Welcome
Required Books and Audios
How to Study
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
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
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)
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
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
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
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)
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
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
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
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)
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)
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)
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)
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
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)