Hatha Yoga

Hatha Yoga builds on the lesson of the two aspects that we consist of: consciousness and energy. Read more

Jnana Yoga

If you want a mirror, Look at this moment – respectfully. When you have learned to experience, not to try to hold on to events, thoughts and emotions, but to let them come and go with their own force. . . . Read more

The Atman doctrine

The sum and substance of the Upanishad teaching is involved in the equation Atman=Brahman. We have already seen that the word Atman was used in the rig-Veda to denote on the one hand the ultimate essence of the universe, and on the other the vital breath in man. Later on in the Upanishads we see that the word Brahman is generally used in the former sense, while the word Atman is reserved to denote the inmost essence in man, and the Upanishads are emphatic in their declaration that the two are one and the same. Read more

Doctrine of Soul

All the Indian systems except Buddhism admit the existence of a permanent entity variously called atman, purusha or jiva. Read more

The Samkhya and the Yoga Doctrine of Soul or Purusha

The Samkhya philosophy as we have it now admits two principles, souls and prakriti, the root principle of matter. Souls are many, like the Jaina souls, but they are without parts and qualities. Read more

Feelings, the Ultimate Substances

Another question that arises in this connection is the position of feeling in such an analysis of thought and matter. Samkhya holds that the three characteristic constituents that we have analyzed just now are feeling substances. Feeling is the most interesting side of our consciousness. Read more

The Cognitive Process and some characteristics of Citta

It has been said that buddhi and the internal objects have evolved in order to giving scope to the experience of the purusha. What is the process of this experience? Read more

Indeterminate and determinate perception

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

Some Ontological Problems connected with the Doctrine of Perception

The perception of the class (jati) of a percept in relation to other things may thus be regarded in the main as a difference between determinate and indeterminate perceptions. The problems of jati and avayavavayavi (part and whole notion) were the subjects of hot dispute in Indian philosophy. Before entering into discussion about jati, Prabhakara first introduced the problem of avayava (part) and avayavi (whole). Read more

Self, Salvation, God

Mimamsa has to accept the existence of soul, for without it who would perform the Vedic commandments, and what would be the meaning of those Vedic texts which speak of men as performing sacrifices and going to Heaven thereby? The soul is thus regarded as something entirely distinct from the body, the sense organs, and buddhi; it is eternal, omnipresent, and many, one in each body. Prabhakara thinks that it is manifested to us in all cognitions. Indeed he makes this also a proof for the existence of self as a separate entity from the body, for had it not been so, why should we have the notion of self-persistence in all our cognitions–even in those where there is no perception of the body? Read more

The nature of the world-appearance, phenomena

The world-appearance is not however so illusory as the perception of silver in the conch-shell, for the latter type of worldly illusions is called pratibhasika, as they are contradicted by other later experiences, whereas the illusion of world-appearance is never contradicted in this worldly stage and is thus called vyavaharika (from vyavahara, practice, i.e. that on which is based all our practical movements). Read more

The Definition of Ajnana – nescience

Ajnana the cause of all illusions is defined as that which is beginningless, yet positive and removable by knowledge (anadibhavarupatve sati jnananivartyatvam). Though it manifests itself in all ordinary things (veiled by it before they become objects of perception) which have a beginning in time, yet it itself has no beginning, for it is associated with the pure consciousness which is beginningless. Read more

Ajnana established by Perception and Inference

Ajnana defined as the indefinite which is neither positive nor negative is also directly experienced by us in such perceptions as “I do not know, or I do not know myself or anybody else,” or “I do not know what you say,” or more particularly “I had been sleeping so long happily and did not know anything.” Read more

Atman, Jiva, Ishvara, Ekajivavada and Drishtisrishtivada

We have many times spoken of truth or reality as self-luminous (svayamprakasha). But what does this mean? Vedanta defines it as that which is never the object of a knowing act but is yet immediate and direct with us (avedyatve sati aparoksavyavaharayogyatvam). Self-luminosity thus means the capacity of being ever present in all our acts of consciousness without in any way being an object of consciousness. Read more

Chains of Thought – The Walking Mind

WE have studied the first process of thought — the way in which every idea opens out in many directions. We have now to consider the second process — the way in which our attention passes on from one idea to another and forms a flow of thought. It is a matter almost of common knowledge that our attention travels among thoughts very much in the same way as our body moves about among things. So close is the similarity that we may say that the attention seems actually to walk on two-feet from one mental image or idea to another. Read more

Exercises in Self Expansion

Exercise 13.
I am sitting at a table, but I imagine that I am an artist out in a field painting a tree. How nice this picture looks, with two branches on this side and three on that, and what a nice curve of foliage the greenery makes. Yet, somehow, it lacks! And the trunk. It does look a bit like a leg of Uncle Abe’s working trousers! Read more

Meditation on Objects

What have I here? A pebble from a beach in Cyprus, now used as a paperweight. Let me meditate on this. First I shall observe it very carefully, noting its size, shape, color, texture, heaviness, markings, etc. Next I shall close my eyes and concentrate upon it. Now I will use the Four Roads of Thought again, with a new motive — to realize as fully as possible the object in whole and parts, its qualities and its actions. Read more

The Meaning of OM

Om is described as the indicator of Ishwara, a word translatable as God, Ruler, Vishnu, Shabda-Brahman, Avalokiteshwara, etc. Om is not a name, not even a word with a conventional meaning, but an indicator. And Ishwara is the supreme teacher in all of us, touching us not via mineral, plant, animal or human substance or form but, beyond these, within. Read more

Without material objects Space is unthinkable

Let us start with ourselves, and try to imagine a million million miles, and then multiply them by another million million miles, a million million times. What have we done? Simply extended our mental yard-stick a certain number of times to an imaginary point in the Nothingness that we call Space. So far so good, but the mind intuitively recognizes that beyond that imaginary point at the end of the last yard-stick, there is a capacity for an infinite extension of yard-sticks–an infinite capacity for such extension. Extension of what? Space? No! Yard-sticks! Objects! Things! Without material objects Space is unthinkable. Read more

Consciousness of Life

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

Reasonableness of Metempsychosis

Many writers on the subject of Metempsychosis have devoted much time, labor and argument to prove the reasonableness of the doctrine upon purely speculative, philosophical, or metaphysical grounds. And while we believe that such efforts are praiseworthy for the reason that many persons must be first convinced in that way, still we feel that one must really feel the truth of the doctrine from something within his own consciousness, before he will really believe it to be truth. Read more

Karma – past experiences

It is hard for us to fully realize that we are what we are because of our past experiences. It is difficult for us to value the experiences that we are now going through, because we do not fully appreciate the value of bitter experiences once lived out and outlived. Let us look back over the experiences of this present life, for instance. How many bitter episodes are there which we wish had never happened, and how we wish we could tear them out of our consciousness. Read more

Worship

THERE are four different forms of worship corresponding with four states (bhava);(1) The realization that the jivatma and paramatma are one, that everything is Brahman, and that nothing but the Brahman exists, is the highest state or brahma-bhava. Constant meditation by the yoga process upon the Devata in the heart is the lower and middlemost (dhyana-bhava), japa and stava (hymns and prayer) is still lower, and the lowest of all mere external worship (puja). Read more

Anusara – Flow with Grace

Anusara (“flowing with grace” in Sanskrit) Yoga is an aspect of yoga built up by John Friend, an American yoga follower, in late seventies. Anusara Yoga is based on his many years of yoga practice and especially from studying the Iyengar hatha yoga and from his devoted studies of Siddha Yoga Meditation. Read more

Yoga and Past Lives

Our subliminal self, or the subconscious mind, is the storehouse of all the impressions that we gather through our experiences during our lifetime. They are stored up, pigeon-holed there, in the Chitta, as it is called in Vedanta. “Chitta” means the same subconscious mind or subliminal self which is the storehouse of all impressions and experiences. Read more

A Series of Lessons in Raja Yoga – by Yogi Ramacharaka

THE “I.”

In India, the Candidates for Initiation into the science of “Raja Yoga,” when they apply to the Yogi Masters for instruction, are given a series of lessons designed to enlighten them regarding the nature of the Real Self, and to instruct them in the secret knowledge whereby they may develop the consciousness and realization of the real “I” within them. They are shown how they may cast aside the erroneous or imperfect knowledge regarding their real identity. Read more

A Candidate becomes an Initiate

As Man advances in the scale, he begins to have a somewhat higher conception of the “I.” He begins to use his mind and reason, and he passes on to the Mental Plane–his mind begins to manifest upon the plane of Intellect. He finds that there is something within him that is higher than the body. He finds that his mind seems more real to him than does the physical part of him, and in times of deep thought and study he is able almost to forget the existence of the body. Read more

State of Meditation

If possible, retire to a quiet place or room, where you do not fear interruption, so that your mind may feel secure and at rest. Of course, the ideal condition cannot always be obtained, in which case you must do the best you can. The idea is that you should be able to abstract yourself, so far as is possible, from distracting impressions, and you should be alone with yourself–in communion with your Real Self. Read more

The Realization of the I

The Candidate must first acquaint himself with the reality of the “I,” before he will be able to learn its real nature. This is the first step. Let the Candidate place himself in the State of Meditation, as heretofore described. Then let him concentrate his entire attention upon his Individual Self, shutting out all thought of the outside world, and other persons. Let him form in his mind the idea of himself as a real thing–an actual being–an individual entity–a Sun around which revolves the world. Read more

The Ego’s Mental Tools

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

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