananda Saraswati. See also my previous comments on Samkhya starting here - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41477432
2) For Patanjala Yoga Sutras (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga_Sutras_of_Patanjali) which lays out the framework of Ashtanga Yoga first see Bon Giovanni's succinct translation here (pdf) - https://www.starcenter.com/patanjali.pdf Then for a detailed study start with Edwin Bryant's translation The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali (with insights from the traditional commentators). To get an idea of practical application see Geraldine Coster's Yoga and Western Psychology: A Comparison - https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.189086
3) For a compendium of Techniques to use for Concentration (aka Centering) see Vijñāna Bhairava Tantra (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vij%C3%B1%C4%81na_Bhairava_Tan...). It briefly presents around 112 Tantric meditation methods (yuktis) or centering techniques (dhāraṇās) in very compressed form. The most accessible translation is the one by Ranjit Chaudhri while the most scholarly is the one by Jaideva Singh.
- I'd ask you to look for a deeper purpose. Purpose that goes beyond your individual self (the ego), your family, your society, your nation.
The Bhagavad Gita explains that this material existence is basically like a prison. We're all doing our time so you're right about it. The Bhagavad Gita gives a beautiful analogy. It says, as you go from childhood to adulthood, your body is changing constantly but the identity or the self remains the same. Have you ever thought about it how strange it is? You don't go from identifying as John to James, but the body, each cell in the body is replaced multiple times throughout your lifetime. The consciousness remains the same, the "I" remains there. It says that we're born out of karma (action and fruits of actions). The consciousness is eternal (always is, never is not), the material nature is not (as evident, has a beginning and an end). So it asks you to look deeper into the Self. Inquire what is it that you're here for and what you're made of.
The idea that the whole universe was made just so you could work and die, is born out of a feeble mindset, forced by an extremely materialistic society. You can go deeper and find something invaluable. Read into philosophy (not the depressing kind), read books like the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, Bhagavad Gita, Upanishadas. Learn about sāṁkhya, nyāya, vedānta. It can give your life a whole new meaning and direction.
It doesn't have to be this way, your current mental imprints want you to believe there's nothing beyond this life, nothing beyond who you are. If there's nothing that makes you look forward to waking up, then that just means you have to look for it, instead of it being handed to you.
If there really is nothing to look forward to, there's no harm in giving this wildly different life-changing thing a try.
Some links to get you started if you're interested:
- https://youtu.be/mj7FIfBLWYA
- https://sites.rutgers.edu/edwin-bryant/nyaya-sutras-svadhaya...
- Good Question.
You seem to have read a lot but unfortunately they have left you confused. This is normal when studying any complex subject and hence the need for somebody to show you the correct path or teasing it yourself from your own studies. In today's world both are difficult because of all the scammers/charlatans/woo-woo peddlers and the sheer volume of noise available on this subject. Nevertheless there are some correct starting points which will show you The Path to Understanding.
The following three texts are recommended;
1) The Samkhya Karika : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samkhyakarika - This sets up a Worldview (i.e. a Model) with the main concepts of Purusha (The Experiencer) and Prakriti (The Experienced).
2) The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga_Sutras_of_Patanjali - Pay particular attention to the concepts Pratyahara, Dharana, Dhyana and Samadhi.
3) The Vijnana Bhairava Tantra : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vij%C3%B1%C4%81na_Bhairava_Tan... - This lists 112 different activities which leads to the state of "Meditative Dissolution". See also my other comment in this thread.
There is no magic here but "Meditation" is merely a practice which leads to a hard-to-define-without-experiencing Mental State.
The above are the "Traditional Viewpoints" from Hinduism/Buddhism. You should also look at the various Scientific Research published on this subject (Google gives me plenty).
- I feel you Man! There are no quick answers but there certainly is a "Discipline" which if adopted can effect change.
First off, DON'T quit your job without having another already lined up. "A Bird in Hand is worth two in the Bush" and all that.
The "Discipline" comes from the "Yoga Sutras of Patanjali" which you can freely adapt to your life, like so;
Note that the above listed activities must proceed in parallel and not sequential.- Yamas - Regulate your interaction with the external environment. Change what you can and ignore (completely from your mind) what you can't. Make a list of both. - Niyamas - Setup personal habits to automate your daily needs. These are things like maintaining fixed work hours, eating at proper time etc. Make a list to follow. - Asanas - Daily Physical exercise (whatever suits you). - Pranayama - Daily Breathing exercise (learn to slow down your breathing and breath more deeply) - Pratyahara - Practice withdrawing your mind from unnecessary things. - Dharana - Practice repeatedly focusing on one thing. - Dhyana - As a consequence of the above, Concentration on the object of study arises and the mind becomes steady.You have to Act and Do and not merely Read and Think. But the latter provides the fuel for the former. So in that spirit read and adapt what you need from Yoga and Western Psychology: A Comparison by Geraldine Coster - https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.189086
- There are lots of english translations of "Patanjali Yoga Sutras" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga_Sutras_of_Patanjali#Trans...)
To see how succinct they are, read Bon Giovanni's translation at https://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/yogasutr.htm
If you are new to the subject start with Swami Vivekananda's Raja Yoga which is a very loose but accessible overview.
For a detailed study with notes from various commentaries, see The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali trans. by Edwin Bryant.
The above two should give you a solid foundation after which you can move on to even more exhaustive translations with specific commentaries.
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