Yoga

any religious or philosophical practice amounts to a psychological discipline; in other words, it is a method of psychic hygiene. The numerous purely physical procedures of yoga are a physiological hygiene as well, which is far superior to ordinary gymnastics or breathing exercises in that it is not merely mechanistic and scientific but, at the same time, philosophical.

Jung argues that yoga functions for the West as a superior form of psychic and physiological hygiene precisely because it integrates bodily practice with philosophical and cosmic dimensions, unlike mere gymnastics.

Jung, Carl Gustav, Psychology and Religion: West and East, 1958thesis

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yoga means literally 'yoking,' i.e., the disciplining of the instinctual forces of the psyche, which in Sanskrit are called kleshas. The yoking aims at controlling these forces that fetter human beings to the world.

Jung defines yoga etymologically and psychologically as the disciplining of instinctual psychic forces (kleshas) that bind human beings to worldly existence.

Jung, Carl Gustav, Psychology and Religion: West and East, 1958thesis

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Patanjali here gives his formal definition of yoga for the classical school of Yoga itself: 'Yoga is the stilling of all thought.' The commentators have packed a considerable amount of rather dense information into their commentaries in this sutra, since Patanjali has basically defined and summarized the entire system of Yoga here.

Bryant identifies Patanjali's foundational definition—yoga as the complete cessation of mental fluctuations—as the axial formula from which the entire classical system's psychology and metaphysics radiate.

Bryant, Edwin F., The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali: A New Edition, Translation, and Commentary, 2009thesis

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The eight limbs are abstentions, observances, posture, breath control, disengagement of the senses, concentration, meditation, and absorption.

Bryant presents Patanjali's canonical eight-limbed (ashtanga) system as the structural architecture through which yoga progressively internalizes consciousness from ethical conduct to samadhi.

Bryant, Edwin F., The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali: A New Edition, Translation, and Commentary, 2009thesis

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The Katha Upanishad states: When the control of the senses is fixed, that is Yoga, so people say. For then, a person is free from distraction. Yoga is the 'becoming,' and the 'ceasing.'

Bryant traces yoga's pre-Patanjali roots to the Upanishads, where it is already defined as sensory control culminating in both active becoming and final cessation—anticipating Patanjali's classical formulation.

Bryant, Edwin F., The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali: A New Edition, Translation, and Commentary, 2009thesis

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'The yogi is higher than the ascetic, and also considered higher than the jnani, one who pursues knowledge. The yogi is higher still than the karmi, one who performs action; therefore, Arjuna, become a yogi' (VI.46).

Bryant documents the Bhagavad Gita's assertion—quoted by Vijnanabhikshu—of yoga's supremacy over all other schools, positioning it as the comprehensive path that subsumes knowledge, action, and asceticism.

Bryant, Edwin F., The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali: A New Edition, Translation, and Commentary, 2009supporting

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in a synthetic and integral Yoga they take a secondary importance; their aims have indeed to be included, but their methods can either altogether be dispensed with or used only for a preliminary or else a casual assistance. Hathayoga is a powerful, but difficult and onerous syst

Aurobindo argues that Rajayoga and Hathayoga, while foundational in their respective aims, are subordinated within an integral synthesis where samadhi is the shared principle but specific methodologies may be dispensed with.

Aurobindo, Sri, The Synthesis of Yoga, 1948thesis

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one might profitably begin a discussion of the relationship between Yoga and what was much later to be considered its sister school, Samkhya … there were no schools as such to speak of at all; Samkhya and Yoga … had yet to become systematic schools.

Bryant situates classical Yoga historically within a pre-systematic milieu of overlapping meditative traditions, emphasizing that the sharp Yoga/Samkhya distinction is a later philosophical formalization.

Bryant, Edwin F., The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali: A New Edition, Translation, and Commentary, 2009supporting

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There is no knowledge equal to Samkhya, there is no power equal to Yoga; both of them are the same path, both, according to oral tradition, lead to deathlessness.

Bryant cites the Mahabharata's assertion that Yoga and Samkhya, though methodologically distinct, converge on identical soteriological ends, and that perceiving them as different reflects limited understanding.

Bryant, Edwin F., The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali: A New Edition, Translation, and Commentary, 2009supporting

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Dharana, concentration, Patanjali states, involves fixing the mind on one place, desha-bandha … Pratyahara continues this progression of internalization by going still deeper within by withdrawing consciousness itself from the senses.

Bryant traces yoga's progressive internalization from outer ethical disciplines through posture, breath, sensory withdrawal, concentration, and ultimately absorption, showing the systematic deepening of attention.

Bryant, Edwin F., The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali: A New Edition, Translation, and Commentary, 2009supporting

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tapas, austerity, indifference to extremes of heat and cold, pleasure and pain, hunger and thirst; needs, desires, and grievances of the body are to be overruled, so that they may no longer distract the introverted mind from its difficult task of attaining to the Self.

Zimmer elaborates the niyama component of yoga as a regimen of austerity designed to neutralize bodily and emotional distraction so that introverted attention may reach the Self.

Zimmer, Heinrich, Philosophies of India, 1951supporting

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Asana becomes perfect when all effort or strain, prayatna, ceases and the body no longer trembles, says Vyasa, and when the citta is absorbed in the infinite, ananta.

Bryant, via Vyasa, defines the perfection of yogic posture as the dissolution of physical effort into effortless stability, coordinated with the mind's absorption in infinite space.

Bryant, Edwin F., The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali: A New Edition, Translation, and Commentary, 2009supporting

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if austerity and self-discipline are practiced in a way that disturbs the mind, they defeat the entire purpose of yoga—to still the mind.

Bryant, citing Shankara, makes explicit that yoga's telos—the stilling of the mind—governs and limits even ascetic practice, ruling out extremism that would agitate rather than pacify consciousness.

Bryant, Edwin F., The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali: A New Edition, Translation, and Commentary, 2009supporting

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Yoga gives the practitioner a concentration and self-discipline so powerful that it could become demonic if used for selfish ends. Accordingly, the aspirant had to observe five 'prohibitions' (yama) to make sure that he had his recalcitrant self firmly under control.

Armstrong characterizes yogic discipline as a potentially dangerous psychic power that requires prior ethical grounding through the yamas to prevent its appropriation by egotism.

Armstrong, Karen, Buddha, 2000supporting

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Yoga has been utilized for promotion of health and alleviating distress. It has also been used as a therapeutic measure in the field of mental health, including substance use disorders.

Sarkar frames yoga as a therapeutic modality for mental health and substance use disorders, situating it within evidence-based clinical psychiatry as a complementary intervention.

Sarkar, Siddharth, Yoga and substance use disorders: A narrative review, 2016thesis

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Regular practice of yoga reduces the stress levels and helps a person to deal more effectively with negative emotions. It reduces baseline stress levels as has been demonstrated by lowering of the galvanic skin responses in patients with chronic alcohol dependence.

Sarkar presents empirical evidence that yoga reduces physiological stress markers in addiction, identifying autonomic regulation and affect modulation as operative mechanisms of its therapeutic benefit.

Sarkar, Siddharth, Yoga and substance use disorders: A narrative review, 2016supporting

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The first issue pertains to what comprises yoga, or how to define yoga. Conceptual variations do exist in definition of yoga. Though asanas and breathing exercises are just a form of yoga, other forms do exist which are more encompassing and attempt to define yoga more broadly.

Sarkar identifies definitional instability—the reduction of yoga to asana and breathwork versus its broader conceptual scope—as a primary methodological obstacle in clinical research.

Sarkar, Siddharth, Yoga and substance use disorders: A narrative review, 2016supporting

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Yoga: aims of, 39–40, 136, 158, 195; definition of, 39 (footnote), 40 (footnote); inducing ecstasy, 151; tapas-, 116 (and footnote); transcended, 209; yantra in practice of, 143, 215.

Zimmer's index entry registers yoga's multiple dimensions—ecstasy induction, tapas discipline, yantra visualization, and the possibility of transcending yoga itself—as thematic nodes throughout his iconographic study.

Zimmer, Heinrich, Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization, 1946aside

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Yoga, Psychological Analysis and, 83–84 … Yoga of Introspection, lxi, 214–16 … 'Yoga of Knowing the Mind in its Nakedness', 8, 9, 14, 15, 20, 35, 37, 43, 45, 70–74, 78 ff.

Evans-Wentz's index documents the proliferation of yoga typologies within Tibetan Buddhist practice, linking them explicitly to psychological analysis and positioning the 'Yoga of Knowing the Mind in its Nakedness' as a central text.

Evans-Wentz, W. Y., The Tibetan Book of the Great Liberation, 1954aside

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If one lacks faith in Ishvara, samadhi remains remote, but if one's yoga is permeated with the nectar of devotion, it is very near.

Bryant documents the commentarial tradition's insistence that theistic devotion to Ishvara accelerates the attainment of samadhi, revealing the theistic undercurrent within Patanjali's ostensibly dualist system.

Bryant, Edwin F., The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali: A New Edition, Translation, and Commentary, 2009supporting

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The impediments [to samadhi] are nescience, ego, desire, aversion, and clinging to life … Ignorance is the breeding ground of the other klesas, whether they are in a dormant, weak, intermittent, or fully activated state.

Bryant translates Patanjali's enumeration of the five klesas—psychic afflictions rooted in avidya—as the central obstacles that yogic practice must progressively attenuate in order to achieve samadhi.

Bryant, Edwin F., The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali: A New Edition, Translation, and Commentary, 2009supporting

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Yoga, as a form of alternate and complementary therapy holds promise of providing a yet another treatment option in the armamentarium for therapeutic options for substance use disorders.

Sarkar situates yoga within the integrative medicine framework as a promising adjunct therapy for substance use disorders, motivated by high relapse rates and limitations of conventional treatment.

Sarkar, Siddharth, Yoga and substance use disorders: A narrative review, 2016supporting

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