I wish there was a way I could have indented this.
Patanjali's ashtanga (eightfold) Yoga (called Raja Yoga since 15th century) path is
hatha yoga limbs: 1st 4.
baharinga sādhana (outward quest, according to BKS Iyengar :) 1st 3.
niyama ([self-]abjuring)
yama ([self-]adjuring)
asana (posing)
antaranga sādhana (inner quest, according to Iyengar :) next 2
pranayama ([control of] living)
'raja' (jnana?) yoga limbs (final 4 :)
pratyahara (abstracting/attending)
antaratma sādhana (soul quest, according to Iyengar :) final 3
dharana (concentrating)
dhayana (meditating)
samadhi (contemplating)
leads to: 2
samyama (concentrating-meditating-contemplating--illuminating/knowing? sort of step 9)
moksha (liberating)
Buddha Siddhartha's eightfold path is
prajñā (wisdom :) 1st 2
samyag-dṛṣṭi (right understanding/viewing)
samyak-saṃkalpa (right thinking/intending)
śīla (ethical conduct: ) next 3
samyag-vāc (right speaking)
samyak-karmānta (right acting)
samyag-ājīva (right living)
samādhi (contemplating; 'concentrating to meditative absorbing :) final 3
samyag-vyāyāma (right striving/endeavouring)
samyak-smṛti (right attending/mentating/meditating)
samyak-samādhi (right contemplating; 'concentrating to meditative absorbing)
leads to further stages of prajñā (wisdom: ) 2
sammā-ñāṇa (right knowing)
sammā-vimutti (right liberating)
Raja Yoga steps 1, 2 are like śīla (ethical conduct) in Buddha's path, and the 3 steps after in Raja Yoga are mostly bodily, though pratyahara could apply beyond material senses. I do not know if Iyengar was the originator of the classification he wrote, but if he made it, what I just described is another classification that would make it correspond to Buddha's path, except the paths are quite different. Raja yoga is mostly personal--introverted/esoteric, and Buddha Siddhartha's path may be mostly extraverted/exoteric, though with some esoteric steps.
To make them correspond to the 7 principles, one could combine Raja Yoga's yama (dos) & niyama (don'ts) and Buddha's vāc (speech) & karmānta (action.) However with the 2 extra steps (which are one or one is previous) they can correspond to the 8 principles as in Egyptian definitions (with mental triad) or related advanced Hindu definitions. Another way is to unify antaratma sādhana (required to be samyama at the end,) and prajñā, and śīla (the latter 2 like noesis and virtue[s,] which Platonists eventually unify) to make them correspond to the 5 Platonic solids or 5 planes humans involve & evolve 'in' (besides the ones their monads come from and may still be 'on' in pralaya.) I do not recall if the dodecahedron relates to only human or also divine spirit, but that is another topic.
Maybe there is little point in trying to classify the steps, but I like to compare them to consciousness, otherwise they are almost too much like rules. With the extra steps there are about 7 in each that relate to consciousness before liberation, if Raja Yoga's 1st 3 deal mostly with life consciousness (the 1st 2 could really apply to existence higher than that) and if Buddha's śīla is unified virtue. In a new advanced Yoga book I also read of 6 or 7, rather than 3, 'granthis' (knots usually at the 3 linga chakras) or states/patterns to overcome: I think it was 7, beacuse there are still likely things to do when one starts using the highest chakra more.
I like Raja Yoga and the Bodhisattva vows a lot, though I see the former is also much like the latter in the beginning and thus similar to Buddha's path. Some Raja Yoga should come after selfless Karma & Bhakti Yoga; it can also be a Bodhisattva path.
I've recently read similar text, and your post is very good. You broke it down into a wider format. One of the twelve ages of the Platonic year is ending and another beginning. So there is widespread sharing of up till now hidden or esoteric traditions from many parts of the world.
It is hard for me to know if I've entered too far into the dry area of intellectualism, stifling the spirit of the quest. I also want to be sure ethical, mental and spiritual growth are a strong base within me underneath it all; the internal noise of idle thoughts, or emotional passions given rise by the fellows I'm around each day. It is best to wonder how I make other's feel rather than give duration of thought to how they make me feel. Dhyana, meditation, contemplation, or concentration which has two aspects: to eliminate idle thinking, and concentrate the mind in a way that will seperate it from bondage to appearances.
'Underneath it all' is an important phrase, possibly.
You mentioned the dodecahedron, and I wonder if it is a geometric symbol for the following. "Everything in the universal cosmos consists of twelve principles or elements; or, if we are thinking of the consciousness side, the hierarchies of consciousness, we look upon them as the twelve classes of monads. In other words, when our universe first came into being and proceeded in its evolutionary stages of unfolding, it unrolled itself into twelve 'folds' or divisions, each being a plane or principle or a class of monads. If instead we use the septenary scheme, we do so only because for the time we are limiting ourselves to the seven manifested spheres from 'their' highest to 'their' lowest; similarly, when we speak of ten, we have in mind the manifested seven with the divine monad, triune in character, hovering above it. When we refer to twelve, we are viewing the 'whole', high and low, no part or portion omitted." G de Purucker.
The ordinary sequence of presenting the 8 path factors is not the sequence of practice. Here is Bhikkhu Bodhi giving the actual sequence:
| QUOTE |
The eight factors of the Noble Eightfold Path are not steps to be followed in sequence, one after another. They can be more aptly described as components rather than as steps, comparable to the intertwining strands of a single cable that requires the contributions of all the strands for maximum strength. With a certain degree of progress all eight factors can be present simultaneously, each supporting the others. However, until that point is reached, some sequence in the unfolding of the path is inevitable. Considered from the standpoint of practical training, the eight path factors divide into three groups: (i) the moral discipline group (silakkhandha), made up of right speech, right action, and right livelihood; (ii) the concentration group (samadhikkhandha), made up of right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration; and (iii) the wisdom group (paññakkhandha), made up of right view and right intention. These three groups represent three stages of training: the training in the higher moral discipline, the training in the higher consciousness, and the training in the higher wisdom.4
The order of the three trainings is determined by the overall aim and direction of the path. Since the final goal to which the path leads, liberation from suffering, depends ultimately on uprooting ignorance, the climax of the path must be the training directly opposed to ignorance. This is the training in wisdom, designed to awaken the faculty of penetrative understanding which sees things "as they really are." Wisdom unfolds by degrees, but even the faintest flashes of insight presuppose as their basis a mind that has been concentrated, cleared of disturbance and distraction. Concentration is achieved through the training in the higher consciousness, the second division of the path, which brings the calm and collectedness needed to develop wisdom. But in order for the mind to be unified in concentration, a check must be placed on the unwholesome dispositions which ordinarily dominate its workings, since these dispositions disperse the beam of attention and scatter it among a multitude of concerns. The unwholesome dispositions continue to rule as long as they are permitted to gain expression through the channels of body and speech as bodily and verbal deeds. Therefore, at the very outset of training, it is necessary to restrain the faculties of action, to prevent them from becoming tools of the defilements. This task is accomplished by the first division of the path, the training in moral discipline. Thus the path evolves through its three stages, with moral discipline as the foundation for concentration, concentration the foundation for wisdom, and wisdom the direct instrument for reaching liberation.
Perplexity sometimes arises over an apparent inconsistency in the arrangement of the path factors and the threefold training. Wisdom — which includes right view and right intention — is the last stage in the threefold training, yet its factors are placed at the beginning of the path rather than at its end, as might be expected according to the canon of strict consistency. The sequence of the path factors, however, is not the result of a careless slip, but is determined by an important logistical consideration, namely, that right view and right intention of a preliminary type are called for at the outset as the spur for entering the threefold training. Right view provides the perspective for practice, right intention the sense of direction. But the two do not expire in this preparatory role. For when the mind has been refined by the training in moral discipline and concentration, it arrives at a superior right view and right intention, which now form the proper training in the higher wisdom. |