Yoga Ethics: Part 2/3 Yoga Ethics and South Asian Alternatives yogaphilosophy.com What we will learn about…

• Part 1: Yoga Ethics and Western Impositions. • Part 2: Yoga Ethics and South Asian Alternatives. • Part 3: Yoga Ethics and Activism (Historical Influence and Social Change). Distinguishing between Thoughts and Propositional Attitudes

• If (I believe that, fear that, hope that) It is raining outside, it does not follow that Water is falling from the sky.

• BUT

• If It is raining outside, then it is true that Water is falling from the sky. Two Alternatives

• Interpret: explain in terms of your beliefs. (Dharma has many meanings.) • Explicate: employ logical validity to render explicit reasons that entail controversial conclusions, and understand the topic as the disagreement. (Only one concept of DHARMA : THE RIGHT OF THE GOOD) Origins of the Contrast: Yoga Sūtra I.2-4 yogaś-citta-vṛtti-nirodhaḥ tadā draṣṭuḥ svarūpevasthānam (Explication) vṛtti-sārūpyam-itaratra (Interpretation)

• Logic is the responsible ordering of mental content, to allow our independence as knowers. • Relating to thoughts via propositional attitudes undermines our freedom. The West SA Ethics

• Linguistic Account of Thought (LAT): Thought is the Meaning of What One Says. Every thought has to be explained in terms of what you would say. • → Interpretation. • Goes back to Greek idea of Logos: one word for thought, reason and language. • Orthodox Indology is just this tradition trying to colonize South Asia. • Ordinary yoga practitioners by way of participating in the West further colonialism by relying on Western theories of ethics to interpret Yoga and South Asia. The West and its Politics

• LAT gives rise to: – Ethics is about social conventions. – Ethics is anthropocentric and communitarian. – Ethics has a lot to do with nationalism. Interpretation and Irrationality

(1) The Moon is a squash. (2) Squashes grow on trees. Therefore: The Moon grows on a tree. VALID though all false ~~~~ (1) J. Biden is POTUS in 2021. (2) J. Trudeau is PM of Canada in 2021. Therefore, Shyam Ranganathan is your presenter. INVALID though all true Four Ethical/Dharma Theories

• Virtue Theory: the good —virtue or strength— produces right action. • Consequentialism: the good (end) justifies the right (means). • Deontology: the right (reason) justifies the good (action or omission). • Bhakti/Yoga: the right action produces the good. Bhagavad Gītā: Arjuna’s Three Arguments • Virtue Ethics: Fighting will make him no better than the enemy (Gītā 1.38-39). • Consequentialism: War will only lead to bad outcomes (Gītā 1.34-36). • Deontology: War undermines the social fabric (Gītā 1.41). Three Ethical Theories: Break Down of Convention • Prominence of the Good in the definition of the Right in all three ethical theories. • Three Ethical Theories = Conventional Morality • Game of Dice: action for good outcomes, that arises from good participants, in accordance with good rules. Three Ethical Theories: Moral Parasites • Rigged Game of Dice is a model of conventional morality. • People (Pāṇḍavas) are so worried about being, doing, hoping for the good, they don’t see that they’re being manipulated by moral parasites (Kauravas). • Arjuna has internalized Conventional Morality that made

him a self-defeating target. My article on this: “Just War and the Indian Tradition .” The Reliance on Convention Is the Problem • Yoga, the philosophy, is anti convention. • In being devoted to unconservatism and self- governance, the yogi helps to create a new, just, inclusive moral order.

My article on this: “Just War and the Indian Tradition .” Bhagavad Gītā

1. Kṛṣṇa responds in kind. 2. karma yoga: a version of deontology that downplays the good. 3. bhakti yoga. Karma Yoga

• A version of deontology that downplays the good. • Right thing to do is: (a) suited to one’s nature that one can perfect and (b) contributes to a world of diversity. Bhakti Yoga

• Action in devotion to the procedural ideal of action. • What is called “yoga” in the Yoga Sūtra. Yoga/Bhakti

• Right Action is devotion to a procedural ideal (Īśvara) of right action. • The good is just the perfection of the practice. • Procedural Ideal has two essential traits: unconservativism and self- governance. Yoga/Bhakti

• Theism = Version of Virtue Ethics. – Priority of a Good God. • Yoga/Bhakti = Basic Ethical Theory that prioritizes the Right – Īśvara is Right and it’s Rightness warrants adherence. Yoga as a Kriyā (YS II.1)

• (The Lord is a special kind of person, untouched by afflictions, actions, untouched by effects of actions and stores (of latent tendency-impressions). I.24) • Īśvara praṇidhāna = devotion to Sovereignty • Tapas = austerity, penance, heat • Svādhyāya = self- determination • (essential aspects of

sovereignty are converted into The Goddess Lakṣmī (the Earth) embodies the goals of yoga: procedural ideals) svarūpevasthānam/“abiding in one’s form” (YS I.3), svarūpa-pratiṣṭhā/“standing on one’s form” (YS IV.34), and more literally sva-svāmī/“own mastery” (YS II.22). She is the wealth, prosperity and the thriving that comes from owning one's own choices and determining one's own future Yoga’s End: kaivalya

• The traits of Svādhyāya • svarūpevasthānam/“abiding in one’s form” (YS I.3), svarūpa-pratiṣṭhā/“standing on one’s form” (YS IV.34), and more literally sva- svāmī/“own mastery” (YS

II.22). The Goddess Lakṣmī (the Earth) embodies the goals of yoga: svarūpevasthānam/“abiding in one’s form” (YS I.3), svarūpa-pratiṣṭhā/“standing on one’s form” (YS IV.34), and more literally sva-svāmī/“own mastery” (YS II.22). She is the wealth, prosperity and the thriving that comes from owning one's own choices and determining one's own future Yoga and the West (Conventional Morality) • Virtue Theory: the good —virtue or strength— produces right action. Yoga • Consequentialism: the Appropriation good (end) justifies the right (means). Via • Deontology: the right Interpretation (reason) justifies the good (action or omission). South Asian Yoga Incorporation

• Virtue Theory: the good In South Asia, there is no —virtue or strength— denial of disagreement, nor of Yoga being a contrary produces right action. philosophical position.

Jainism, Vaiśeṣika Western appropriation tries to deny Yoga as an • Consequentialism: the autonomous position. good (end) justifies the right (means). Buddhism, Nyāya, Kāśmīra Śaivism Applied Yoga Books: Don’t Change the Options No change to the • Yogayājñavalkya(gītā) basic theory of Yoga Ethics (900-1350 CE) Made possible by basic theory of ethics because of Tapas and • Haṭhayogapradīpikā Svādhyāya Focus on the (1400 CE) Upāya-s of yoga, with different lists (of yamas, niyama- s and details about specific āsanas etc.) Eight Limbs: Upāya

• Eight Limbs of Yoga are taught as remedial measures to help with the practice: 1. Yama (Politics) 2. Niyama (Observances) – Basic Theory 3. Āsana (posture) 4. Prāṇāyāma (breath control) 5. Pratyāhāra (sense withdrawal) 6. Dhāraṇā (focus) 7. Dhyāna (exploration) 8. Samādhi (immersion) Yoga Appropriated By Conventional Morality: The Rigged Game of Dice • Mainly: • Āsana (posture) • Prāṇāyāma (breath control) • “Meditation” → – Pratyāhāra (sense withdrawal) – Dhāraṇā (focus) – Dhyāna (exploration) – Samādhi (immersion) – (No Yama, No Niyama, no Yoga as Three Kriyā-s, which, together, contradict the three other ethical theories.)

30 min Allergy to Three Kriyā-s

• Svādhyāya is a threat to conformity as it involves us choosing our own values and ideals—as opposed to choosing beliefs, and interpretations. • Āsana is not really taught: rather what is taught is Tapas, as though that’s āsana. Tapas vs. Āsana

• Tapas is literally heat production, challenging oneself (“Tapas decrease impurity, and result in supernormal attainment in body and the senses” YS II.43). • Āsana is supposed to be still and comfortable, and a source of both endless relaxation and effort. (YS II.46-7) — a way to practice all three kriyās. Easy to Fix

• Treat every limbed practice as an opportunity to engage in the three basic kriyās. • Talk about Āsana, Prāṇāyāma etc., as ways to practice yoga (as opposed to what is definitive of yoga). Fear of Yoga

• Īśvara praṇidhāna is confused with Theism (ironic) and ignored. • Īśvara praṇidhāna, and Yoga, is the opposite of Theism. Is (prakṛti) vs. Ought (puruṣa)

• Basic distinction between the facts AND • What ought to be. • Nature is about the is. • Persons are about the ought. • Expectation that you find yourself through introspection is confused, as are Buddhist criticisms that there is no self as it can’t be perceived. Why take persons seriously?

• To make responsible choices you have to take yourself seriously as a deliberator. • And this essential sense that you must take seriously is one understood in terms of its responsibility both backward and forward. • As this comes apart from personal experience, taking oneself seriously means taking other people seriously too. • There is no way to come to terms with yourself via selfishness. What About Other People?

• Get over your egotism, and you not only bring about your own kaivalya, but you also get rid of what stops you from making decisions that are good for everyone. The Enemy: Egotism

• dṛg-darśana-śaktyor-ekātmatevāsmitā • dṛg = seer, perceiver • darśana = vision, perspective, scholasticism • śaktyoḥ = (of, in, at, two) powers • eka = one • ātmatā = selfhood • iva = like, in the same manner, as it were, in a certain manner • asmitā = egotism, I-am-ness, impurity, state of concentration • Egotism consists in conflating the power of the seer (that is, the puruṣa) with the natural powers of perception into a single (conception of a) self. (YS II.6) That Means, Getting over the Isms

• Heterosexism • Bigenderism • Sexism • Speciesism • Racism • …all of which are conventionalized.