HATHAYOGA SADHANA AND THE PARADOX OF SELF-CULTIVATION
Keywords:
Self, HATHAYOGA SADHANAAbstract
Since I have looked in some detail at the process of hathayoga in two recent studies (2001, 2002), my interest here is motivated primarily by an apparent paradox that I see positioned at the very heart of the sadhana or self-cultivation process itself. As Kalamaras says, “the meditative traditions of India have always relied upon paradox as a central method of exploration, as well as a means of describing an experience of ‘higher consciousness’ itself.”2 More specifically, I am concerned with paradox as it permeates the actual practice (sadhana) of hathayoga, rather than with the idea of paradox as a heuristic or centralizing feature of yoga philosophy. Although we do see a number of parallels with other Eastern meditative traditions, most notably Zen koans, the hathayoga material presents a level of embodied discourse that is not found to the same degree in other traditions and, for this reason, it presents a unique case study.
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