Indian Philosophy and Meditation: Perspectives on Consciousness (Routledge Studies in Asian Religion and Philosophy)

Dualism-Sankhya -- Interactionism the Abhidhamma -- Monism Sri Aurobindo -- The Upanishads & self enquiry -- Jaina views on consciousness & Preksha meditation -- The bridging relations -- Shakti & Sri Ramakrishna.;"India has a rich tradition of meditative practices designed to study the phenomenon of consciousness. From the distant past to the present, India has evolved a unique psychological culture with grand unifying themes and universal modes of meditative practice. This book provides a detailed analysis of classical and modern Indian views on consciousness along with their related meditative methods. It offers a critical analysis of three distinct trends of Indian thought, viz., a dualistic mode of understanding and realizing consciousness in Hindu Sankhya, an interactive mode in early Buddhist abhidhamma, and the evolutionary transformational mode in the teachings of the twentieth-century sage Sri Aurobindo. This book explores the unifying features in Indian first person practices with regard to consciousness and the importance of these applied psychological practices and their associated understanding of our conscious inner lives. The most striking feature of the work is that side by side theoretical exposition of consciousness, it includes a number of worksheets which explain how to use meditation to achieve relaxation as well as cognitive 'maps' of the different levels of conscious states and instruction and how one can traverse from one state to another. The final chapter explores Sri Aurobindo who introduced new and decisive Indian spiritual thought and practice to India in the form of Integral Yoga. This innovative book will be of interest to scholars studying Indian philosophy, Indian religion and the emerging field of contemplation studies."--Provided by publisher. Cover 1 Title 4 Copyright 5 Dedication 6 Contents 8 List of illustrations 11 Foreword 12 Glossary of Indian terms 14 1 Introduction 18 1.1 What do we mean by consciousness? 18 1.2 Western conception of internal states 19 1.3 Temporal scales associated with consciousness 22 1.4 Consciousness as the citta, Puruṣa, and the Indian model of the internal state 23 1.5 The ontological status of consciousness in the natural order 26 1.6 Phases of Indian thought: dualism – interactionism – monism 28 1.7 The status of first-person practices in the Indian systems 32 2 Dualism-Sāńkhya 37 2.1 Introduction 37 2.2 Puruṣa and Prakṛti 38 2.3 The evolutes of Prakṛti 39 2.4 Critical estimate of Sāńkhya 40 2.5 Sāńkhya and Pātañjala yoga 42 2.6 Yama, niyama, and āsana 43 2.7 Prāṇāyama 44 2.8 Worksheet 1 45 2.9 Worksheet 2 46 2.10 Worksheet 3 46 2.11 Worksheet 4 47 2.12 Worksheet 5 48 2.13 Worksheet 6 48 2.14 Worksheet 7 49 2.15 Worksheet 8 49 2.16 Worksheet 9 51 2.17 Worksheet 10 51 2.18 Pratyāhāra 52 2.19 Worksheet 11 52 2.20 Dhāraṇā – dhyāna – samādhi 52 2.21 Worksheet 12 53 2.22 Worksheet 13 54 2.23 Worksheet 14 54 2.24 Worksheet 15 55 2.25 Worksheet 16 56 3 Interactionism – the Abhidhamma 58 3.1 Introduction 58 3.2 Citta and cetasiks 58 3.3 Sańkhāras 60 3.4 The laws governing internal states 61 3.5 The first law of internal states: the principle of reciprocal dependence 62 3.6 The second law of internal states: the principle of roots 62 3.7 Akusala cittas 62 3.8 Kusala cittas of the sensual realm 67 3.9 The third law of internal states: the principle of resultants or karma 69 3.10 The fourth law of internal states: the principle of dominance 71 3.11 The principle of dominance and the eight-fold path 72 3.12 Worksheet 17 73 3.13 Worksheet 18 74 3.14 Worksheet 19 75 3.15 Worksheet 20 76 3.16 Worksheet 21 76 3.17 Worksheet 22 77 3.18 Worksheet 23 80 3.19 Samādhi and the jhāna cittas 83 3.20 Worksheet 24 84 3.21 The fifth law of internal states: the principle of contiguity, repetition, and pathways 90 3.22 The seventeen moment sense-door pathways 90 3.23 Mind-door pathway and the intuitive mind 92 3.24 The death experience 94 3.25 Vipassana 96 3.26 Purification of view 98 3.27 Worksheet 25 98 3.28 Worksheet 26 100 3.29 Worksheet 27 102 3.30 Purification by overcoming doubt 104 3.31 The sixth law of internal states: the principle of prāṇa-jīvitindriya 104 3.32 Purification by knowledge and vision of what is the path and what is not the path 105 3.33 Purification of knowledge and vision of the way 106 3.34 Nirvāṇa and lokuttara cittas 107 3.35 Critical estimate of the Abhidhamma 108 4 Monism – Sri Aurobindo 112 4.1 Introduction 112 4.2 Levels of consciousness 117 4.3 The Higher Mind 117 4.4 The Illumined Mind 118 4.5 The Intuitive Mind 119 4.6 The Overmind 120 4.7 The Supermind 121 4.8 Integral yoga 123 4.9 Karma yoga 126 4.10 Worksheet 28 127 4.11 Worksheet 29 127 4.12 Worksheet 30 128 4.13 Bhakti yoga 128 4.14 Worksheet 31 129 4.15 Faith and surrender to Śakti 129 4.16 Worksheet 32 130 4.17 Worksheet 33 130 4.18 The Intuitive Mind 131 4.19 Worksheet 34 131 4.20 The psychic being 131 4.21 Integral yoga and the earth consciousness 132 Appendix 1: the Upaniṣads and self-enquiry 137 Appendix 2: Jaina views on consciousness and Preksha meditation 144 Appendix 3: the bridging relations 152 Appendix 4: Śakti and Sri Ramakrishna 156 Index 162 India has a rich tradition of meditative practices designed to study the phenomenon of consciousness. From the distant past to the present, India has evolved a unique psychological culture with grand unifying themes and universal modes of meditative practice. This book provides a detailed analysis of classical and modern Indian views on consciousness along with their related meditative methods. It offers a critical analysis of three distinct trends of Indian thought, viz., a dualistic mode of understanding and realizing consciousness in Hindu Sāṃkhya, an interactive mode in early Buddhist abhidhamma, and the evolutionary transformational mode in the teachings of the twentieth-century sage Sri Aurobindo. This book explores the unifying features in Indian first person practices with regard to consciousness and the importance of these applied psychological practices and their associated understanding of our conscious inner lives. The most striking feature of the work is that side by side theoretical exposition of consciousness, it includes a number of worksheets which explain how to use meditation to achieve relaxation as well as cognitive 'maps' of the different levels of conscious states and instruction and how one can traverse from one state to another. The final chapter explores Sri Aurobindo who introduced new and decisive Indian spiritual thought and practice to India in the form of Integral Yoga. This innovative book will be of interest to scholars studying Indian philosophy, Indian religion and the emerging field of contemplation studies. "India has a rich tradition of meditative practices designed to study the phenomenon of consciousness. From the distant past to the present, India has evolved a unique psychological culture with grand unifying themes and universal modes of meditative practice. This book provides a detailed analysis of classical and modern Indian views on consciousness along with their related meditative methods. It offers a critical analysis of three distinct trends of Indian thought, viz., a dualistic mode of understanding and realizing consciousness in Hindu Sāńkhya, an interactive mode in early Buddhist Abhidhamma, and the evolutionary transformational mode in the teachings of the twentieth-century sage Sri Aurobindo. This book explores the unifying features in Indian first person practices with regard to consciousness and the importance of these applied psychological practices and their associated understanding of our conscious inner lives. The most striking feature of the work is that side by side theoretical exposition of consciousness, it includes a number of worksheets which explain how to use meditation to achieve relaxation as well as cognitive `maps' of the different levels of conscious states and instruction and how one can traverse from one state to another. The final chapter explores Sri Aurobindo who introduced new and decisive Indian spiritual thought and practice to India in the form of Integral Yoga." -- Publisher's description