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. 

From Daniel's list on the truth of yoga.

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