THE TRADITION
The Yoga Sutra is part of a much larger tradition.
To understand its ideas, it is useful to see how the same questions appear in other Yoga and Indian philosophy texts.
The supplementary texts are not studied simply to accumulate knowledge.
They are used to illuminate the central questions of Yoga.
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THE UPANISHADS
The Upanishads provide some of the earliest and most important sources for the investigation of consciousness, the Self and liberation.
We will draw particularly on texts such as:
Katha Upanishad · Taittiriya Upanishad · Mandukya Upanishad · Brihadaranyaka Upanishad
BHAGAVAD GITA
The Bhagavad Gita presents Yoga through the dialogue between Krishna and Arjuna.
It brings together action, knowledge, meditation, devotion and liberation.
It provides an important context for understanding how Yoga is understood as a practical path rather than merely a philosophical system.
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SANKHYA
Sankhya provides an important philosophical framework for the Yoga tradition.
The distinction between Purusha and Prakriti, the gunas, the evolution of the manifest world and the nature of discriminative knowledge are central to the Yoga Sutra.
We therefore investigate Sankhya alongside Yoga.
HATHA YOGA
The Hatha Yoga texts provide another dimension of the tradition.
Texts such as the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, Gheranda Samhita and Yoga Yajnavalkya explore asana, pranayama, mudra, bandha, meditation and Samadhi.
These texts help place physical and subtle practices within a larger understanding of Yoga.
ADVAITA
The tradition of Advaita Vedanta provides another perspective on the investigation of consciousness and liberation.
Texts associated with Shankara and the later Advaita tradition allow us to investigate questions that overlap with those found in Yoga:
Who am I? · What is consciousness? · What is the relationship between the mind and the Self? · What is liberation?
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ONE TRADITION, MANY TEXTS
The purpose is not to study every text in detail.
It is to see the relationships between the texts and to use them to illuminate the central questions.
The Yoga Sutra remains the central thread.
The supplementary texts help us to understand what it is saying.
