Lecture I.3.2 - The Mystical Traditions of India

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Lecture I.3.2 - The Mystical Traditions of India

Post by Clemsy »

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Lecture I.3.2 - The Mystical Traditions of India
Yoga is the intentional stopping of the spontaneous activity of the mind substance. Now the notion is that within what is called the gross matter of the mind… there functions what we now call electricity. This is called subtle matter in the Indian tradition, and this is in continuous activity. The goal of yoga is to make it stop being active.— Joseph Campbell

Joseph Campbell was fascinated by the various forms of yoga, traditional Indian spiritual practices that use meditation, physical exercises, and special breathing techniques to turn an individual's focus to an inward path. In this talk, he surveys several yogic traditions the rigorous Kuṇḍalinī Yoga; Jñāna, or “philosophical,” Yoga; and Karma Yoga, the yoga of action. While extreme psycho-physiological exercises such as those of Kuṇḍalinī Yoga might not be appropriate for everyone, he argues, each of us can shape our destiny through the practice of one or another form of yoga.
Download this Lecture: HERE
Give me stories before I go mad! ~Andreas

Ercan2121
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Post by Ercan2121 »

'Baby know all manner of wise words,
though few on earth can understand their meaning.
It is not for nothing that he never wants to speak.
The one thing he wants is to learn mother's words from
mother's lips.
That is why he looks so innocent.'
from Baby's Way by Rabindranath Tagore

jim baird
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Post by jim baird »

I got this lecture as part of a set after donating to foundation.

Have listened to each a number of times on an MP3 player.

Listening to JCampbell's descriptions of chakras, and after having read CGJung's Psychology of Kundalini Yoga, I have begun to take some positions re the understanding of these ideas.

Jung said that consciousness is a momentary adaptation.

Both Jung and Campbell describe the chakras as centers of energy or focal points, perhaps, of activity that are oriented toward this or that direction.

While the usual description of chakras is expressed in terms of locations along the spinal column etc., I have begun to think of them not as places but as states of being, which, as Jung pointed out, are only able to be occupied on a momentary basis.

To say, as Jung did, that we "live" in muladhara, is not to say we are anally fixated. It is only to say that we typically are stuck to the ground, rooted in our position as animals on the face of the earth, and by means of muladhara insights make decisions on what to do and how to act.

Because we cannot fix one thought for even a minute, does it not stand to reason that we jump from one chakra to the next as a routine aspect of "momentary adaptation"?

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