Consciousness in Jung and Patañjali

Consciousness in Jung and Patañjali PDF Author: Leanne Whitney
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1315448149
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 253

Get Book

Book Description
The East-West dialogue increasingly seeks to compare and clarify contrasting views on the nature of consciousness. For the Eastern liberatory models, where a nondual view of consciousness is primary, the challenge lies in articulating how consciousness and the manifold contents of consciousness are singular. Western empirical science, on the other hand, must provide a convincing account of how consciousness arises from matter. By placing the theories of Jung and Patañjali in dialogue with one another, Consciousness in Jung and Patañjali illuminates significant differences between dual and nondual psychological theory and teases apart the essential discernments that theoreticians must make between epistemic states and ontic beliefs. Patañjali’s Classical Yoga, one of the six orthodox Hindu philosophies, is a classic of Eastern and world thought. Patañjali teaches that notions of a separate egoic "I" are little more than forms of mistaken identity that we experience in our attempts to take ownership of consciousness. Carl Jung’s depth psychology, which remains deeply influential to psychologists, religious scholars, and artists alike, argues that ego-consciousness developed out of the unconscious over the course of evolution. By exploring the work of key theoreticians from both schools of thought, particularly those whose ideas are derived from an integration of theory and practice, Whitney explores the extent to which the seemingly irremediable split between Jung and Patañjali’s ontological beliefs can in fact be reconciled. This thorough and insightful work will be essential reading for academics, theoreticians, and postgraduate students in the fields of psychology, philosophy of science, and consciousness studies. It will also appeal to those interested in the East–West psychological and philosophical dialogue.

Consciousness in Jung and Patanjali

Consciousness in Jung and Patanjali PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781339028217
Category : Consciousness
Languages : en
Pages : 596

Get Book

Book Description
In our contemporary scientific exploration of reality there is heated debate on the nature of consciousness. Comparing the representations of consciousness in the depth psychology of Carl Jung and the Classical Yoga of Patanjali contributes to the argument on whether consciousness arises from psychic process or whether consciousness is the ground of Being. In Patanjali's world pure consciousness is the ontological reality, which is self-illuminating, singular, eternal, and absolute. There is no unconscious in his model. However, there are unknown and invisible contents of consciousness relative to our human awareness. In Patanjali's world the ego is seen as an afflicted identity, a concept we form by appropriating consciousness, which distorts our view of reality and blocks our knowledge of pure consciousness. For Patanjali, pure consciousness and the contents of consciousness are distinguishable separable but not separate. In Jung's world ego consciousness has evolved out of the unconscious, which for Jung is ontically real. In his view, when ego consciousness develops and maintains a relationship to the unconscious, human beings make the Creator conscious of His creation. In Jung's model there is no distinction between consciousness and the contents of consciousness. In his view a self-illuminating pure consciousness is inconceivable. Although Jung seeks a unifying model throughout his career, for him ego consciousness and the resultant subject/object distinction forever remain. Using a nondual lens, this hermeneutic research takes a closer look at depth psychology's unconscious and its assumed, or inferred, ontological reality. If the ego and the unconscious are psychological concepts that can be deconstructed, then the very foundation of the discipline is ultimately based on false assumptions. Consequently, the outcomes of depth psychological theory may be distorted, limited, and biased. However, a bridge can be forged between depth psychology and yoga through Jung's synchronicity hypothesis, which recognizes mind and matter to be two aspects of one underlying ontic whole. Although Jung never proved empiric consciousness to be a unity, his legacy aims in that direction. Jung's synchronicity hypothesis allows a contemporary bridging argument for an understanding of the ontic reality of pure consciousness.

Jung and Eastern Thought

Jung and Eastern Thought PDF Author: Harold Coward
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 079149991X
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 238

Get Book

Book Description
Jung and Eastern Thought is an assessment of the impact of the East on Jung's life and teaching. Along with the strong and continuing interest in the psychology of Carl Jung is a growing awareness of the extent to which Eastern thought, especially Indian ideas, influenced his thinking. This book identifies those influences that he found useful and those he rejected. In Hindu, Buddhist, and Taoist cultures, yoga is a central conception and practice. Jung was at once fascinated and critical of yoga. Part I of the book examines Jung's encounter with yoga and his strong warning against the uncritical adoption of yoga by the modern West. In Part II Jung's love/hate relationship with Eastern thought is examined in light of his attitude toward karma and rebirth, Kundalini yoga, mysticism, and Patanjali's Yoga Sutras. Coward's observations are rounded out by contributions from J. Borelli and J. Jordens. Dr. Borelli's Annotated Bibliography is an invaluable contribution to bibliographic material on Jung, yoga, and Eastern religion. A special feature is the Introduction by Joseph Henderson, Jung's most senior North American student and one of the few Jungians to have recognized the important influence of the East on Jung's thinking.

Time and Timelessness

Time and Timelessness PDF Author: Angeliki Yiassemides
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 113509375X
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 152

Get Book

Book Description
Time and Timelessness examines the development of Jung's understanding of time throughout his opus, and the ways in which this concept has affected key elements of his work. In this book Yiassemides suggests that temporality plays an important role in many of Jung's central ideas, and is closely interlinked with his overall approach to the psyche and the cosmos at large. Jung proposed a profound truth: that time is relative at large. To appreciate the whole of our experience we must reach beyond causality and temporal linearity, to develop an approach that allows for multidimensional and synchronistic experiences. Jung’s understanding surpassed Freud's dichotomous approach which restricted timelessness to the unconscious; his time theory allows us to reach beyond the everyday time-bound world into a greater realm, rich with meaning and connection. Included in the book: -Jung’s time theory -the death of time -time and spatial metaphors -the role of time in precognition, telepathy and synchronicity -Unus mundus and time -a comparison of Freud’s and Jung’s time theories: temporal directionality, dimensionality, and the role of timelessness. This book is the first to explore time and timelessness in a systematic manner from a Jungian perspective, and the first to investigate how the concept of time affected the overall development of Jung's theory. It will be key reading for psychoanalytic scholars and clinicians, as well as those working in the field of phenomenological philosophy.

The Yogic View of Consciousness (HQ)

The Yogic View of Consciousness (HQ) PDF Author: Donald J. DeGracia
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 1329706730
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 372

Get Book

Book Description
Patanjali's Yoga Sutras are mysterious and cryptic and exert hypnotic fascination on all whose minds they touch. In The Yogic View of Consciousness, Don DeGracia unfolds the theory of consciousness enshrined in the obtuse aphorisms of the Yoga Sutras. Yoga describes the mind as a multi-leveled system closed in on itself yet illuminated from within its innermost depth by a divine spark that gives life and consciousness to every individual. Drawing on ideas Eastern and Western, ancient and modern, from Abhinavagupta to Leibniz, Mahaprabhu to George Berkeley, IK Taimni to Hermann Weyl, DeGracia weaves an intellectual tapestry harmonizing science, philosophy, religion, mathematics, and the mystical. Compared to the grandeur of The Yogic View of Consciousness the hostilities of secular science and philosophy appear as little more than the psycho-babble of lunatics and an affront to the sublime majesty of existence. Take the wild ride to the very source of being revealed by The Yogic View of Consciousness.

Yoga and Psychotherapy

Yoga and Psychotherapy PDF Author: Swami Rama
Publisher: Himalayan Institute Press
ISBN: 9780893890360
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 312

Get Book

Book Description
"Provides and in-depth analysis of Western and Eastern models of the mind and their differing perspectives"--Publisher's description.

The Psychology of Yoga

The Psychology of Yoga PDF Author: Georg Feuerstein
Publisher: Shambhala Publications
ISBN: 0834829215
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 256

Get Book

Book Description
"Psychoanalysis itself and the lines of thought to which it gives rise," said C. G. Jung, "are only a beginner’s attempt compared to what is an immemorial art in the East"—by which he was referring to the millennia-old study of the mind found in Yoga. That tradition was hardly known in the West when the discipline of psychology arose in the nineteenth century, but with the passing of time the common ground between Yoga and psychology has become ever more apparent. Georg Feuerstein here uses a modern psychological perspective to explore the ways Hindu, Buddhist, and Jaina yogas have traditionally regarded the mind and how it works—and shows how that understanding can enhance modern psychology in both theory and practice.

The Psychology of Kundalini Yoga

The Psychology of Kundalini Yoga PDF Author: C. G. Jung
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400821916
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 192

Get Book

Book Description
"Kundalini yoga presented Jung with a model of something that was almost completely lacking in Western psychology--an account of the development phases of higher consciousness.... Jung's insistence on the psychogenic and symbolic significance of such states is even more timely now than then. As R. D. Laing stated... 'It was Jung who broke the ground here, but few followed him.'"--From the introduction by Sonu Shamdasani Jung's seminar on Kundalini yoga, presented to the Psychological Club in Zurich in 1932, has been widely regarded as a milestone in the psychological understanding of Eastern thought and of the symbolic transformations of inner experience. Kundalini yoga presented Jung with a model for the developmental phases of higher consciousness, and he interpreted its symbols in terms of the process of individuation. With sensitivity toward a new generation's interest in alternative religions and psychological exploration, Sonu Shamdasani has brought together the lectures and discussions from this seminar. In this volume, he re-creates for today's reader the fascination with which many intellectuals of prewar Europe regarded Eastern spirituality as they discovered more and more of its resources, from yoga to tantric texts. Reconstructing this seminar through new documentation, Shamdasani explains, in his introduction, why Jung thought that the comprehension of Eastern thought was essential if Western psychology was to develop. He goes on to orient today's audience toward an appreciation of some of the questions that stirred the minds of Jung and his seminar group: What is the relation between Eastern schools of liberation and Western psychotherapy? What connection is there between esoteric religious traditions and spontaneous individual experience? What light do the symbols of Kundalini yoga shed on conditions diagnosed as psychotic? Not only were these questions important to analysts in the 1930s but, as Shamdasani stresses, they continue to have psychological relevance for readers on the threshold of the twenty-first century. This volume also offers newly translated material from Jung's German language seminars, a seminar by the indologist Wilhelm Hauer presented in conjunction with that of Jung, illustrations of the cakras, and Sir John Woodroffe's classic translation of the tantric text, the Sat-cakra Nirupana. ?

Jung and Eastern Thought

Jung and Eastern Thought PDF Author: Harold G. Coward
Publisher: SUNY Press
ISBN: 9780887060526
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 238

Get Book

Book Description
Jung and Eastern Thought is an assessment of the impact of the East on Jung's life and teaching. Along with the strong and continuing interest in the psychology of Carl Jung is a growing awareness of the extent to which Eastern thought, especially Indian ideas, influenced his thinking. This book identifies those influences that he found useful and those he rejected. In Hindu, Buddhist, and Taoist cultures, yoga is a central conception and practice. Jung was at once fascinated and critical of yoga. Part I of the book examines Jung's encounter with yoga and his strong warning against the uncritical adoption of yoga by the modern West. In Part II Jung's love/hate relationship with Eastern thought is examined in light of his attitude toward karma and rebirth, Kundalini yoga, mysticism, and Patanjali's Yoga Sutras. Coward's observations are rounded out by contributions from J. Borelli and J. Jordens. Dr. Borelli's Annotated Bibliography is an invaluable contribution to bibliographic material on Jung, yoga, and Eastern religion. A special feature is the Introduction by Joseph Henderson, Jung's most senior North American student and one of the few Jungians to have recognized the important influence of the East on Jung's thinking.

Yoga and Psychology

Yoga and Psychology PDF Author: Harold Coward
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 0791487911
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 126

Get Book

Book Description
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.