Pancashikha speaks of the ultimate truth as being avyakta (a term applied in all Samkhya literature to prakriti) in the state of purusha (purusavasthamavyaktam). If man is the product of a mere combination of the different elements, then one may assume that all ceases with death. Read more »
annihilation, atman, existence, gunas, moksha, moral responsibility, purusha, renunciation The conception of Yoga as we meet it in the Maitrayana Upanishad consisted of six angas or accessories, namely pranayama, pratyahara, dhyana, dharana, tarka and samadhi (1). Read more »
ahimsa, anga, asana, dhyana, karuna, niyama, patanjali, pranayama, samadhi, satya, sex control, tarka, upanishad, yoga sutras Samkhya and the Yoga, like the Buddhists, hold that all experience is sorrowful. Tamas, we know, represents the pain substance. As tamas must be present in some degree in all combinations, all intellectual operations are fraught with some degree of painful feeling (1). Read more »
buddhists, happiness, mukti, pleasures, sacrifice, sacrifices, samkhya philosophy, sorrow, tamas, vedic, worldly experience The Vaisheshika sutras begin with the ostensible purpose of explaining virtue (dharma) (I.i. 1) and dharma according to it is that by which prosperity (abhyudaya) and salvation (nihshreyasa) are attained. Then it goes on to say that the validity of the Vedas depends on the fact that it leads us to prosperity and salvation. Then it turns back to the second sutra and says that salvation comes as the result of real knowledge, produced by special excellence of dharma, of the characteristic features of the categories of substance (dravya), quality (guna), class concept (samdanya), particularity (vishesha), and inherence (samavayay) (1). Read more »
dharma, effect karma, guna, karma karma, material cause, odour, sutras, water fire Of the six classes of entities or categories (padartha) we have already given some account of dravya (1). Let us now turn to the others. Of the qualities (guna) the first one called rupa (colour) is that which can be apprehended by the eye alone and not by any other sense. The colours are white, blue, yellow, red, green, brown and variegated (citra). Colours are found only in kshiti, ap and tejas. The colours of ap and tejas are permanent (nitya), but the colour of kshiti changes when heat is applied, and this, Shridhara holds, is due to the fact that heat changes the atomic structure of kshiti (earth) and thus the old constitution of the substance being destroyed, its old colour is also destroyed, and a new one is generated. Rupa is the general name for the specific individual colours. There is the genus rupatva (colourness), and the rupa guna (quality) is that on which rests this genus; rupa is not itself a genus and can be apprehended by the eye. Read more »
akasha, atomic structure, guna, katu, natural taste, nitya, rasa, rupa, tejas, vayu The Nyaya-Vaisheshika philosophy looked at experience from a purely common sense point of view and did not work with any such monistic tendency that the ultimate conceptions of our common sense experience should be considered as coming out of an original universal (e.g. prakriti of the Samkhya). Space, time, the four elements, soul, etc. convey the impression that they are substantive entities or substances. What is perceived of the material things as qualities such as colour, taste, etc. is regarded as so many entities which have distinct and separate existence but which manifest themselves in connection with the substances. Read more »
causation, common sense, four elements, jnana, material objects, monistic, sense experience, sense knowledge, substances There are two kinds of perception in two stages, the first stage is called nirvikalpa (indeterminate) and the second savikalpa (determinate). The nirvikalpa perception of a thing is its perception at the first moment of the association of the senses and their objects. Read more »
buddhist view, cognition, consciousness, determinate, genus, individuality, percept, perception, senses We have already seen that the Mimamsists had asserted that all knowledge was true simply because it was knowledge (yatharthah sarve vivadaspadibhutah pratyayah pratyayatvat). Even illusions were explained by them as being non-perception of the distinction between the thing perceived (e.g. the conch-shell), and the thing remembered (e.g. silver). Read more »
illusions, perception, presence, vedanta ‘Raja’ means king and thus Raja Yoga is the ‘Kingly Yoga’ or the ‘Royal Way’ of Yoga. Our mind is the ‘King’ in question, the master in our lives is the mind, and the control of mind is the primary concern of Raja Yoga.
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aphorisms of yoga, concentration, dhyana meditation, eight limbs yoga, hatha yoga, patanjali, raja yoga, states of ecstasy, yoga sutras The worlds are inhabited by countless grades of beings, ranging from the highest Devas (of whom there are many classes and degrees) to the lowest animal life. The scale of beings runs from the shining manifestations of Spirit to those in which it is so veiled that it would seem almost to have disappeared in its material covering. There is but one Light, one Spirit, whose manifestations are many. Read more »
brahman, gayatri, lakshmi, manifestations, maya, one spirit, purusha, rays of light, rudra, sandhya, sarasvati, supreme mother Among these unsatisfactions, one that stands out very prominently in the thoughts of many aspirants to higher consciousness is eagerness to find a teacher. It is the greatest encouragement to know that there must be those who have gone ahead of us and become part of that unseen spiritual life which is surely as intimate to our daily life as our material atmosphere and the earth under our feet. Read more »
habit, higher consciousness, meditation, origin and destiny, spiritual life, spiritual nature, spiritual realization The Yogi Philosophy may be divided into several great branches, or fields. What is known as “Hatha Yoga” deals with the physical body and its control; its welfare; its health; its preservation; its laws, etc. What is known as “Raja Yoga” deals with the Mind; its control; its development; its unfoldment, etc. What is known as “Bhakti Yoga” deals with the Love of the Absolute–God. What is known as “Gnani Yoga” deals with the scientific and intellectual knowing of the great questions regarding Life and what lies back of Life–the Riddle of the Universe. Read more »
absolute god, bhakti yoga, fundamental principles, gnani yoga, hatha yoga, higher self, inner senses, knowing, latent powers, mental faculties, raja yoga, riddle of the universe, yogi The very consciousness of Life that every man feels within him, comes not from something belonging exclusively to himself as a separate or personal thing. On the contrary, it belongs to his Individuality, not to his Personality, and is a phase of his consciousness or “awareness” of his relation to the One Universal Life which underlies his existence, and in which he is a center of consciousness. Do you grasp this idea? If not, meditate and concentrate upon it, for it is important. You must learn to feel the Life within you, and to know that it is the Life of the great Ocean of Universal Life upon the bosom of which you are borne as a centre of consciousness and energy. In this thought there is Power, Strength, Calm, Peace, and Wisdom. Acquire it, if you are wise. It is indeed a Gift from the Gods. Read more »
consciousness, existence, individuality, intellect, unity, universal life, vibration, vibrations In our last lesson we led you by successive steps from the beginnings of Life in living forms up to the creatures closely resembling the family of vertebrates–the highest family of living forms on this planet. In this present lesson we take up the story of the “Ascent of Man” from the lowly vertebrate forms. Read more »
evolving of wings, lower forms of life, placenta, skeleton, vertebrates The Yogi traditions hold that just prior to the great cataclysm which destroyed the races of the Second Cycle, there was a body of the Chosen Ones which migrated from Lemuria to certain islands of the sea which are now part of the main land of India. These people formed the nucleus of the Occult Teachings of the Lemurians, and developed into the Fount of Truth which has been flowing ever since throughout the successive periods and cycles. Read more »
atlantis, attainment, cataclysm, chosen ones, civilization, continent, lemuria, yogi This word in its most general sense means an instrument, or that by which anything is accomplished. In worship it is that by which the mind is fixed on its object. The Yogini-Tantra says that the Devi should be worshipped either in pratima (image), mandala, (1) or yantra.(2) At a certain stage of spiritual progress the sadhaka is qualified to worship yantra. The siddha-yogi In inward worship (antar-puja) commences with the worship of yantra which is the sign (samketa) of brahma-vijnana as the mantra is the samketa of the Devata, It is also said that yantra is so called because it subdues (niyantrana) lust, anger, and the other sins of jiva and the sufferings caused thereby.(3) Read more »
akara, bija, gayatri yantra, hrim, jiva, letters of the alphabet, lotus petals, mantra, prasada, pratima, siddha, spiritual progress, vidya, yantras, yogini Man, the highest manifestation of the Absolute, as far as this planet is concerned, is a wonderfully organized being–although the average man understands but little of his real nature. Read more »
higher faculties, higher nature, mental faculties, physical desires, real nature, stage of development In the First Lesson we gave instruction and exercises designed to awaken the consciousness of the Candidate to a realization of the real “I.” We confined our instructions to the preliminary teachings of the reality of the “I,” and the means whereby the Candidate might be brought to a realization of his real Self, and its independence from the body and the things of the flesh. We tried to show you how you might awaken to a consciousness of the reality of the “I”; its real nature; its independence of the body; its immortality; its invincibility and invulnerability. How well we have succeeded may be determined only by the experience of each Candidate, for we can but point out the way, and the Candidate must do the real work himself. Read more »
consciousness, ego, metaphysical features, planes, realization, real nature, self analysis, yogi It is only by the mind that the teachings we are now giving you may be grasped and understood, and used to your advantage and benefit. We are talking direct to your mind now, and are making appeals to it, that it may be interested and may open itself to what is ready to come into it from its own higher regions. We are appealing to the Intellect to direct its attention to this great matter, that it may interpose less resistance to the truths that are waiting to be projected from the Spiritual Mind, which knows the Truth. Read more »
feelings, intellect, mental attitude, mental conditions, mental impressions, perception, physical desires, spiritual mind, willingness
Discover how Yoga increases concentration, will power and relaxes the body
