At Melbourne Yoga Academy we specialise in offering courses that reach back into Yoga’s rich history. We do this in order to provide our students with the context they need to understand what they will be learning (and later teaching) and how the early history and development relates to how yoga is often presented today, especially in the context of modern western yoga. We see this approach as invaluable as we commonly see teachers presenting aspects of philosophy that are not grounded in any substance.

We are also known for our incredibly in-depth and detailed course manuals. To give you, the potential student, a feel for what we offer you in terms of resources, this blog presents a short extract from part of the manual we give students that participate in our course, Energy & The Yogic Body. If you would like to know more about this course please click here.

Here is the extract…

There's a well known yoga organisation that uses in its motto, "Many paths, one yoga" which echo's statements that I have heard from various teachers of yoga over the years and likely has its origins from part of a verse from the ancient Ṛgveda 1.164.46. 

एकं सद्विप्रा बहुधा वदन्ति

ekaṃ sad viprā bahudhā vadantī

 “Truth is one; the wise call it by many names.”

In another analogy the example of separate paths that lead towards a single mountain top is used. It goes like this: A mountain can be approached and climbed from many sides, but as we near the summit, no matter which side we started from we see that the paths converge and meet together as one at the peak.

Both these examples speak to the wonderful appeal of yoga as being accessible and uplifting for all and we see this in the proliferation of yogas offered around the world today - haṭha yoga, vinyasa yoga, aṣṭāṅga-yoga, bhakti-yoga, kriyā-yoga, Bikram Yoga… and the list goes on. But is it true to say that all these pathways lead to the same goal? That in the foothills about the mountains the practices and methods might differ, but in the end the goal is the same?

In short, the answer is no. Just as there are many yogas, with their various practices, techniques, methods and means, there are also many and varied goals of yoga. Furthermore, these goals do not always converge. In fact, they can often be in opposition to one another. This is unsurprising given the long history of yoga development amongst various traditions, in differing locations, and between groups with different religious and philosophical heritages. The story of yoga is really one of innovation, adaptation, absorption, and even of competition. This has always been the case, with the differences perhaps even being multiplied and accelerated since yoga’s encounters with the West which has seen a transmigration and transference of philosophies and ideas not just out of India but also moving the other way - from West to East.

What all this means is that we must remain aware of what it is that we are talking about when we are speaking of “yoga”, for both the historical context and particular goal of any system of yoga are equally intertwined with the methods/techniques/practices we are exploring. In other words, not only are there many paths up the mountain, there are indeed many mountains!

To help navigate our paths through the mountains we of course need a map. For without a map how can we expect to succeed? Not only do we need a map, we need to proclaim a destination!

So let us first explore what kinds of destinations might be available for us to aim at, or to use the mountain analogy, which mountain we are headed for.

Throughout its long history and development yoga has embraced many destinations. Some of the key ones include:

• Yoga as a pathway to immortality.

• Yoga as a pathway to obtaining supernatural or special powers.

• Yoga to obtain gifts/rewards in this life.

• Yoga as liberation from human suffering.

• Yoga as a means to improve physical health.

• Yoga as a means to improve emotional health

• Yoga as stress relief.

• Yoga as a means to fulfill one's true life purpose.

Some of these destinations have their roots in yoga’s ancient heritage. Some are more modern adaptations. Often more than one destination can be found using the same path and within the one tradition. In other cases, such as the goal of yoga as a means to liberation from suffering, the destinations can be split even further. For example, liberation might be found in finding one's true, independent Self, or in merging oneself with a universal principal (eg merging with "God"), or in finding communion with God in an eternal heavenly realm, or even in transcending God.

It is not our aim in this course to dive into the detail of each and every yoga tradition, its aims and its methods. But it is useful to have a general understanding of some of the major periods and traditions that have shaped yoga - ie, build ourselves a map. To help with this we've provided a brief time-line and synopsis of major periods throughout yoga’s history and development (see following pages - note, illustrations from manual mentioned are not included in this article).

Following this we will look at some of the major themes and topics that we will be using as the basis for this course. 

What's our mountain?

Before we get to our mountain we must first orient ourselves towards our mountain range. By this we mean where are we situated in the major periods and traditions of yoga's past and present? This is slightly problematic as it’s not as simple as slicing out one distinct time period (or tradition) from those shown on the previous pages. Each period connects with the one before (and influences those that follow) and as we can see from the Yoga Family Tree illustration yoga traditions develop alongside as well as in competition with one another - merging, diverging, innovating, adapting and evolving - as well as being influenced by the cultural milieu of their time; ie, what is going on in general in the political, religious, social and philosophical realms both from within and without.

But we have to start somewhere and with something. So, let us begin with what leads up to the traditions and time period we will be focusing on. 

Theories of Karma, Re-birth and Liberation

Our yoga studio (Yoga 8, Melbourne) has its roots in classical yoga; ie, the yoga of Patañjali and his Yoga Sūtras (The name Yoga 8 is inspired by Patañjali's "8 Limb" yoga method for achieving Liberation). The yoga that was systematised by Patañjali somewhere around the 4th to 5th century of the Common Era (CE) in his Yoga Sūtras shares in common with some other yogic traditions (as well as other Indian philosophies and religions) a belief in theories of Karma, Re-birth and Liberation. These theories are not really Vedic in origin, but rather are innovations that developed in an area of northern India along the Gangetic plain, eastwards of the confluence of the Gaṅgā and Yamunā rivers, that scholar Johannes Bronkhorst calls "Greater Magadha" (Greater Magadha, Bronkhorst, 2007). (See map over page - again, map only available in printed course manual.)

This area of city-states or kingdoms called Mahājanapādas was not, in pre-classical times and into the classical period, really yet under the influence of Vedic culture, political and religious customs. That is not to say that the Vedic people (who called themselves Ārya - noble) with their own entrenched religious beliefs and practices were not present in the area. It is just that they weren't the dominant culture at this time. In fact Bronkhorst argues that the Vedic peoples, who migrated in waves into the north-west of the Indian subcontinent and became the dominant culture there (before eventually absorbing larger areas of South Asia into their culture) considered this area to the east to be "other"; in other words, not sharing the same cultural beliefs and practices. Only later did the two regions come together, merging and evolving with the rise and fall of empires.

We could run a whole course on just this interesting period in history and religious thought but we don’t have time here. Suffice to say that the ideas of Karma, Re-birth and Liberation that were percolating prior to and around the  time of the historical Buddha (who incidentally was born in one the kingdoms of Greater Magadha called Kosala around 500 BCE) came to be quite prominent and influenced not only Buddhism and other local traditions such as Jainism and Ājīvikism, but also had a profound effect on the development of the yoga schools and Vedanta ("that which follows the Veda").

The importance of the philosophical and religious development of theories of Karma, Re-birth and Liberation cannot be emphasised enough as it provides us with our mountains. In other words, it provides us with the destinations - the overall mountain range as well as the separate and individual mountains - that different traditions were aiming to reach the summit of. So what is Karma, Re-birth and Liberation?

Although not all theories of Karma, Re-birth and Liberation are the same the general features that interest us include:

• That there is an eternal Self beyond this physical body (or "non-self" for Buddhists).

• That actions performed in this life produce outcomes (karma).

• That this karma produces outcomes that can affect us negatively (and "positively").

• That our karma is carried over beyond this life and affects our next life, and concomitantly that the karma of our previous life/s has brought us to where we are today.

• That this cycle of karmic retribution is endless until we find the means to liberate the Self from the cycle of endless re-birth (which amounts to endless suffering). 

The Self beyond this physical body

In our yoga courses - this one on Energy & The Yogic Body, as well as our course that studies the Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali (How To Know Bliss) - a key conceptual feature is that we each have a true Self beyond our current Earthly experience in this body. This Self can be viewed in different ways. For Patañjali it is eternal, unchanging, pure consciousness and exists separate to everything else. For yoga traditions that focus on the Yogic Body as a means for Liberation this Self might also be envisaged as a separate, individual eternal entity (as similarly framed in the Yoga Sūtras); or it might be considered as a part of one single Universal Principle (eg "God" or Universal Consciousness, or just “one-ness with everything") that is under the illusion that it is separate when it is not; or the Self might be seen as a separate entity that when liberated comes to commune eternally with God; or the Self might even be seen as an entity which transcends a Universal Principle / God.

Because the Self is eternal, if we instead misidentify with, or are under the illusion that this body (human life) is who we truly are we are bound to suffer, because in thinking that this life is all we have we are then at the mercy of the all the problems and follies that come with being human: Impermanence (ie, we / the people we love will all die eventually); Desire (running after things and/or trying to hold onto them when we know nothing can last); Aversion (trying to avoid pain even though it is inevitable); Delusion (that this conventional reality equals Ultimate Reality); and even just the problems that come with having an Ego (an individual sense of small 's' self  that feeds into these same problems of having desires, wanting to avoid pain, and/or misidentifying that this self is the ultimate Self). 

Karma and Karmic Retribution

Karma - a term which derives from the Sanskrit root verb kṛ (literally "to do", "to make", "to produce") - refers to a belief that every thing we do produces an outcome. This word has even become part of the Western vernacular, only here, the meaning has been somewhat adapted to refer to a kind of reward or punishment, often instantly meted out - eg, Instant Karma.

In its more traditional context karma is not seen as necessarily "good" or "bad" (although it can be) but rather it is something we acquire through actions and store in our eternal Self (eg, our Consciousness, "Subtle Body”, and so on). Certainly karma can lead to both meritorious and problematic outcomes with different traditions viewing the processes and outcomes differently. For example one can perform rituals to accrue meritorious karma that can lead to rewards; or one can adopt a more pious lifestyle to avoid accruing problematic outcomes in the future. There are other examples beyond this of course. But rather than being necessarily good or bad karma is usually viewed as a process, a type of universal law if you like. In other words the outcome of the action produces a more or less specific result. Or at least, you don’t get some weird outcome from a particular action. An analogy that is often used is that you can’t get an apple tree from a mango seed - hence karma is a natural law of sorts. Having this as a framework provides one with the knowledge to know how to act/not act and in what way(s) as well as what the outcomes of our actions might be.

So to keep things moving let us define karma, as we will apply it in this course, as any action (physical or mental) that is performed either consciously or subconsciously which leads to a processed based outcome from that action. The importance of the Self beyond the physical body plays a critical role here because in the traditions that we are exploring this is where karma is stored; - eg, in the consciousness / subtle body / "soul"; and is why we would undertake a yoga practice to begin with - to deal with karma.

The wheel of saṃsāra

For the traditions we are exploring there is a belief in a beginning-less process of birth, death and re-birth known as saṃsāra; a constantly turning wheel of embodied existence that traps the eternal Self until it finds liberation. Karma is the driving force of this wheel because it is very difficult to stop producing karma and even if we do there is the karma of previous lives to deal with as well because karma is stored in the eternal Self - ie, our actions don’t dissolve when we die, but come with us into the next life, going so far as to contribute to the circumstances we have been born into.

With this framework in mind it’s time to consider the destination, or to use our analogy, to choose a mountain.

Our time period

The time period we are working with provides our mountain range. In our other course that also explores theories of Karma, Re-birth and Liberation - How To Know Bliss - our time period is that of Classical Yoga which begins with these theories that are developed in the culture of Greater Magadha around 500 BCE and culminates with the Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali, composed around 400-500 CE (a timespan that covers around 1,000 years). In Patañjali's system of yoga he provides a very clear destination as well as a very clear method to achieve his stated goal. 

For Patañjali liberation equates to an involution of the material cosmos back to its primal, un-manifest state at which point the Self (called Puruṣa or the Seer) obtains everlasting, independent bliss. This means that the eternal Self is totally engrossed in the self and does not interact with (or is even aware of) anything else for ever more.

The pathway to this blissful independence is to eliminate karma from our current life and destroy past karma. To achieve this aim he outlines his famous aṣṭāṅga (8 Limb) yoga method. The essential metaphysics that underpins all this is Sāṅkhya Yoga, a school of philosophy that outlines a view of the cosmos that has our eternal, blissful Self at its peak of existence and then various levels (called tattvas) that are successively less and less subtle, all the way down to the gross elements of the universe as were conceived of in that time - ie, space, wind, fire, water and earth.

Fast forward a few centuries and we come to the period/s of time that relate to the study material for this course on Energy & The Yogic Body - the Early Medieval (6th-11th centuries CE) and the Late Medieval (12th-16th centuries CE) - although our course will also consider further developments in yoga all the way up to the present time.

One path - gross to subtle - with various destinations

Patañjali's model is one of dealing with pure consciousness. Everything happens in the mental realm and therefore our practices are focused on the Mind. Even karma that is accrued through physical action comes home to roost in the realms of consciousness. In the Early and Late Medieval periods however we come to see new maps for dealing with the problems of karma, re-birth and liberation. This is the age of the rise of Tantra and of the rise, development and flowering of Haṭha Yoga; two disparate and wide-ranging expressions of thought but sharing some (but not all) common ideas and practices (at least to begin with). Here the metaphysical underpinnings change and the body as a tool for practice takes on more prominence.

In other words, this is a time where practices move out of purely dealing with the consciousness (eg, practices of meditation and so on) on which the methods for liberation mainly rely; and into methods that incorporate the body as a kind of laboratory where the practices are undertaken and experienced, which leads us to the ultimate truth - whatever that might be according to the varying traditions. These are, then, the ages of the Yogic Body.

This is not to say that older traditions died out or were not as prominent. In fact many, many traditions of various models, methods and destinations continued to exist and thrive, grow, develop, merge, converge, absorb, spread (and even die out). However, we are, in this course, going to focus from this point on mainly on these new developments in yoga.

It is impossible to outline the various schools and models of Tantra or even to define what it is because of its huge complex of varieties and almost individualistic modes of practice (even sometimes within a single tradition), but perhaps we can outline some basic points for how these rising traditions saw the cosmos, our place in it, and what we could hope to achieve in order to solve the problem of saṃsāra. The traditions of Haṭha Yoga are perhaps less varied but share much in common with tantra (although they also incorporate ancient ascetic methods) and so for now shall be viewed through the same lens. In the next chapter we will flesh out the shared ideas of both these root sources as well as their differences as they form the basis of the methods and practices we will be studying.

In the Early Medieval period, through the lineages of Buddhism (those that follow the teachings of the Buddha) and Śaivism (traditions that worship the god Śiva) the body comes to be seen not as a hindrance (as in Patañjali's map which wants to focus purely on consciousness) but rather as a gift to be used to benefit us. In this particular embodiment - ie, as a human - we are in a privileged stage of saṃsāra because we are both cognizant of our plight and conscious enough to do something about it. Compare this with being born as an animal, beings which also have a body but not the consciousness to understand that they are stuck in saṃsāra; or with being born as a god, where everything is pleasurable and almost everlasting, but not ultimately eternal, so that one lives in bliss and happiness for a long time but lacks the motivation to do any work to get out of saṃsāra. Even the gods though will be forced to confront this inevitability at some point when their current meritorious karma runs out and they are reborn in a lower realm.

So not only is being a human advantageous in terms of being born under the right conditions to solve the problem of saṃsāra, but it also means we have a very special and unique tool - ie, a physical body / mind complex - that can be used to attain our goals.

From this basic premise develop methods and practices where the body becomes the focus. We begin to see various ideas, including that the body is a microcosm of the universe, and therefore can be used to navigate the universe for our benefit. Keep in mind that the benefits that were sought were not always the same. For some a reward in this life might be sought (eg, prosperity, wealth, avoidance of disease, long life, etc); or the aim might be a reward in a future life (eg, to be born in a blissful heavenly realm); or the aim might be an ultimate reward (eg, to escape saṃsāra). Even with this last reward the destination might vary - eg, to dissolve into the ultimate universal principal (become one with God); to be born into an everlasting communion with God; or even to transcend God and become the ultimate universal principle oneself.

Under maps like these and through the guidance of religious works and teachers seekers could be initiated into pathways towards their specific aim, with their body as the laboratory for conducting "experiments" (eg, the space where the methods would be applied) as well as being the place where one would see/feel the results of the practices. And so the whole model reinforces itself - a lived experience of experimentation, observation, and outcome which can be further and further refined until one achieves one's desired outcome. It is no surprise then that the specific maps of these traditions, and the sub-cults within them, are so complex and varied that they can scarcely be captured.

It is worth noting that because the aims and outcomes might vary so considerably that there is not just a single map of what a yogic body is, even within a single tradition. The map is going to depend not just on what the aim of your practice is and how you view the universe, but also on what practices you choose to undertake. 

Which leads us to where we began. What is our mountain and what is our map?

Unfortunately, unlike Patañjali's map which has a very specific destination, you are going to have to choose your own mountain (destination) because our overall view of how we see the cosmos and our place within it greatly shapes how we approach the yogic body, what practices we choose, and how we use those practices. Don’t despair though because we are going to use a basic communal map to begin with along with communal practices/techniques so that even if you don’t have a specific goal yet you can begin the journey. Once on the journey and through the agency of the practices the destination will likely emerge for you. In other words, your specific destination will manifest for you as a result of the practices and our overall model.

Our basic model is to see the universe as having an act of creation - that is, things come into being at some point in the beginning-less past. It’s not important at this point to question how this happens or why, just that it has happened. In a way this is self-evident because we are all here in this embodied state. If we used the lens of modern science we could call this creative act the Big Bang. But for us, whose lens is Energy & The Yogic Body, let's just say that creation is born of Energy and that the creative act and all that follows is supported by Consciousness. The presence of these two elementals accounts for all there is including our individual selves, and the process is one that begins with the manifestation of the most subtle and moves towards the manifestation of the most gross. 

In this way our map so far is not unlike the Big Bang which starts with heat (energy) and expands towards the present age where things have cooled and more material aspects like planets have coalesced over time, leading to life and ourselves. Nor is this model unlike Patañjali where the most subtle aspect of reality is consciousness and the most gross is the greater elements of space, air, fire, water and earth (with our human selves incorporating these elements).

Where our model does differ is the way in which we choose to interpret the relationship between Energy and Consciousness. In the Big Bang model the relationship between energy and matter is something that can be quantified (eg, E=mc2). In Patañjali's model consciousness and material nature are always separate and it is the power (energy) of the Pure Consciousness (the Seer) through which all the objects, subtle and gross, manifest.

But in our map we have to make a choice about how to view the relationship between energy and consciousness because the traditions that use the body to attain a destination have different views about this and therefore have different destinations. So here are a few relationships and destinations to consider. They are in no particular order:

1. Energy and Consciousness are aspects of a whole and it is the play between them that creates the illusion of everything in the universe, including ourselves. Once we realize this we become liberated and dissolve back into the whole. This is the model of Everything is God / the Primary Principle, including me but the me I think I am (ie, myself in this body) is an illusion, and so is everything else in the universe. Only God exists. (There is no eternal, separate Self).

2. Energy and Consciousness are aspects of a whole with Consciousness the paramount principle. By awakening universal Energy within the body and manipulating it we can unite it with Consciousness (the ultimate principle, eg, God) thus realizing the universal principle and liberating ourselves in the process. This is the model that Everything is God and we play a role in involuting the process of creation in order to re-unite all with God, including ourselves. (ie, we dissolve everything back into God. Our eternal Self is really just a part of God, ie, wholeness).

3. Same as above however we have an eternal, separate, Self and our goal is to liberate it so it can reside with God eternally; ie, we commune with God eternally.

In each of these models there is a destination (a mountain top) and we are striving to liberate a Self, even if that leads to a non-Self. This is achieved by starting from a gross material point (ie, this body, universe and life) and moving towards more subtle states, peeling away or piercing layers of obfuscation to see true reality - the Ultimate Principle (eg, Consciousness, God, our true Self / Non-Self).

So, this is our mountain range, these are our mountains, and the pathway is the common element.

Just as we are choosing our destination, and because we are working within the framework of the Early and Late Medieval time periods we shall choose to call the universal principle (eg, Consciousness, God) Śiva; and we will call the Energy aspect of this model Śakti. We could just as easily choose, from the milieu of the traditions active in this these time periods (and beyond), Viṣṇu or Brahma as the universal principle. We also wish to identify Kuṇḍalinī as a sometimes synonym of Śakti (the energetic/creative/feminine principle). At other times Kuṇḍalinī has a narrower, slightly different and direct meaning (this will be noted where it occurs).

A question of authenticity

We are dealing with a very broad time frame, as well as a broad range of traditions, religions and philosophies within the framework of this course, with the view to present something that might be somewhat universal in nature so that it can be efficacious. But this brings up the question, Is what we are learning authentic? Not an easy question to answer. Suffice to say that there are hundreds of traditions that lay claim to the "truth" and within these there are many further ways to view the universe and our place in it, not to mention thousands of techniques, and a multitude of goals for these techniques. Furthermore many of the more esoteric traditions and religions have very specific initiation processes, rituals and practices; so unless one is born, or accepted, into one of these as an "insider" it is impossible to know what the exact pathway, goal and methods/practices should be.

So the question of authenticity somewhat hinges not on just what we have said so far but also on how we choose to view the history and development of yoga in general; eg, its adaptability and transference over time and the effects/outcomes of that? What lens we view it through? What culture, environment and time we apply to the exercise of learning? Because all of these things affect how we view yoga, not including our inbuilt prejudices, fore-knowledge and experience. As we move into the next chapter on the Yogic Body we will see how even the lenses applied to this one aspect have changed dramatically over time, affecting how one might choose to view the practices and for what purpose.

Hopefully what this course does bring is an experiential pathway with which to begin your own journey of discovery towards ultimate truth as well as the framework, methods and practices to share with others. 

Thank you for reading. To find out more about this course - Energy & The Yogic Body - click here.

Namaste

Jamie