The Buddhist, Taoist, Yoga and Hindu traditions are usually taken as the primary guides to enlightenment training and theory, yet all genuine religions share cultivation theory and practices which will take practitioners to the same spiritual body attainments that constitute spiritual enlightenment. This is the only book of its kind that explains this spiritual path completely. Much of the contents will seem revolutionary, including: a comprehensive description of "interdependent origination" including the creation of the universe and sentient life that incorporates the Hua Yen view; the Diamond Sutra enlightenment view of what we are and our origins; an explanation of the spiritual goal of sat, chit, ananda and how this necessitates a dualistic mind-body cultivation system that entails physical exercise and inner energy work to achieve physical health and bliss, and meditation practice to achieve the flow state of pristine awareness; how we must cultivate our minds and behavior towards virtuous ways and improving society in order to merit the Twelve Year kundalini transformation period required for enlightenment; revelation of the five spiritual body attainments within the sambhogakaya along with their properties; the five stages scheme of spiritual progress; and the principles of Yin and Yang Qi cultivation inherent in yoga, martial arts and all spiritual cultivation practices. This will be a perennial guide to the spiritual cultivation efforts you undertake in your life.

An anthology of primary texts drawn from the diverse yoga traditions of India, greater Asia, and the West. Focuses on the lived experiences in the many world of yoga.

A unique reference work from the foremost writer on Yoga today, THE YOGA TRADITION surveys the 5,000-year history of Hindy, Buddhistm, Jaina, and Sikh Yoga, featuring full and partial translations of numerous key scriptures and over 200 illustrations. It is considered the CLASSIC text on Yoga practice and history.

In this landmark book the renowned scholar of religion Mircea Eliade lays the groundwork for a Western understanding of Yoga, exploring how its guiding principle, that of freedom, involves remaining in the world without letting oneself be exhausted by such "conditionings" as time and history. Drawing on years of study and experience in India, Eliade provides a comprehensive survey of Yoga in theory and practice from its earliest foreshadowings in the Vedas through the twentieth century. The subjects discussed include Patañjali, author of the Yoga-sutras; yogic techniques, such as concentration "on a Single Point," postures, and respiratory discipline; and Yoga in relation to Brahmanism, Buddhism, Tantrism, Oriental alchemy, mystical erotism, and shamanism.

The author asks to what extent a knowledge of the concepts of yoga may prepare the way to a better understanding of Indian archaeology. The yoga at the basis of this study is that which forms the core of the Tantras. In the first chapter the author surveys the system of Tantrik yoga. He then continues with a discussion of the various forms of yantras, that is all the means employed by yogis in their meditational exercises as aids to the concentration of thought. The author provides in-depth studies of ritual objects of the Lamaistic cult in Tibet and Nepal, the sacred cemeteries of Nepal, and pantheons in Java and Bali.

Following the Second World War, yoga has asserted its presence in America and impacted the American culture, arts, and literature. This book offers extensive explications of Saul Bellow’s Mr. Sammler’s Planet, J.D. Salinger’s “Teddy,” John Updike’s S.: A Novel, and Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five in the light of the four different yoga philosophies interwoven into their respective narrative structures. The comparative analyses of these four contemporary American fictions unveil the deeper mystical motifs implicit in their plots, stories, themes, and characters’ behavioural patterns. The exhaustive interpretations of texts in the five successive chapters put forth an exposition of how the ancient Indic philosophy and contemporary American fiction interact to explicate and enrich each other. The book adds a unique, unconventional dimension to the comparative and interdisciplinary investigation into contemporary American fiction and thereby opens up new vistas of an off-beat interface between the Eastern philosophy and Western literature.

This book describes what the Jainas considered to be the way of life proper to a layman. It attempts to examine the contents of the principal Jaina Sravakacaras. As these texts are not well known and often not easily accessible, some information about