Explores the influence of yoga in the seminal Indian philosophy of Bhartrhari and in the Western psychology of Freud, Jung, and the transpersonalists, providing unique insights into the differences between Eastern and Western concepts of human nature.
Harold Coward explores how the psychological aspects of Yoga philosophy have been important to intellectual developments both East and West. Foundational for Hindu, Jaina, and Buddhist thought and spiritual practice, Patañjali’s Yoga Sutras, the classical statement of Eastern Yoga, are unique in their emphasis on the nature and importance of psychological processes. Yoga’s influence is explored in the work of both the seminal Indian thinker Bhartrhari (c. 600 C.E.) and among key figures in Western psychology: founders Freud and Jung, as well as contemporary transpersonalists such as Washburn, Tart, and Ornstein..
Coward shows how the yogic notion of psychological processes makes Bhartrhari’s philosophy of language and his theology of revelation possible. He goes on to explore how Western psychology has been influenced by incorporating or rejecting Patañjali’s Yoga. The implications of these trends in Western thought for mysticism and memory are examined as well. This analysis results in a notable insight, namely, that there is a crucial difference between Eastern and Western thought with regard to how limited or perfectible human nature is-the West maintaining that we as humans are psychologically, philosophically, and spiritually limited or flawed in nature and thus not perfectible, while Patañjali’s Yoga and Eastern thought generally maintain the opposite. Different Western responses to the Eastern position are noted, from complete rejection by Freud, Jung, and Hick, to varying degrees of acceptance by transpersonal thinkers.
Table of Content
Preface
1. Introduction
Part I. Yoga and Language
2. Agama in the Yoga Sutras of Patañjali
3. The Yoga Psychology Underlying Bhartrhari’s Vakyapadiya
4. Yoga in the Vairagya-Sataka of Bhartrhari
Part II. Yoga and Western Psychology
5. Freud, Jung, and Yoga on Memory
6. Where Jung Draws the Line in His Acceptance of Patañjali’s Yoga
7. Mysticism in Jung and Patañjali’s Yoga
8. The Limits of Human Nature Yoga and Transpersonal Psychology
9. Conclusion
Notes
Glossary of Sanskrit Terms
Index
About the author
Harold Coward M is Professor Emeritus of History and Founding Director of the Centre for Studies in Religion and Society at the University of Victoria in Canada. He is the author of numerous books, including Yoga and Psychology and The Perfectibility of Human Nature in Eastern and Western Thought, both also published by SUNY Press; The Philosophy of the Grammarians (volume five of The Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies, with K. Kunjunni Raja); Mantra (with David J. Goa); and Pluralism in the World Religions.
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