History of Yoga

As you remember, this year's March was my public lecture on the history of yoga. And it was announced that there will be an English translation of this lecture and presentation. So today, on the Day of Yoga I am glad to share the first series of videos in English, thanks to Ivan Ulitko. Presentations are available on my youtube channel:

YOGA: Physiology, Psychosomatics, Bioenergetics by Andrey G. Safronov

YOGA: Physiology, Psychosomatics, Bioenergetics by Andrey G. Safronov.

This book available in iBookstore 

here

The archetypes of wholeness and “energy loss”

In the previous article dedicated to psychosomatics in Yoga Sutras I draw reader’s attention to the association between the state of “chitta-vikshepa – the scattering of chitta – and somatic responses that has been foregrounded by Patanjali. Let me remind that the word “vikshepa” in the framework of 

“Chitta-vikshepa” term is derived from the verbal root kṣip (क्षिप्) — to throw, with help of the prefix vi- (वि), that corresponds to the Russian “vy-“ and ‘ras-“ [or English “dis-“ as well as the particles“away”, “off”, “out” – transl. note]. Of the other hand I shall refer the reader to the opening articles of this blog where we were discussing in details the category of “chitta” having defined it as “substantiated self-sentiment of one’s mind” and were talking about impropriety of simplified definitions of chitta like “mental processes”, “mind/ consciousness” etc.

Sutra 1.31. The concept of psychosomatics in Yoga Sutras

The next line of Yoga Sutras has also been in a way neglected by commentators, probably due to the fact that its translation is rather simple while the words are almost monosemantic in their interpretation. At first glance the understanding of it seems to be simple as well. Yet in fact it is not. The understanding of this sutra from linguistic standpoint is not difficult but the actual meaning of what is said there is astonishing. And I am surprised that no one has ever before paid attention to and done justice to this line and the genius of its author!

The point is that in this sutra, 22 centuries prior to official discovery of psychosomatics by Reich, Jacobson and Lowen, prior to works of Darwin dedicated to the link between muscles and emotions, Patanjali has formulated the key principle of this concept: human psyche is projected onto the body, while our uncontrolled somatic performances are associated with the sphere of emotions.

A Psychophysiological and Philosophic Commentary: the Role of Emotions in the Process of Cognition

I would like to go back for a while to the line 1.16 in which Patanjali exposes the factors that accompany the process of comprehension (samprajnya) listing among them ananda – the delight. This issue is clear from the empiric point of view and it is rather difficult to say something against it, yet here comes the question – what is the ground of this relation between the cognitive, even existential process and the emotional experience associated with it. First of all let us turn to psychology and remember the role of emotions in human life. The rule of memorizing says that the more emotionally significant and coloured the information is the better it is memorized.