One of the eight superhuman abilities (siddhi) thought to be bestowed by high spiritual attainment.
This ability allows you to control others while remaining
unaffected by outside influences.
Transcendental
Meditation (TM) is a kind of meditation that focuses on the present moment
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi developed this religious institution, which focuses on
meditation teachings.
Transcendental Meditation (TM) emphasizes the many
advantages of meditation, as its name suggests: It enhances physical, mental,
and spiritual health in individuals, while it is believed to have pacifying
effects on the greater environment, resulting in less crime and hostility.
All of these benefits can only be acquired by rigorous
practice, but the initiation itself is simple to obtain—all that is necessary
is attendance at a seminar hosted by a TM teacher and payment of the requisite
money to get one's mantra, or holy utterance.
In recent years, TM's headquarters at Maharishi
International University in Fairfield, Iowa, has provided programs leading to
the development of superhuman abilities (siddhis).
Since an unhappy consumer who was unable to learn to
levitate won a lawsuit for damages, the claims of these programs have been
toned down.
Although meditation and the use of mantras are
well-established Hindu traditions, some aspects of TM's marketing are
unsettling to many orthodox Hindus.
The practice of purchasing (or selling) a mantra, which was
historically passed down from teacher (guru) to student only after extensive
connection, is a contentious issue.
A similar issue arises from the idea that superhuman
abilities may be bought and sold.
Because these abilities may be employed for both good and
evil, and because they have the potential to harm a spiritually immature
person, they are considered as immensely tempting.
Traditional wisdom agrees that a person should not pursue
such abilities knowingly since the act of seeking is considered as founded in
selfish aspirations.
People who have earned such abilities as a result of
spiritual development, on the other hand, are seen to be able to maintain them
in appropriate perspective.
"Tara's seat".
In the state of West
Bengal, some 130 miles northwest of Calcutta, there is a town and a holy
location (tirtha).
Tarapith is one of the Shakti Pithas, a network of holy
locations dedicated to the Goddess that stretches throughout the Indian
subcontinent.
Each Shakti Pitha commemorates the location where a
dismembered goddess Sati's body part fell to earth and assumed the shape of a
separate goddess; in the instance of Tarapith, the body part was Sati's cornea
(tara).
Tara, Tarapith's pre-existing deity, is a ferocious
manifestation of the Goddess with significant ties to tantra, a secret
ritual-based religious practice.
In modern times, the shrine is best known for an unusual
ascetic named Vamakhepa (1843–1911), who was a perfect match for Tara herself,
with his apparent irrationality and lack of respect for generally accepted
norms (he once urinated on the temple's image of Tara to show his contempt for
a deity made of iron).
Tarapith is claimed to confer supernormal abilities
(siddhis) to individuals who worship there, making it both a powerful and
possibly dangerous location to visit.
E. Alan Morinis, Pilgrimage in the Hindu Tradition, 1984, is
a good source of knowledge.
Widely seen as achievable, either by voluntary physical
austerity (tapas) or as the result of great spiritual accomplishment.
Superhuman Powers are often referred to as Siddhis.
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"Attainment" is Siddhi.
The most popular term
for a superhuman ability or capability.
The eight siddhis are mentioned for the first time in Patanjali's
Yoga Sutras (3.45), and are traditionally said to be: minuteness (anima), lightness
(lagh ima), greatness (madhima), acquisition (prapti), irresistible will
(prakamyam), control (vashitvam), superiority (ishit vam), and suppression of
desire (kamavasayitvam).
The presence of such siddhis is often seen as a sign of
great spiritual progress, yet there is a mixed reaction to the gifts.
They provide incredible skills, but they are also immensely
alluring since they may be used for both good and evil.
The ability to avoid being seduced by them is a real measure
of spiritual growth, and a spiritually immature person may easily fall into the
trap of manipulating them for selfish ends.
Since a result, religious aspirants are discouraged from
attempting to get such abilities, as the act of seeking is seen as a selfish
ambition.
People who have earned such abilities as a result of
spiritual development, on the other hand, are seen to be able to maintain them
in appropriate perspective.
Simantonnayana Samskara is a Sanskrit word that means
"Simantonnayana Samskara." The final of the prenatal samskaras, and
the third of the life-cycle rituals (samskaras).
This was done when the pregnancy was farther along, however
different authors specified different timeframes for it.
The husband dividing his wife's hair is a crucial component
of this tradition, which is intended to protect her from misfortune and black
magic that are said to afflict pregnant women.
Parting the hair may also be seen as a sign of a smooth
birth, and since it was a ceremony of protection, it would offer the pregnant
mother psychological confidence that everything will be well.
Many dharma literature authors categorize this samskara as
being for the mother rather than the unborn child, and as only needed to be
performed during the first pregnancy, which supports this view.
In recent times, this samskara is seldom practiced.
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, (b. Mahesh Prasad Verma, 1911) - Transcendental Meditation is a religious method developed by this Hindu instructor (TM).
The Maharishi ("Great Sage") was educated as an
engineer, but after meeting one of the Shankaracharyas, the most significant
modern Hindu religious leaders, he abandoned the world.
For the following twelve years, he resided with
Shankaracharya in search of spiritual understanding.
He founded an ashram in Rishikesh, but he was little
recognized until he met the Beatles, a British musical group that journeyed to
India on pilgrimage with him.
TM teachers toured American college campuses in the early
1970s, preaching the physiological and spiritual advantages of meditation and
offering them (for a charge) a mantra or holy sound that would provide them
with these benefits.
Meditation, according to TM proponents, has a calming
influence on the broader environment, resulting in lower crime, stress, and
hostility.
During this time, Maharishi International University was
founded as a teaching center for TM at the old Parsons College in Fairfield,
Iowa.
Maharishi University established a curriculum in the late
1970s to teach individuals how to gain the six traditional superhuman abilities
(siddhis).
Several disgruntled consumers have filed lawsuits against
the group since then.
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1. Yoga's psychospiritual technology, in its fully developed form, dates from the "axial age," the crucial period around the middle of the first millennium B.C.E., when Lao Tzu and Confucius lived in China, Mahavira and Gautama the Buddha lived in India, and Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle lived in Greece.
2. These geniuses and a host of other path-makers of the time - The Swiss cultural philosopher Jean Geb ser has brilliantly defined what this new perspective implies in the broader history of human civilisation.
3. He believes that mankind has traveled through a succession of four mental structures, or cognitive styles, that he has labeled the follows:
1. Archaic consciousness: This is the simplest and oldest cognitive type, with the lowest level of self-awareness and is still nearly entirely instinctive.
- It dates back to the period of Australopithecus and Homo habilis in terms of history.
- Today, this curiosity expresses itself in us as the desire for self-transcendence, for example.
- It's also involved in ecstatic experiences (samtidhi) and drug-induced altered states of consciousness, when the barrier between subject and object is temporarily removed.
2. Magical consciousness: The magical consciousness, which emerges from archaic consciousness, is still pre-egoic and has a diffuse awareness.
- It works on the concept of identity, as represented in analogical thinking, a gut-level (archetypal) reaction that connects seemingly disparate parts into a whole.
- Over one-and-a-half million years ago, this kind of consciousness may have defined Homo erectus.
- When we are captivated or in sympathy with someone or something, it is still effective in us now.
- It shows itself in a variety of ways, like blindly falling in love or momentarily forgetting one's judgment (and perhaps one's humanity) when under the hypnotic effect of a big crowd.
- The magical consciousness is also evident in parts of Yoga that require intense inner concentration, which leads to a loss of bodily awareness.
- Of course, it is also the conceptual foundation for all kinds of sympathetic magic, which is a component of certain yogic pathways, particularly Tantric schools that stress the development of paranormal abilities, or siddhis.
3. Mystical perception: This indicates a higher level of selfawareness, similar to but not equal to that of a toddler.
- Rather than mystical identity or mental duality, thinking is based on the concept of polarity.
- Symbols rather than mathematics, myth rather than hypothesis, emotion or intuition rather than abstraction are used to tell the story.
- The legendary consciousness may have been mainly embodied by the Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons.
- It, like the other structures of consciousness, is still functional today and played a key role in the development of a vast array of spiritual traditions, including Yoga.
- When we shut our eyes and immerse ourselves in mental images, or when we give lyrical expression to our deepest feelings, we engage mythological awareness.
- Most traditional Yoga methods have a significant mythological component, and they may be effectively put together under the term of Mythic Yoga, as opposed to a more integrative approach, such as Sri Aurobindo's Integral Yoga.
- "In, up, and out" is the verticalist slogan of Mythic Yoga.
- All of this is covered in more depth in Wholeness or Transcendence?
4. Awareness of the mind:
- This cognitive style, as its name implies, is the realm of the thinking, logical mind, and it operates on the concept of duality ("either/or").
- Here, self-awareness is high, and the world is seen as divided into subject and object.
- This cognitive approach has controlled our lives since the Renaissance in Europe, and it has even become a harmful force.
- Today, the naturally balanced mental awareness has degenerated into what Gebser refers to as the rational mode.
You may also want to read more about Kundalini Yoga here.
You may also want to read more about Yoga here.
You may also want to read more about Yoga Asanas and Exercises here.
You may also want to read more about Hinduism here.
Be sure to check out my writings on religion here.
You may also want to read more about Kundalini Yoga here.
You may also want to read more about Yoga here.
You may also want to read more about Yoga Asanas and Exercises here.
You may also want to read more about Hinduism here.
Be sure to check out my writings on religion here.
The Eight Greater Spiritual Powers or Siddhis are naturally found in the Self (Atman).
The fundamental essence of the Self stays veiled as long as an individual (Jiva) is ruled by Illusion (Maya). When spiritual qualities are undervalued, Siddhis become his servants naturally (when one is desireless).
The Self's eight-fold nature is fundamentally the power's eight-fold nature.
Pearls are given to those who do not demand them, while those who want things do not receive even the most basic necessities. All eight powers are given to the person who has lost all wishes.
My Nature is identical to the eight powers.
These abilities are given to everybody linked.
Desire, rage, greed, pride, envy, and hate are the six energy or passions.
The human body is designed to experience hunger and thirst. To stay alive, you must consume food and water. The mind's ailments are happiness and sadness.
If you receive what you desire, you are happy; if you do not, you are sad.
What the mind perceives as positive is positive, and what it perceives as negative is negative.
"I" is a notion that has neither a physical place nor a physical shape.
The notion of "I am Shiva. I am Shiva" (Shivoham) is beneficial.
There are six Siddhis, or powers, that are particular to the body:
All of these abilities are linked to the mind.
A total of five lesser abilities exist.
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"My Devotee" is someone who recognizes Brahman via speech, thought, and physical body. It is important to follow through on one's promises. Instead than thinking of the body as a body, consider it to be Brahman.
One feels unified with one's Essential Being by having the sensation that the "All-Pervading God" is within everything, thereby making the mind one with Brahman.
After that, one automatically obtains all spiritual abilities (Siddhis). There are eighteen abilities in all. There are eight major Siddhis and ten minor Siddhis.
Eight of them have anything to do with who you are.
The power of "Entering into the Consciousness of All" is the most subtle.
In reality, you are already in everyone's hearts. To be invisible means to be unseen within your own Being and to let go of all mental and physical impulses. "The entire Earth is mine," King Bharat declared, "but when I die, I shall belong to the Earth."
This signifies that one is once again bound by attachments. As a result, it is preferable to give up everything right away. The character of the next birth is determined by the thing in front of the mind at the time of death.
After death, the desire determines the next step. Do not get engaged in the world, even if you have noble intentions to help others, since you will fall into the trap as soon as you diverge from your own Being.
Don't lose sight of your actual self.
Why should you be afraid of your own body's death now, when it will undoubtedly fall one day? The true Saint is one who is free of the world's servitude. Recognize that everything in the world is finite. Allow it to die today rather than tomorrow! It does not appeal to me! Don't be concerned about the five-element world. Only by living in this manner will the eight Siddhis be satisfied with you.
The nature of your Being's capabilities is eightfold.
The eight powers are,
(1) the ability to shrink to the size of an atom,
(2) the ability to grow enormously,
(3) the ability to be extremely light in weight,
(4) the ability to obtain whatever is desired,
(5) the ability to control animate and inanimate objects,
(6) the ability to wield tremendous strength,
(7) the ability to enjoy any sense pleasure as desired, and
(8) the ability to make anyone do as you wish.
Your current situation is quite trivial. If you remain in harmony with your Being, however, you will get everything as soon as the mind's will emerges.
"True Devotees" are those who do not depart from their Being.
As a result, keep your mind, body, and speech in that state.
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Shuka, Valmiki, and Narada, for example, all attained spiritual enlightenment through Self-Knowledge. Listening to spiritual teachings and meditating on it can help you achieve that high status. It is necessary to practice according to what has been heard. Self-Knowledge is only possible after that.
Through listening and meditation, only those who are not drawn to the world's things may achieve Self-Knowledge.
It is not possible to produce a sweet meal merely by explaining it orally. You must first prepare it before you can consume it. Then and only then does one receive the advantage. The goal of self-study is to maintain a state of (being in) union with oneself, or one's True Nature (Swaroopa). No one becomes a sage simply by donning the renunciate's crimson or saffron robes. What you listen to should be accepted by your mind.
The mind must be receptive to what it hears.
The mind's focus should be as smooth and consistent as a fine thin trickle of oil flowing from one pot to another. Because you cannot recall what is written, you must read it again and again. Because of this forgetting, you are unable to realize your union with the Self.
Everyone relies on the wind to construct their homes. They construct castles in the sky. Everything happens in the world because of the "word." The notion of a tall building is first discussed in great detail, and then the structure is constructed. Only by words can someone who is ignorant become wise.
How can you listen if you can't hear what's being said?
It's like trying to educate a buffalo to drink water. The entire amount of water is squandered. This is due to the fact that your attention is fixed on items and does not drift away from them. If it frees itself, the work is over, and you have attained Brahman status.
Your "Being" should be Brahman at all times.
Each of the five ingredients is delicately blended with the others.
They contain the Self (Atman), yet it is distant. Although all of the dwellings are made entirely of dirt, their form and owners differ.
Similarly, despite the fact that humans are numerous, the Inner-Self in all (God) and the Wind are one. However, there is a force that claims to be "I." That element is untrue. It isn't required to be present. You will experience grief if you isolate yourself and grow proud of it.
The mind is drawn to sense things and identifies with thoughts, thus listening becomes fruitless (subtle objects).
Because our attention is drawn to sense-objects, gaining "Knowledge of Brahman" (Brahmavidya) is difficult.
If you enjoy listening to spiritual teachings, it appears that something is lacking if you do not have the opportunity to do so. Consistently good company affects the mind's temperament.
Day and night, one should be pondering and reflecting on the spiritual teachings they have received.
Talk about it and listen to it, but putting the wonderful advice you've heard into practice is even more crucial.
The act of just listening to the lecture is not very significant. It is necessary to have firsthand experience of what is being suggested and to feel connected to it. If one can achieve this, he will have attained all spiritual capabilities (Siddhis).
What does it mean to be endowed with spiritual abilities?
This implies that one naturally obtains all of life's pleasures and conveniences. This happens because he has no desire. Everyone insists on receiving something in exchange for whatever they provide.
Don't be carried away by the yearning for wealth. You must retain desirelessness in order to be of the "Brahman Nature."
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It may come as a surprise to learn that a short section on the yogic road to nirvana is buried in one of the earliest Sanskrit medical treatises.
The Embodied Person or sarirasthana in the Compendium of Caraka or
Carakasamhita contains this tract, which is just thirty-nine lines long.
The Compendium is a medical encyclopedia that is said to be the first full work on traditional Indian medicine to survive.
Even more
remarkable is the discovery of multiple references to Buddhist meditation in
this yogic tract, as well as a previously undiscovered eightfold route leading
to the recall or awareness that is the key to nirvana.
Finally, Caraka's yoga tract probably definitely precedes Patanjali's well-known classical yoga system.
Let's take a look at each of these things one by one.
The body of medical theory and practice that was first
collected and synthesized in several great medical encyclopedias, including
especially the The Compendium of Caraka and The Compendium of Susruta or
Susrutasamhita, is the foundation of classical Indian medicine, Ayurveda, or "the
knowledge for long life."
However, early Sanskrit and Pali literature include indications of the development of this medicinal system.
The Mahabharata epic has the earliest mention of the Sanskrit word Ayurveda in Indian history.
The
epic also alludes to medicine as having eight components, a concept that has
grown so common in subsequent literature that the study of “eight components”
(astanga) is used interchangeably with medicine. Therapeutics, pediatrics,
possession, surgery, and toxicology are among the areas covered.
However, the oldest mention in Indian literature to a kind of medicine that is indisputably a predecessor of Ayurveda may be found in the teachings of the Buddha or fl. ca. 480–400 BCE, but these dates are still contested.
It was not yet termed Ayurveda, as far as we know, but the core
notions were the same as those that ultimately became the basis of Ayurveda.
The Pali Buddhist Canon, as we know it now, is thought to have been written
around 250 BCE and contains a pretty reliable account of what the Buddha
stated.
There is a narrative in the “Connected Sayings” or Samyutta Nikaya collection of Buddhist sermons about how the Buddha was approached by a monk named Sivako who questioned him if sickness is caused by poor karma, or evil acts committed in the past.
No, according to the Buddha, poor karma is only one part of the equation, and illness might be caused by any of eight reasons.
Bile, phlegm, wind, and their pathological combinations, as well as seasonal changes, the stress of uncommon activity, external action, and the ripening of evil karma, were among the variables he identified.
This is the
first time these medical categories and explanations have been integrated in a
systematic manner in historical Indian history.
The word "pathological mixture," or Pali sannipata, is particularly telling: it's an ayurvedic technical word that's as precise as a modern establishment doctor declaring "hemoglobin levels."
This word indicates that the
Buddha's list of illness causes was compiled in an environment where a corpus
of systematic technical medical knowledge existed.
And it was these same qualities that subsequently
constituted the foundation of ayurveda, or ancient Indian medicine. The
historical relationship between ascetic traditions like Buddhism and ayurveda
is significant. When was Caraka's Compendium published? This work's timeline is
convoluted. The text already says that it was written by three persons. Caraka
modified or pratisamskrta an early text by Agnivesa.
Drdhabala finished Caraka's work afterwards. In his History of Indian Medical Literature, Jan Meulenbeld has meticulously examined the important historical topics.
“Caraka cannot have lived later than roughly AD
150–200 and not much earlier than 100 BC,” Meulenbeld says after examining the
Nyaya, Vaisesika, and Buddhist elements found in Caraka's Compendium.
Philipp Maas of 2006 has provided a compelling reassessment
of the authorship, title, and date of the texts commonly known as the Yoga Stra
and the Vyasabhasya, but which collectively call themselves the
Patanjalayogasastra, or Patanjali's Teaching on Yoga, in his authoritative new
edition of the "Samadhi" chapter of Patanjali's work on yoga.
Maas presents three important claims based on meticulous
argumentation and evidence:
Authors such as Madhava and the fifteenth-century
Sarvadarsanasamgraha frequently allude to Patanjali's Yogasastra, his
Samkhyapravacana, or his Yoga Stra, and to Vyasa as the author of the Bhasya,
beginning in the eleventh century.
However, Vacaspati, the first of these revisionist authors,
mentions Patanjali as the author of a section of the Bhasya elsewhere. Vacaspati
seems to be unsure whether stra and bhasya were written by the same author. In
reality, early authors such as sridhara in his approx. 991 CE Nyayakandali,
Abhinavagupta in his ca. 950 CE Abhinavabharati, and others shared this
viewpoint.
The oldest form of the work's title in manuscript chapter colophons, according to Maas, was possibly Patanjalayogasastra-samkhyapravacana, or "Patanjali's Samkhya Teaching that is the Treatise on Yoga."
Maas contends, based on this and internal
textual considerations, that Patanjali took yoga components from previous
sources and added his own explanatory sections to create the cohesive book that
has been regarded as the work of two persons from around 1100 CE.
The excerpts were called stras and attributed to Patanjali,
whilst the explanations and additional notes were called bhasyas and attributed
to Vyasa, which means "editor" in Sanskrit. Maas acknowledges that
the chronology of the Patanjalayogasastra is a matter of conjecture, but points
to likely citations by Magha or in his 600–800 CE sisupalavadha, Vrsabhadeva or
fl. ca. 650 CE, and Gaudapada or in his ca. 500 CE commentary on Isvarakrsna's
Samkhyakarikas.
According to Maas, the Patanjalayogasastra was recognized as
an authoritative expression of yoga philosophy by the beginning of the sixth
century. It would have taken a long time for such a reputation to develop.
Patanjali's apparent connection with Vasubandhu's Vijnanavada doctrine in the fourth century, as argued by Woods or 1914, is the earliest plausible date for the Patanjalayogasastra. According to Maas, the Patanjalayogasastra was composed sometime between 325 and 425 CE.
Whatever the
nuances of the arguments, it is beyond a reasonable doubt that the Compendium
of Caraka predates the Patanjalayogasastra, that the yoga tract in the
Compendium is older than Patanjali's yoga system, and that it promotes a yoga
system that is more closely related to Vaisesika philosophy than Patanjali's
Samkhya.
Yoga Tract of Caraka Caraka initially presents yoga as both spiritual emancipation and the means of reaching it in the yoga on the genesis and structure of the human person, the sarirasthana.
The Vaisesikastra is
quoted directly in verses 138–39. Caraka follows with a description of the
supernatural abilities that yoga practitioners gain as a result of their
self-discipline and focus capacity. This is consistent with Patanjali's
teaching on siddhis, as well as typical notions about the outcome of yoga
practice in Indian literature.
The descriptions in the Buddhist canonical book, the
Samannaphalasutta of the Digha Nikaya, when describing the monk who has
accomplished the four meditations or Pali jhana, are among the earliest roots
of the belief that meditation confers magical capabilities.
The following are the powers that come from being
integrated, or samahita:
Many of the essential concepts used in this list of six powers are the same as those used in Caraka's yoga tract when describing the eight capabilities that yoga practice may bring about. Caraka frames a new eightfold practice leading to remembrance, or Skt. smrti, and places remembrance at the very core of yogic practice, which is very fascinating.
Recollection,
according to Caraka, leads to yoga, which leads to the attainment of
supernatural abilities and ultimate emancipation.
The terminology and conception of this passage in the
medical literature fits it clearly within the Buddhist mindfulness meditation
tradition, or Pali satipatthana, which is also known as vipassana. In the
Buddhist tradition, the Pali term sati or Sanskrit smrti can signify memory in
two separate connotations, as Gyatso in 1992 has shown.
To begin with, it defines memory as the basic recall of events from a previous period of time, the mental process necessary to answer queries like “what did I eat for breakfast?”
In a second definition, it refers
to the expansion of one's awareness, or sensory knowledge of the current
moment.
This is the kind of vigilant self-recollection that people
have during unique or startling times in their lives, or as a result of serious
meditation practice. Such moments of reflection or awareness can often lead to
long-term recollections of the first type, known as "flashbulb
recollections."
The Sanskrit smrti-upasthana relates to the Pali compound
phrase sati-patthana, which refers to the meditational practice that leads to
remembrance or mindfulness.
And in verse 146, Caraka's text employs these exact terms to
characterize the one moral and spiritual activity that leads to all the others.
They are the result of "staying in the remembrance of reality," or
tattva-smrter upasthanat in Sanskrit. Caraka inverts the cause-effect
relationship in the next line, 147: it is the practice of the qualities
enumerated in 143–44 that leads to recall.
Finally, in verse 147, the ultimate objective of remembering
is identified with liberation from suffering, Sanskrit duhkha, which is also
the basic teaching of Buddhism. In verses 152 and 153, the idea of suffering
and impermanence is reintroduced in Buddhist terms.
Caraka's usage of these Buddhist meditational and doctrinal
keywords demonstrates unequivocally that his yoga tract is an adaptation of
extremely old ascetic material, mostly from Buddhism.
Given this, the note at the conclusion of verse 149, which
aligns remembrance with the ordinary-language definition of memory, i.e.,
recalling earlier experience, is all the more startling.
This statement might be seen as an afterthought by an author
unfamiliar with the Buddhist idea of recall or mindfulness that underpins this
tract. Because memory is at the heart of Caraka's yoga approach, the eightfold
way to remembrance outlined in verses 148 and 149 is particularly intriguing.
This looks to be an early “eightfold path” whose origins and
meaning are unknown and require additional investigation. It has no clear
connections to other early kinds of yogic route, such as the Maitrayaniya
Upanisad's sixfold route or Patanjali's Patanjalayogasastra's eightfold route.
Caraka's eight steps to mindfulness begin with the
development of perception and discrimination.
Although the same word implies, as it frequently does,
"thought" at the conclusion of verse 141, the fifth step might signify
an attachment to sattva in the sense of the Samkhya guna of purity.
The sixth phase, practice, can allude to mindfulness
training, but it may also relate to memory in the traditional sense.
The seventh phase, yoga of knowing, reminds me of the
Bhagavadgita's famed teachings on this subject, where real gnosis leads to
nirvana. Caraka's Compendium, on the other hand, demonstrates no knowledge of
the Gita.
The final step, "what is heard again," is a little
strange in syntax because it isn't quite a procedural step in a path. It was,
however, plainly intended to be the eighth "step." It implies
memorizing once more, rather than awareness in the Buddhist sense. Verse 151
closes with a fresh set of inquiries.
The Samkhya school's philosophers are often said to be those
who "count" or "reckon" or samkhyathe twenty-five tattvas
or evolutes of the universe's genesis. Caraka, on the other hand, has the
Samkhyas counting dharmas rather than tattvas in verse 151.
This clearly supports the usage of the term dharma, or Pali dhamma, in the sense of "entity," "basic phenomenon," or even more neutrally "thing," and may even imply the Buddhist Abhidharma literature's enumerative and descriptive features. Verse 153, which is a direct equivalent of Samkhyakarika 64, maintains the Samkhya link.
Caraka's yoga tract is an early and deeply syncretic treatise on the yoga path.
Its desire to synthesis across philosophical divisions is seen by its
quotations from Vaisesika and Samkhya treatises.
The Buddhist technical jargon, as well as the text's emphasis on mindfulness as the most crucial yogic practice leading to freedom, hit us the most.
This shows that Caraka included an old yoga practice based on
Buddhist smrti cultivation practices into his medicinal work. Caraka's yoga
tract was well-received among the Sanskrit literary community.
It was reproduced by the author of the Yajnavalkyasmrti in the fourth or fifth century, and from there into still another text, the Visnusmrti.
As a result, its ideas attracted a large audience outside of the
medical community.
You may also want to read more about Ayurveda and Holistic Healing here.
You may also want to read more about Yoga here.
You may also want to read more about Mindfulness Meditation and Healing here.