Yoga in Practice

Published by Princeton University Press 2012

Yoga in Practice

Edited by: David Gordon White

Volume 34 in the series Princeton Readings in Religions

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400839933

Overview
Contents

About this book

Yoga is a body of practice that spans two millennia and transcends the boundaries of any single religion, geographic region, or teaching lineage. In fact, over the centuries there have been many "yogas"--yogas of battlefield warriors, of itinerant minstrels and beggars, of religious reformers, and of course, the yogas of mind and body so popular today. Yoga in Practice is an anthology of primary texts drawn from the diverse yoga traditions of India, greater Asia, and the West. This one-of-a-kind sourcebook features elegant translations of Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, and even Islamic yogic writings, many of them being made available in English for the very first time. Collected here are ancient, colonial, and modern texts reflecting a broad range of genres, from an early medical treatise in Sanskrit to Upanishadic verses on sacred sounds; from a Tibetan catechetical dialogue to funerary and devotional songs still sung in India today; and from a 1930s instructional guide by the grandfather of contemporary yoga to the private papers of a pioneer of tantric yoga in America.

Emphasizing the lived experiences to be found in the many worlds of yoga, Yoga in Practice includes David Gordon White's informative general introduction as well as concise introductions to each reading by the book's contributors.

Author / Editor information

David Gordon White is the J. F. Rowny Professor of Comparative Religion at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His books include Sinister Yogis and Tantra in Practice (Princeton).

Reviews

"Yoga in Practice deals with a topic of great academic significance and broad popular appeal, and the contributors are solid scholars who know their material inside out. Yoga is a global phenomenon, and this collection provides clarification of key points and careful contextualization of the history of ideas that has produced yoga. There are really no other books comparable in range, presentation, or quality."—Joseph S. Alter, University of Pittsburgh

"This volume fills a vacuum in yoga studies. An indispensable resource for teachers and students, it is also of immeasurable value to every thinking yoga practitioner. Through an astute selection of key texts, White effectively demonstrates that yoga is a collection of vibrant, disparate, and distinctive traditions, and he also highlights continuities that unite ideas and practices of yoga through two thousand years of history."—Suzanne Newcombe, Inform, based at the London School of Economics and Political Science

"For upper level undergraduates, graduate students, and intellectual practitioners desiring to engage the true variety of yoga, this dense and disparate collection is indispensable."---Lloyd W. Pflueger, Religious Studies Review

"In this volume, which is designed to serve as a course on the historical development of the practice of yoga, editor White brings together many leading scholars to present and analyze twenty significant primary texts drawn from Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism (and a text from Islam). . . . Featuring a useful glossary, this work would be excellent as a course text or for upper-level undergraduate and graduate students undertaking research on yoga. It would also benefit practitioners who want to deepen their understanding."

"This anthology makes available a wide variety of translations of primary sources on yoga, especially texts focused on practice, and places each in the broader context of the Indian traditions of yoga. The volume breaks new ground by including little-known texts and offering new perspectives on more familiar ones. Many of these texts are unavailable in translation elsewhere."—David Carpenter, Saint Joseph's University

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
CONTENTS BY TRADITION Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
CONTENTS BY COUNTRY Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Contributors Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Yoga, Brief History of an Idea David Gordon White Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Note for Instructors David Gordon White Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	24
Foundational Yoga Texts
1. The Path to Liberation through Yogic Mindfulness in Early Āyurveda Dominik Wujastyk Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	31
2. A Prescription for Yoga and Power in the Mahābhārata James L. Fitzgerald Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	43
3. Yoga Practices in the Bhagavadgītā Angelika Malinar Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	58
4. Pātañjala Yoga in Practice Gerald James Larson Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	73
5. Yoga in the Yoga Upanisads: Disciplines of the Mystical OM Sound Jeffrey Clark Ruff Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	97
6. The Sevenfold Yoga of the Yogavāsistha Christopher Key Chapple Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	117
7. A Fourteenth-Century Persian Account of Breath Control and Meditation Carl W. Ernst Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	133
Yoga in Jain, Buddhist, and Hindu Tantric Traditions
8. A Digambara Jain Description of the Yogic Path to Deliverance Paul Dundas Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	143
9 Saraha’s Queen Dohās Roger R. Jackson Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	162
10. The Questions and Answers of Vajrasattva Jacob P. Dalton Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	185
11. The Six-Phased Yoga of the Abbreviated Wheel of Time Tantra (Laghukālacakratantra) according to Vajrapāni Vesna A. Wallace Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	204
12. Eroticism and Cosmic Transformation as Yoga: The Ātmatattva of the Vaisnava Sahajiyās of Bengal Glen Alexander Hayes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	223
13. The Transport of the Hamsas: A Śākta Rāsalīlā as Rājayoga in Eighteenth-Century Benares Somadeva Vasudeva Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	242
Yoga of the Nāth Yogīs
14. The Original Goraksaśataka James Mallinson Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	257
15. Nāth Yogīs, Akbar, and the “Bālnāth Tillā” 15 William R. Pinch Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	273
16. Yogic Language in Village Performance: Hymns of the Householder Nāths Ann Grodzins Gold and Daniel Gold Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	289
Yoga in the Colonial and Post-Colonial Periods
17. The Yoga System of the Josmanīs Sthaneshwar Timalsina Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	309
18. Songs to the Highest God (Īśvara) of Sāmkhya-Yoga Knut A. Jacobsen Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	325
19. Yoga Makaranda of T. Krishnamacharya Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	337
20. Theos Bernard and the Early Days of Tantric Yoga in America Paul G. Hackett Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	353
21. Universalist and Missionary Jainism: Jain Yoga of the Terāpanthī Tradition Olle Qvarnström and Jason Birch Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	365
Glossary of Foreign Terms Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	383
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	389