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PHL 356: Yoga As Philosophy & Practice

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PHL 356: Yoga As Philosophy & Practice PHL 356: Yoga as Philosophy & Practice 42020 (crosslisted as ANS 372 & RS 341G: 31074 & 43155) Spring 2015 Waggener 302 MWF 2-3 Stephen Phillips Office: WAG 301 Office Hours: MW 1-2 & by appointment Email: [email protected] Assistant: Komal Gilani Office: WAG 410A Office hours: F 11-1 & by appointment E-mail: [email protected] Course requirements: • Final exam = 40%. The exam will consist of an essay (50%), quote identification and contextualization (restricted to ancient and classical yoga literature, no modern scholarship or commentary) (30%), and a multiple-choice section, alternatively, true/false (20%). • Midterm exam = 15%. Essay. • An explanation and commentary on one or more sutras of the Yoga-sutra, a three-page paper = 30%. • Three short tests over glossary items and important concepts: quizzes = 10% (best two scores count). • Attendance = 5%. Seven attendance sheets distributed without notice throughout the term (1% each, 2 absences free). Required reading: • David Kinsley, Tantric Visions of the Divine Feminine • Georg Feuerstein, The Encyclopedia of Yoga and Tantra • James Woods (tr.), The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali • Stephen Phillips,Yoga, Karma, and Rebirth (requires UT eid) • Readings on the Web as designated, including this Web page and links used in lecture. Suggested reading: Other translations of the Yoga-sutra (esp., B.K.S. Iyengar's) Web readings as designated (including Woods' translation of the sutras without commentary and outlined according to his own original reading). Schedule of quizzes: Feb 9 (M), Mar 2 (M), Apr 27 (M) Yoga-sutra commentary due: by Mar 2 (M) Midterm exam: Mar 11 (W) Final exam: May 15 (Sat), 9-12 noon, location to be announced Topics & Requirements Weeks 1 - 3: Jan 21 - Feb 6 Introduction. Types of yoga. Definitions of the word yoga. Yoga and awareness; the subconscious and yoga's putative "superconscious." THE ASHTANGA-YOGA OF THE YOGA-SUTRA , the yamas and niyamas, "social constraints" and "personal discipline." Pronunciation exercise. (Example: ashta, "ushtu(h)," eight; anga, "ungu(h)," limb, part; yoga, discipline; astanga, "ushtAngu(h)," something that has eight parts or limbs.) Yoga as philosophy. Hinduism and the guru: "Tradition and the individual talent." Yoga literature. The Upanishads. The Bhagavad-gita. The Yoga-sutra (YS). The Yoga-sutra commentaries. Later yoga literature. An overview of yoga psychology: self-monitoring consciousness. Three levels of language in the Yoga-sutra: practice-oriented psychological metaphysical Theory and practice I. The tasks of philosophy: phenomenology evaluation speculation (theory-building) The classical "Yoga" school of philosophy (the school of Patanjali and his Yoga-sutra). Samkhya dualism. The "disidentification" prescription of Samkhya. Overview of yoga practice in all the classical philosophies. Yoga as meditation and breath-control. The goal of the yoga of the YS, kaivalya, "aloneness," and its competitors. Careful reading of YS, chapter 1, and then chapter 4. The structure of the YS (or "How to read the text"). The classical commentators, in particular Vyasa and Vachaspati Mishra. Indology. Modern commentators. Reading: A. On the Web: • (1) from B. K. S. Iyengar, Tree of Yoga (Boston: Shambala, 2002, pp. 7-9), on the first two "limbs" of yoga (the yama-s, "ethical or social restraints," and the niyama-s, "personal disciplines") • (2) G. Feuerstein, "Patanjali and the Exegetical Literature" included in (his YS translation), The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali (Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions, 1979) • (3) from Swami Satyananda Saraswati, (on pranayama) Asana, Pranayama, Mudra, Bandha, (Munger: Bihar School of Yoga, 1989), pp. 363-71. B. The Yoga-sutra (YS), chapter one, translation by James Woods: The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali (please read both the sutras and the commentatary by Vyasa but you may skip over the subcommentary by Vachaspati). Please read also S. Phillips' translation, chapter one-- now available in Yoga, Karma, and Rebirth, pp. 206-211, with notes, pp. 314-315--along with any other translation of YS ch. 1 to which you have access. C. Entries in the Encyclopedia of Yoga and Tantra. D. Yoga, Karma, and Rebirth, from ch. 1, "Yoga Literature and Classical Philosophies," pp. 27-40. Weeks 4 - 6: February 9 - 27 >> QUIZ 1: M FEB 9 at the beginning of class Interactive dualism and other models of the mind/body relationship. Materialism and causal closure. Holism. Jaina perspectivalism. The range of Yoga philosophies. The YS's practice concepts and psychological theories II. Karma and samskara, "mental dispositions." Phenomenology and first- and third-person points of view. "Voluntarism" (aka "existentialism") as making central a first-person point of view. "Phenomenology" as trying to capture "what it's like" from a first-person point of view. Self-determination vs. the determinism of nature. Yoga's self-determination thesis. Yoga and ethics. AHIMSA (the first limb of ASHTANGA YOGA), "nonharmfulness," and the Jaina argument for vegetarianism. The Buddhist arguments of Shantideva for ahimsa and compassion. Aurobindo's ethical skepticism. The YS's yama-s and niyama-s revisited. Reading: A. On the Web: • (4) "Jainism" and from the Acaranga Sutra on "ahimsa," Muni Mahendra Kumar, trans., Ayaro Acarangasutra (New Delhi: Jain Vishva Bharati, 1981) • (5) from Shantideva, The Bodhisattvacaryavatara • (6) from Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga, "Standards of Conduct and Spiritual Freedom" (Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust, 1973, pp. 190-93) • (7) from Swami Satyananda Saraswati, A Systematic Course in the Ancient Tantric Techniques of Yoga and Kriya (Munger: Bihar School of Yoga, 1989, pp. 47-50), in particular "Codes 1-10" (a slightly different list of practices and rules in comparison with the yama-s and niyama-s of the Yoga-sutra; cf., the Noble Eightfold Path of Buddhism). B. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, tr. J.H. Woods, through the end for the sutras, but only chapter one, part of chapter two, and all of chapter four with the commentary by Vyasa. The subcommentary (small print) by Vacaspati is not required except for sutras on which you write your required three-page paper. (For the paper--see below--it is crucial to read and understand Vacaspati.) To repeat, the main commentary by Vyasa is required through sutra 2.28 (p. 174) and then for the whole of chapter four. For chapter three and the other sutras, read the commentary whenever a sutra is unclear. Also read Phillips' translation and notes, Yoga, Karma, and Rebirth, Appendix C, with notes, as needed. C. Yoga, Karma, and Rebirth, from ch. 2, "Yogic Self-Monitoring," "Yoga on Philosophy's Mind/Body Problem," and "Mind-Body Interactive Dualism," pp. 41-67. (The last section of the chapter, on holism, is strongly recommended but not required.) And from ch. 3, "Ahimsa," pp. 88-97, and "Karmic Justice," pp. 102-109 (strongly recommended but not required). Compare Woods' and Phillips' translations (and any other that you have access to, e.g. Georg Feuerstein's or B.K.S. Iyengar's). As stated, it is not invariably necessary to read the commentary (except to help to understand the sutras, similarly with Phillips' notes); here are the sutras only but of course for the sutra or sutras on which you write your paper you definitely should read the commentary and Phillips' notes: see below. » Three page YS paper due Mar 2 Explain one or more sutras taken from the YOGA-SUTRA. Specify the sutra or sutras which you are targeting by typing them out at the top of your paper. Write a double- spaced essay, 11-pt font, reasonable margins, at most four pages in length. Please make at least one pertinent reference to an earlier or later sutra or sutras in the text, designating them, e.g. "YS 1.2," by chapter as well as sutra number. And be sure to refer to, severally, the sutras themselves (by Patanjali), the commentary (by Vyasa), and the subcommentary (by Vacaspati). Weeks 7 - 8: Mar 2 - 13 » QUIZ 2: Mar 2 (M), at the beginning of class Yogic perception and testimony. Should we believe yogic claims? The classical arguments. Epistemology of perception; the theory of appearing. Nyaya's externalist epistemology. Yoga's parallelism thesis. Epistemology of mysticism. Can yogic experience provide information about reality? (That is to ask, is it cognitive?) Review for the hour exam. Reading: (A) From Yoga, Karma, and Rebirth, pp. 132-135. (B) On the Web: • (8) from William Wainwright, Mysticism (Madison, Wis: University of Wisconsin Press, 1982) • (9) from C.B. Martin, Religious Belief (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1959) • (10) "Theistic Mystical Experience": From Saint Teresa of Avila, The Interior Castle (tr. J. Venard), and Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga, in S. Phillips, Philosophy of Religion (Orlando: Harcourt Brace, 1996), pp. 170-76. » MIDTERM EXAM: March 11 (W) Spring Break M MAR 23: YOGA CLASS (TAUGHT BY SHREE MARICARMEN) IN THE QUADRANGLE ROOM, THIRD FLOOR, TEXAS UNION, 3.304. PLEASE BE ON TIME (2-2:50) WEAR LOOSE CLOTHING AND BRING A YOGA MAT IF YOU HAVE ONE (THERE WILL BE A FEW EXTRAS AVAILABLE AND IT IS NOT NECESSARY TO HAVE A MAT) Weeks 9 - 10: March 23 - Apr 3 23 Mar: Class meets in the Texas Union; see above. Yoga within the history of Indian thought presented in greater detail. The Upanishads. Buddhism. The Bhagavad-Gita. Vedanta. Yoga and the Upanishads. The Upanishadic kosha ("sheath") psychology. Brahman, the Absolute. The teachings of the Upanishads. The Brahma-sutra. The classical Vedanta subschools. Reconsideration of yogic practices within the broad span of classical Sanskrit literature, especially the different darsana-s, "world views" (Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Mimamsa, Vedanta, and the rest). The Gita. The Gita's textual setting in the "Great Indian Epic," the Mahabharata. The philosophical environment: Vedanta, Samkhya, Yoga (Seshvara Samkhya), Epic Samkhya. The three "paths" (trimarga) of the Gita: karma-yoga: the yoga of action/sacrifice jnana-yoga: the yoga of knowledge/meditation bhakti-yoga: the yoga of love/devotion.
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