The Philosophy of Classical Yoga

YOGA "This is certainly one of the most profound and original contributions to the understanding of classical yoga." --Mircea Eliade "In Georg Feuerstein we have a scholar-practitioner of the first magnitude, an extremely important and valuable voice for the perennial philosophy, and arguably the foremost authority on yoga today." --Ken Wilber, author of A Brief History of Everything One of the first comprehensive studies of the philosophical concepts of classical yoga, The Philosophy of Classical Yoga details the key concepts used by Patanjali in his Yoga-Sutra to describe the enigma of human existence and to indicate a way to escape the perpetual motion of the wheel of becoming. Feuerstein's study differs from previous ones in that it seeks to free Patanjali's aphoristic statements from the accretions of later interpretations; instead, the author places the Sutra in its original context and sees it as the source of the whole edifice of classical yoga and not just as a summary of previous developments. A lucid exposition of an essential yoga doctrine, this book will appeal to comparative religionists, Indologists, and practitioners of yoga who wish to deepen their understanding of its philosophical basis. GEORG FEUERSTEIN, Ph.D., has written a number of books on yoga and related topics, including Yoga: The Technology of Ecstasy, Wholeness or Transcendence?, The Yoga-Sutra of Patanjali: A New Translation and Commentary, and the award-winning Encyclopedic Dictionary of Yoga. An acknowledged yoga scholar of international stature, he is a founding member of the Indian Academy of Yoga, Benares Hindu University, a member of the advisory council of the Center for Studies in Science and Spirituality in San Francisco, and a contributing editor of Yoga Journal.

Foreword by Professor Corrado Pensa

Preface

I The Concept of God (isvara)

II The Self (purusa)

III The Structure of the World (prakrti)

IV The Concept of Emancipation

V Psychological Concepts
1 Citta
2 Vrtti and parinama
3 Klesa, klista-aklista
4 Samskara, vasana, asaya
5 Nirodha
6 Pratyaya

VI Practice Concepts
1 Abhyasa and vairagya
2 Pratyahara, dharana, dhyana
3 Samprajnata-samadhi
4 Asamprajnata-samadhi
5 Dharma-megha-samadhi
6 Samyama and the siddhis

VII Patanjala Yoga and Classical Samkhya

Notes

Publications Cited

Index