The Yoga Sutras of Patañjali

By Edwin F. Bryant,

Book cover of The Yoga Sutras of Patañjali: Translation, and Commentary

Book description

Written almost two millennia ago, Patanjali's work focuses on how to attain the direct experience and realization of the purusa: the innermost individual self, or soul. As the classical treatise on the Hindu understanding of mind and consciousness and on the technique of meditation, it has exerted immense influence over…

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Yoga Sutras of Patañjali as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

The most insightful guide to the best-known text about yoga philosophy. Among other things, it explains why yoga isn't all about "eight limbs", since the main technique is one-pointed focus and physical contortions are later inventions. Patañjali’s pithy one-liners are hard to interpret without more context. Instead of filling in the gaps to fit modern assumptions, Bryant draws on traditional commentaries to clarify meanings. 

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