Yoga sutras

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1. rramadassSep 2024
   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.

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2. ponderingfishOct 2020
   Nope - that just supposes that 5000 years of practise was done for fun and had no health benefits. And, now it is upto a few scientists to discover what 5000 years of sustained practise could not. They could have just referred to Sushruta Samhita or patanjali's yoga-sutras where praNayama and its benefits are dicussed in detail.
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3. kilo_bravo_3Dec 2019
   >expecting people's values to at least be correlated with the values of the people who raised them is not unreasonable and it's a pretty decent rule of thumb.

   I'm more of a "content of one's individual character" guy.

   And I'm not an proto-human from 500,000 years ago who has to rapidly distinguish friend from foe or face a painful death on a grassy plain in what is now Ethiopia so I have the wonderful luxury of being able to evaluate everyone individually.

   Expecting people's values to at least be correlated with the values of the people who raised them is unreasonable and it is not a decent rule of thumb.

   It is prejudice.

   Here's a pretty good analysis of Patanjali's statements on prejudice (Patanjali's Yoga Sutras (4.24-28)):

   >Prejudice is always based on misperception, which comes from ignorance. Ignorance arises from being told a lie and believing it and then continuing to tell yourself and others that lie—deepening your belief in it to such an extent that it affects how you see yourself and the others whom you are prejudiced against, resulting in a distortion of the truth. Prejudice is a mental affliction that pollutes the mind with deception. To rid yourself of prejudice, you must destroy the lie at the root. Only knowledge can burn prejudice at its root and reveal the truth.

   Of course, there are many philosophies that repeat this or something virtually similar to this, and have done so for thousands of years so for a happy, more ethical, less prejudiced life you can take your pick.

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4. kr4Apr 2016
   Yoga comes under psychology and spirituality, not religion. it's not related to rituals but introspection within – examining and experiments with your mind (habit patterns, emotions and thoughts). Just like a scientist does with nature externally. Only tools of the trade are different.

   You may wish to read yoga sutras on swamij.com to see for yourself the profound insights of mind and its working expounded by the author Patanjali.

   For instance, Yoga sutras starts with:The goal of Yoga is to regulate the modifications (tendencies) of mind,So the seer rests in its true nature.

   The true nature of our consciousness (the seer) is existence-knowledge-bliss.

   Hating someone or a group/race of beings is just a negative tendancy which has been adopted, often unconsciously, due to certain experiences in life. With stillness of meditation you can invite such thoughts witness them and remove clinging of mind toward them [0]. All methodologically.

   0: http://www.swamij.com/witnessing.htm

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5. kr4Jul 2015
   I've defined it already. As far as experience is concerned, there are multiple systematic paths (under different branches of Yoga) to experience this non-material thing which is self only, but unfortunately you can't do it with your very limited material senses. Do you realize the subtle level at which brain operates? when your instruments can't fathom subtleness of your brain, how can such instruments even get the glimps of consciousness which is subtler than mind.

   It hardly takes an year or two under proper guidance and full commitment to get glimpses of this subtlemost thing, do you dare to invest?

   If you fanatically stick to a viewpoint without even evaluating the other view with an open mind, you risk of repeating what religious fanaticism did with pre-modern scientists in the west.

   And regarding downvotes, do you think I care? I could have posted more popular comment in favor of materialism to gain more material points :p

   Edit: To learn more, you can read autobiographies of two living yogis [0] and [1]. A succinct yet most authoritative practical guide is Yoga Sutras [2].

   0. http://www.amazon.in/If-Truth-Be-Told-Memoir/dp/9351368068/ 1. http://www.amazon.com/Apprenticed-Himalayan-Master-Yogis-Aut... 2. http://www.swamij.com/index-yoga-meditation-yoga-sutras.htm

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6. omarchowdhuryNov 2011
   I recommend Patanjali's Yoga Sutras:

   http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/patanjal/patanyog.htm

   A simpler approach:

   http://www.movingintostillness.com/meditation.html

   Keywords: Raja Yoga, Kundalini Yoga, Hatha Yoga, Laya Yoga, Mantra Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Jhana, Samadhi

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