This Week. Loose-end: Williams on Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad Intro to Sāṅkhya & Yoga

Transcription

1 Wk05 Wednesday, Apr 25 Today: This Week Loose-end: Williams on Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad Intro to Sāṅkhya & Yoga Monday YS 1, Kesarcodi-Watson "Samādhi in Patañjali's Yoga Sūtras." Carpenter "Practice makes perfect: The role of practice (abhyāsa) in Pātañjala yoga." 1

2 Week 6 Weeks 6-7 Mon: YS 1, Kesarcodi-Watson, Carpenter Wed: YS 2, Whicher Week 7 Mon: YS 3, Pflueger, Joseph Wed: YS 4, wrap up. Williams paper Understanding Oṃ, Turīya, and the Three States of Consciousness in the MāU 2

3 Sāṅkhya & Yoga 6 Schools (darśanas) of Hindu Philosophy 1. Sāṅkhya, Dualistic Discrimination 900 BCE 1000 CE 2. Yoga, translation? 200 BCE 3. Nyāya, Logic & Empiricism ~250 CE 4. Vaiśeṣika, Atomism, Particularism 200 BCE 1 CE, CE 5. Mīmāṃsā, Vedic Exegesis 200 BCE 700 CE 6. Vedānta, Upaniṣads Later Vedic Exegesis 200 BCE 3

4 Sāṅkhya View (in brief) Radical Dualism Two basic ontological principles underlie the manifest universe 1. pure consciousness, puruṣa 2. matter, prakṛti Final purpose: Attainment of isolation, kaivalya, for puruṣa Disentanglement from material world Not a rejection of reality of the world History of Sāṅkhya var. Sāṃkhya, saṅkhyā, enumeration More towards calculation, reasoning, philosophy Three historical periods 1. Proto-Sāṅkhya, 900 BCE 300 CE RV : nāsadīya Distinction between consciousness & materiality tapas, desire as creative forces RV 10.90: puruṣa sūktam male Puruṣa, female Virāj (Shining One) RV : Ka, Unknown god hiraṇyagarbha 4

5 History of Sāṅkhya, cont d Three historical periods 1. Proto-Sāṅkhya, 900 BCE 300 CE, cont d BU : microcosm macrocosm Fundamental elements, convergence of: water, touch, odor, taste, sight, sound, sciences, activities, pleasures, excretion, travel, Vedas KaU : gradation of fundamental principles Higher than X is Y: senses < sense objects < mind < intellect < immense self (ātman/mahat) < unmanifest (avyakta=prakṛti?) < person (puruṣa) Greater development in Śvetāśvatara Up. In Mahābhārata, Book of Liberation 400 BCE 200 CE In Bhagavad Gītā Kapila s Sāṅkhya-sūtra (lost) History of Sāṅkhya, cont d Three historical periods 2. Classical period, CE Sāṅkhya Kārikā of Īśvarakṛṣṇa ( CE) Source text for school Systematization of its philosophy Described in detail next 3. Later Sāṅkhya, 1000 CE Refutations of its position start to decline Development of ideas continues within Yoga school Overall influence widespread 5

6 Sāṅkhya Structure of Reality 25 tattvas, ontological principles puruṣa - #1 prakṛti - #2 originating, mūla prakṛti 3 qualities, guṇa-s sattva, lucidity / goodness / intelligence / subjectivity rajas, passion / energy / motion & agency tamas, inertia / objective or determinate aspect buddhi / mahat, intellect - #3 ahaṃkāra, egoity - #4 manas, mind - #5 5 sense capacities - #6-10 hearing, touching, seeing, tasting, smelling 5 action capacities - #11-15 speaking, grasping, movement, excreting, procreation 5 subtle elements - #16-20 sound, contact, form, taste, smell 5 gross elements - #21-25 space, wind, fire, water, earth Sāṅkhya View Our true self is puruṣa Transcendent Witness Mistakenly tangled up with prakṛti, forgets self Forgetting is cause delusion of suffering, rebirth Goal: To intellectually discern the true nature of reality Extricate oneself from saṃsāra, embodied existence Return to Witness state Plurality of puruṣa-s? 6

7 Classical Yoga Yoga yuj, to yoke, bind together theistic systems: union with divine Vyāsa: unification of the mind/self in meditation inner control method, exertion, diligence Different Yogas BG: karma-, bhakti-, jñāna-yoga Haṭha-yoga, Yoga of force: body strength, postures Patañjali: Rāja (royal) Yoga Kriyā yoga yoga of action Aṣṭāṅga yoga Eight-limbed yoga What is Yoga? Physical & spiritual disciplines not limited to Hindu realm Not just a system of belief / metaphysics A method of getting something usu. liberation Sāṅkhya knowing, Yoga doing Patañjali s system: Knowledge of person as whole Action integrating knowledge Theory + practice 7

8 Who was Patañjali? 3 rd -4 th century CE No the grammarian (3 rd - 2 nd century BCE) Legend: Incarnation of Viṣṇu s serpent Ananta / Śeṣa (cf. YS 2.47) Compiler, not creator of system Context of Yoga Sūtra BCE: The Buddha, Siddārtha Gautama 4 th -1 st c. BCE: Different schools of Buddhism 3 rd c. BCE - 2 nd c. CE: Mahābhārata epic 1 st c. BCE 1 st c. CE: Mahāyāna B ism emerges 1 st c. BCE 1 st c. CE: Bhagavad Gītā composed 2 nd c. CE: Nāgārjuna s Madhyamaka B ism 3 rd c. CE: Yoga Sūtras composed 4 th c. CE: Yogācāra B ism 4 th -5 th c. CE: Sāṅkhya Kārikās composed 8

9 Patañjali s Yoga Sūtra 195 aphorisms, 4 sections: I. Samādhi, meditative concentration (51 verses) II. Sādhana, path to attainment (55 verses) III. Vibhūti, supernormal powers (55 verses) IV. Kaivalya, nature of liberation (34 verses) Commentaries: Vyāsa was he a yogin? 5 th c. CE Vācaspati Miśra, 9 th c. King Bhoja, 11 th c. Vijñāna Bhikṣu, 16 th c. Yoga Metaphysics: puruṣa Essential self, root-consciousness Highest goal of life is to realize identity with puruṣa end identification with prakṛti end to all fears, suffering Liberation while living or upon death? spatio-temporal existence is mere epiphenomenon Plurality of puruṣa-s? Feuerstein: Academic question Feuerstein, p. 11 9

10 Yoga Metaphysics: prakṛti Nature, primordial matter Absolutely real Objective reality (seen, grasped) Both single (undifferentiated) and manifold Object consciousness puruṣa + prakṛti Has three guṇa-s in balance in undifferentiated form: sattva, lucidity / goodness / intelligence / subjectivity rajas, passion / energy / motion & agency tamas, inertia / objective or determinate aspect Another Perspective on S-Y puruṣa = consciousness content-less, non-intentional plural in manifestation prakṛti = materiality singular entity, despite 3 guṇa-s, 24 elements includes conventional notion of self intellect + egoity + mind Each appears as what it is NOT! Goal: Meditation to disjoin (vi-yoga) these 10

11 Yoga Metaphysics: Iśvara, Lord Special puruṣa, never entangled with prakṛti Omniscient, unbound by time Not creator Teacher of former yogins (1.26) How? Archetype? Śiva? Absolute? Theistic? 26 th principle? (cf. Sāṅkhya) Target of devotion? (praṇidhāna per Vyāsa) BHS: fixation of mind, taking a vow Object of contemplation? Oṃ 11