Philosophy

In order to carefully assess the potential effects of meditative interventions it is of singular importance to ask whether enlightenment can be traced to specific neural correlates, cognition, or behavior.

Yājñavalkya is one of the most memorable characters in Vedic literature, known not only for his wit, insolence and intimidation – he nearly purloined one thousand cows from a group of renowned brahmins just before shattering the head of one of them –, but also for the profundity and newness of his thought.

Swami is a Hindu monk an Vedanta teacher.

Jeffrey is a Tantrik studies scholar.

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.

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.