A Survey of Hinduism by Klostermaier Klaus K

Author:Klostermaier, Klaus K.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Published: 2007-04-15T04:00:00+00:00

THE CORE OF YOGA

One of the most important topics in the Yoga Stra is prayama. The great significance of pra, or life breath, in philosophical speculation was mentioned earlier. Prayama is one of the most widely practiced disciplines and one of the most ancient methods of purification. Perfect breath control can be carried so far that to all appearances a person does not breathe anymore and the heartbeat becomes imperceptible. Thus we hear quite frequently about Yogis who get themselves buried for days or weeks and let themselves be admired on coming out from their graves. According to all indications there is neither fraud nor miracle involved. The secret lies in the consciously controlled reduction of the body’s metabolism to the minimum required for keeping the life processes going and in the overcoming of fear through concentration; for fear would increase the need for oxygen. The Yoga Stra ends the explanations on prayama with the statement: “The mind’s ability for concentration.” Breath control is the basis of body control and of mental realization.

Pratyhra, withdrawal of the senses, is dealt with immediately afterward: “When the senses do not have any contact with their objects and follow, as it were, the nature of the mind.”24 The senses, in this condition, not only no longer hinder the intellect, but the power invested in them actively helps it.

The next section is probably the most crucial one: it deals with three stages of realization. They are briefly explained as follows: “Dhraa is the fixation of the intellect on one topic. Dhyna is the one-pointedness in this effort. Samdhi is the same (concentration) when the object itself alone appears devoid of form, as it were.”25 The commentaries explain the first stage as a concentration of the mind on certain areas in the body: the navel, the heart, the forehead, the tip of the nose or the tip of the tongue. In the second stage all objects are consciously eliminated and the union with the absolute is contemplated. In its perfection it glides over into the third and last stage. Here the identification has gone so far that there is no longer a process of contemplation of an object by a subject, but an absolute identity between the knower, that which is known, and the process of knowing. Subject-object polarity disappears in a pure “is-ness,” a cessation of the particular in an absolute self-awareness.

The three stages together are called samyama. They are understood not as something that incidentally happens to someone but as a practice that can be learned and acquired and then exercised at will. It is the specific schooling of the Yogi to acquire those tools with which one masters the world. Though we must omit the details here, suffice it to say that as with the mastery of any science, so Yoga requires a certain talent, hard work, and progress through many small steps, avoiding numerous pitfalls on the way, before one can competently use the instruments. If the training is applied to the

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