know yoga - know tantra - know yourself: Mudras - their origin and function (from 'The Yoga Tradition')

Sunday 12 July 2009

Mudras - their origin and function (from 'The Yoga Tradition')

"The origin of these hand gestures is not known. On one level, they are the invention of artists trying to express inner states iconographically. On another level, they undoubtedly are the products of intensive meditation practice during the course of which it is not uncommon that the body spontaneously assumes certain static as well as dynamic poses, which are known as kriyas ("actions")."

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The 'Mystique' and 'Mystification' of Enlightenment and Liberation... Enlightenment in 'No Time'

The mystification of spirituality has left us culturally-conditioned to believe that spirituality is something that requires special and different conditions from the ones that we have here and now.
Enlightenment is not about developing, or improving yourself or attaining some state…
Enlightenment is an idea… that falls away when we drop the search, in peace and acceptance of the fullness of all that Is.

"There is no such thing as 'Enlightenment'... Understanding this is Enlightenment itself."
- Nisargadatta Maharaj

Self-realisation through de-conditioning

"The methods and lifestyles developed by the Indian philosophical and spiritual geniuses over a period of at least five millennia all have one and the same purpose: to help us break through the habit patterns of our ordinary consciousness and to realise our identity (or at least union) with the perennial Reality.

India's great traditions of psychospiritual growth understand themselves as paths of liberation. Their goal is to liberate us from our conventional conditioning and hence also free us from suffering, because suffering is a product of our unconscious conditioning. In other words, they are avenues to God-realization, or Self-realization, which is an utterly blissful condition.

God, in this sense [...] is the transcendental totality of existence, which in the nondualist schools of Hinduism is referred to as brahman, or "Absolute." That Absolute is regarded as the essential nature, the transcendental Self, underlying the human personality. Hence, when the unconscious conditioning by which we experience ourselves as independent, isolated egos is removed, we realise that at the core of our being we are all that same One."

- Greg Fueurstein ('The Yoga Tradition')

Advaita Siddhanta

Advaita Siddhanta: (Sanskrit) "Nondual perfect conclusions." Saivite philosophy codified in the Agamas which has at its core the nondual (advaitic) identity of God, soul and world. This monistic-theistic philosophy, unlike the Shankara, or Smarta view, holds that maya (the principle of manifestation) is not an obstacle to God Realization, but God's own power and presence guiding the soul's evolution to perfection. While Advaita Vedanta stresses Upanishadic philosophy, Advaita Siddhanta adds to this a strong emphasis on internal and external worship, yoga sadhanas and tapas. Advaita Siddhanta is a term used in South India to distinguish Tirumular's school from the pluralistic Siddhanta of Meykandar and Aghorasiva. This unified Vedic-Agamic doctrine is also known as Shuddha Saiva Siddhanta.

Siddha Siddhanta

Siddha Siddhanta: (Sanskrit) Siddha Siddhanta, also called Gorakhnatha Saivism, is generally considered to have come in the lineage of the earlier ascetic orders of India. Its most well-known preceptor was Gorakshanatha (ca 1000) a disciple of Matsyendranatha, patron saint of Nepal, revered by certain esoteric Buddhist schools as well as by Hindus.

The school systematized and developed the practice of hatha yoga to a remarkable degree. Indeed, nearly all of what is today taught about hatha yoga comes from this school. Among its central texts are Hatha Yoga Pradipika by Svatmarama, Gheranda Samhita, Siva Samhita and Jnanamrita. Siddha Siddhanta theology embraces both transcendent Siva (being) and immanent Siva (becoming). Siva is both the efficient and material cause of the universe. Devotion is expressed through temple worship and pilgrimage, with the central focus on internal worship and kundalini yoga, with the goal of realizing Parasamvid, the supreme transcendent state of Siva.

Today there are perhaps 750,000 adherents of Siddha Siddhanta Saivism, who are often understood as Shaktas or advaita tantrics. The school fans out through India, but is most prominent in North India and Nepal. Devotees are called yogis, and stress is placed on world renunciation - even for householders. This sect is also most commonly known as Natha, the Gorakshapantha and Siddha Yogi Sampradaya. Other names include Adinatha Sampradaya, Nathamatha and Siddhamarga.

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Sunday 12 July 2009

Mudras - their origin and function (from 'The Yoga Tradition')

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