Course curriculum

  • 1

    Getting Started

    • Welcome

    • Required Books and Audios

    • How to Study

  • 2

    Lesson 1: Studying the Yogic Way

    • Intro to Lesson 1

    • Good Beginnings

    • Why is Study Important?

    • How to Study: Some Practice Hints

    • The Meaning of "Yoga"

    • Yoga: A Theory and Practice Continuum

    • Posture Practice

    • Suggestion Yoga Practice: Corpse Pose (Śavāsana)

    • Further Reading

    • For Reflection

    • Lesson 1 Quiz

  • 3

    Lesson 2: Understanding Patanjali and His Yoga-Sūtra

    • Intro to Lesson 2

    • Who is Patanjali?

    • What is a Sūtra?

    • The Classical Commentaries

    • A Whiff of Sanskrit

    • Mapping the Yoga-Sūtras: Its Structure and Contents

    • The Classical Metaphor of the Chariot

    • Lower Mind, Higher Mind

    • Is Wisdom the Same as Intuition?

    • A Bird's-Eye View of the History of Yoga

    • Hindu, Buddhist, and Jaina Yoga

    • Yoga and Sāmkhya

    • Yoga and Vedānta

    • Observing the Mind

    • The Big Controversy Over the Meaning of Nirodha

    • Suggested Yoga Practice: Self Observation

    • Further Reading

    • For Reflection

    • Lesson 2 Quiz

  • 4

    Lesson 3: The Mystery of Spirit (Purusha)

    • Intro to Lesson 3

    • What is Spirit?

    • Inalienable Features of Purusha

    • Purusha vs. Ātman

    • The One and The Many by Georg Feuerstein

    • The Lord, A Special Spirit

    • Grace

    • The Guru Question

    • Om Recitation

    • OM and AUM

    • Further Reading

    • Suggested Yoga Practice: Mantra-Japa

    • For Reflection

    • Lesson 3 Assignment (to submit)

  • 5

    Lesson 4: The Cosmic Machine (Prakriti)

    • Intro to Lesson 4

    • Everything is in Flux

    • Holarchy: Coarse and Subtle Realms of Existence

    • Cosmic Building Blocks: The Three Gunas

    • The Body-Mind as a Machine

    • Evolution/Involution

    • What Exist Never Ceases To Be

    • Yoga is Disunion

    • Correlation (Samyoga) and Leibniz

    • "Sattvification"

    • Is the Ego Real?

    • Further Reading

    • Suggested Yoga Practice: Seeing Gunas Everywhere

    • For Reflection

    • Lesson 4 Quiz

  • 6

    Lesson 5: Dispelling Ignorance Through the Light of Wisdom

    • Intro to Lesson 5

    • The Nature of Karmic Existence

    • Living in Ignorance

    • Karma and Reincarnation

    • Suffering and Its Causes

    • The Causes of Affliction

    • From Ignorance to Ego and Its Various Expressions

    • Desire

    • Kriyā Yoga

    • The Supreme Value of Dispassion

    • Spiritual Seeking and Spiritual Materialism

    • Probing the Unconscious Mind

    • Seeing the Cosmos as Suffering

    • The Elimination of Suffering

    • Inner vs Outer Renunciation: A Lesson From the Gītā

    • Disspelling the Darkness of Ignorance

    • Further Reading

    • Suggested Yoga Practice: Visualizing Light

    • For Reflection

    • Lesson 5 Quiz

  • 7

    Lesson 6: The Eight-Limbed Path to Liberation

    • Intro to Lesson 6

    • An Outline of Patanjali's Eightfold Path

    • Understanding the Eight Limbs

    • From Multiplicity to Simplicity

    • Overcoming Your Addiction to Consensus Reality

    • Jung and Patanjali

    • Spiritual Crisis

    • Spiritual Initiation and Discipleship

    • The Guru: Dispeller of Darkness

    • Patanjali and the Buddha's Eightfold Path

    • Other Yogic Paths

    • One Step At a Time

    • Obstacles on the Path

    • "Higher" Obstacles

    • Further Reading

    • Suggestion Yoga Practice: Understanding the Obstacles in Your Life

    • For Reflection

    • Lesson 6 Quiz

  • 8

    Lesson 7: Solid Foundations: The Moral Disciplines

    • Intro to Lesson 7

    • The Great Vow of the Five Moral Disciplines

    • Nonharming

    • Matahma Gandhi

    • Timely Countermeasures

    • Truthfulness

    • Nonstealing

    • The Idea of Ownership

    • Chastity

    • A Note on Tantra

    • Greedlessness

    • Conspicuous Consumption

    • Voluntary Simplicity

    • Moral Vows and Pledges

    • Jaina Vows

    • Further Reading

    • Suggested Yoga Practice: Responsible Living

    • For Reflection

    • Lesson 7 Quiz

    • Lesson 7 Assignment (to submit)

  • 9

    Lesson 8: Turning Up the Heat

    • Intro to Lesson 8

    • The Five Practices of Self-Restraint

    • Purity

    • Bodily Perfection

    • Contentment

    • Austerity

    • The Long-Haired Ascetic (Keshin)

    • The Broom of Spiritual Discipline

    • The Austerity of Silence

    • Noise Pollution

    • Right Seeing, Hearing, and Speaking

    • More on Studying

    • Wisdom and the Hierarchy of Needs

    • Devotion to the Lord

    • How to Practice Īshvara-Prahidhāna In a Modern Context

    • Further Reading

    • Suggested Yoga Practice: Cutting Through

    • For Reflection

    • Advice From Marcus Aurelius (121 - 180 C.E.)

    • Lesson 8 Quiz

  • 10

    Lesson 9: Sitting Still, Standing Tall

    • Intro to Lesson 9

    • Posture and Posturing

    • 8,400,000 Postures

    • Hatha-Yoga vs Rāja-Yoga

    • Favourite Meditation Postures

    • Body-Mind Postures

    • The Yogic View of the Body

    • The Subtle Body

    • Scientific Evidence for the Subtle Body

    • Further Reading

    • Suggested Yoga Practice: Stretching Your Body-Mind

    • For Reflection

    • Lesson 9 Quiz

  • 11

    Lesson 10: The Breath of Life

    • Intro to Lesson 10

    • The Mystery of Life

    • Life and Breath

    • A Dialog On Breath (Prāna-Samvāda

    • Evidence For the Existence of Prāna

    • Prāna and Mind

    • Asceticism of Breathing

    • The Physiology of Breathing

    • The Secret of the Nostrils

    • The Practice of Prānāyāma

    • What is Hamsa?

    • Prānic Healing

    • Further Reading

    • Suggested Yoga Practice: Alternate Nostril Breathing

    • For Reflection

    • Lesson 10 Quiz

  • 12

    Lesson 11: Controlling the Monkey Mind

    • Intro to Lesson 11

    • The Nature of the Human Mind

    • Brain, Mind, Consciousness, Awareness

    • Lucid Waking

    • Desire and the Play of Attention

    • Proper Posture For Concentration and Meditation

    • The Yogic Gaze

    • Steady Gazing

    • Inhibiting the Senses

    • What is Concentration

    • Visualization and Meditation

    • The Locus of Meditation

    • The Meditation Brain

    • The Power of Prayer

    • The Healing Mind

    • Further Reading

    • Suggested Yoga Practice: Mindfulness

    • For Reflection

    • Lesson 11 Quiz

    • Lesson 11 Assignent (to submit)

  • 13

    Lesson 12: Dealing with Emotions

    • Intro to Lesson 12

    • What Are Emotions

    • Positive and Negative Emotions

    • Emotions and The Unconscious

    • The Principle of Cultivating the Opposite

    • The Emotional Patanjali

    • Emotions and the Sensory World

    • Emotional Obstacles on the Path

    • Undoing Old Habit Patterns

    • The Bodhisattva Ideal and Loka-Samgraha

    • Loka-Samgraha and Dharma

    • Faith, Belief, and Knowledge

    • Emotions and Healing

    • The Blessing of Illness

    • Further Reading

    • Faith According to Krishna (Bhagavad-Gītā

    • Suggested Yoga Practice: Emotions Review and the Four Brahma-Vihāras

    • For Reflection

    • Lesson 12 Quiz

    • Lesson 12 Assignment (to submit)

  • 14

    Lesson 13

    • intro to Lesson 13

    • Are There Subtle Worlds and Invisible Beings?

    • Edgar Cayce: The Sleeping Prophet

    • The Science of Parapyschology

    • Going Beyond the Ordinary Senses

    • Yoga Cosmology

    • Begin on the Lower Subtle Plane

    • Paranormal Abilities According to Patanjali

    • Perfected Adepts

    • Siddha Patanjali

    • Omniscience

    • Meditating on the Cave of the Heart

    • Levitating Yogin

    • Control Over the Senses

    • The Five Sources of Paranormal Attainments

    • You Can do Telekinesis!

    • The Eight Great Paranormal Powers of an Adept

    • The Four States of Consciousness

    • Lucid Dreaming?

    • Further Reading

    • Suggested Yoga Practice: Yoga-Nidrā

    • For Reflection

    • Lesson 13 Quiz

    • Lesson 13 Assignment (to submit)

  • 15

    Lesson 14: Imploding the Mind in Conscious Ecstacy

    • Intro to Lesson 14

    • Selective Mind, Objective World

    • Ecstatic Consciousness

    • The Path Toward Superconscious Ecstacy

    • Seeing Ecstasy Correctly

    • Ecstatic Constraint: Inner Limbs, Outer Limbs

    • Samādhi: Some Historical Glimpses by Georg Feuerstein

    • Deep Sleep and Samādhi According to Vedānta

    • Ecstasy: Ekstasis

    • Understanding Ecstasy

    • Spontaneous Experiences of Samādhi

    • From Empathy to Ecstasy

    • Fleeting Samādhi

    • Conscious (Cognitive) Ecstasy

    • The Identity Game

    • Four of Eight Types of Conscious Ecstasy?

    • Blissful Ecstasy

    • Ultrareflective Ecstasy

    • Yogic Samādhi, Trance, and Mystical Intuition

    • The Three Objects of Samāpatti

    • Further Reading

    • Suggested Yoga Practice: Who Am I?

    • For Reflection

    • Lesson 14 Quiz

    • Lesson 14 Assignment (to submit)

  • 16

    Chapter 15: Moving Toward Liberation

    • Intro to Lesson 15

    • From Ecstatic Insight to Freedom

    • Wisdom of the Sāmkhya-Sūtra

    • Transparent Consciousness

    • Supraconscious Ecstasy

    • Seeded and Seedless Ecstasy

    • Levels of Mind Control

    • Supraconscious Ecstasy and the Unconscious

    • In Case of Ramakrishna and Vivekananda

    • Ramakrishna-Vivekanda Bibliography

    • Supraconscious Ecstasy: Another Interpretation

    • Dharma-Megha-Samādhi

    • Further Reading

    • Suggested Yoga Practice: Going on Retreat

    • For Reflection

    • Lesson 15 Quiz

  • 17

    Chapter 16: Glorious Freedom

    • Intro to Lesson 16

    • Born Free

    • Freedom of Will

    • Know Thyself!

    • The Desire For Liberation

    • The Disillusionment of Liberation

    • En-Light-enment

    • Disembodied vs. Living Liberation

    • The Paradox of Liberation

    • What About the Kundalinī?

    • Further Reading

    • For Reflection

    • Lesson 16 Quiz

    • Final Course Requirements (to submit)