Articles

Mindfulness—as a state, trait, process, type of meditation, and intervention has proven to be beneficial across a diverse group of psychological disorders as well as for general stress reduction. Yet, there remains a lack of clarity in the operationalization of this construct, and underlying mechanisms.

The yogic theory of saṃskāras, or subliminal impressions of past painful or pleasurable experiences, is one of India’s most fascinating contributions to our understanding of human psychology. Briefly, when we experience aversion to a painful experience, or attachment to a pleasurable one, then an impression of that experience is laid down in our psyche, which is said to be a ‘seed’ of experience which will sprout again.

We now have the means, with science, to determine what is good for what, and why. We can suffer the unfortunate fate of so many religions and maintain the supremacy of what we happen to believe, in spite of its being absolutely unsupported by a single empirical observation, or we can open our eyes and confirm or refute our current beliefs.

This article offers an overview of meditation research: its history, recent developments, and future directions. As the number and scope of studies grow, the field has converged with cognitive and affective neuroscience, and spawned many clinical applications.

Although Pandit Rajmani Tigunait’s, “The Secret of the Yoga Sutra”, and David Gordon White’s “The Yoga Sutra of Patanjali: A Biography”, could…

As the gunas churn together, the manifest world of Prakriti evolves out of the primordial matrix. From the subtlest aspects of the mind – the intellect, the ego, and the lower mind – to the grossest aspects of human existence – the senses and their objects and the great elements of earth, water, fire, air, and ether.

The function of memory has been analyzed by both contemporary psychology and in the literature of classical yoga, with some interesting convergences and equally interesting divergences. Here we will examine the purpose of remembering from both the contemporary psychological perspective and the perspective of classical yoga, as exemplified by Patañjali’s Yoga Sutras.

Sutra is a Sanskrit word meaning “string” or “thread” and refers to an aphoristic style of writing found in Hindu, Buddhist, and Jainist texts of the Ancient and Medieval period. Literacy at this time was virtually nonexistent and printing technology barely inchoate. These ancient practitioners thus took great pains to string each Sanskrit character onto proto-paper made from the leaves of the tala tree. These leaves were then strung together with a thread.