Yoga and psychology : language, memory, and mysticism / Harold Coward.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Coward, Harold G.

Series:

SUNY series in religious studies

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Patañjali. Yogasūtra.

Patañjali.

Freud, Sigmund, 1856-1939.

Freud, Sigmund.

Jung, C. G. (Carl Gustav), 1875-1961.

Jung, C. G.

Psychology and religion.

Yoga.

East and West.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (126 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Albany : State University of New York Press, 2002.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

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.

Contents:

Front Matter

Contents

preface

Introduction

yoga and language

A¯ gama in the Yoga Su¯tras of Patañjali

The Yoga Psychology Underlying Bhartr.hari’s Va¯kyapad¯ya

Yoga in the Vaira¯gya-S´ataka of Bhartr.hari

yoga and western psychology

Freud, Jung, and Yoga on Memory

Where Jung draws the line in his Acceptance of Patañjali’s Yoga

Mysticism in Jung and Patañjali’s Yoga

The Limits of Human Nature in Yoga and Transpersonal Psychology

Conclusion

Notes

Glossary of Sanskrit Terms

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. 93-95) and index.

ISBN:

9780791487914

0791487911

9780585491370

0585491372

OCLC:

61367546