Yoga in India begins with Shakya the Muni, the Buddha, circa 463 B.C.,
the first historical yogin in India. Patanjali expounded classical yoga
around 200 B.C., based on the meditation on the Pranava, or seed
syllable. So, the basic TM technique is very ancient. According to
Eliade, India is the home of the original yoga - mantra yoga. The Buddha
was the founder of the enlightenment tradition in India. According to
Patanjali, (Charles Johnston translation):
/"Yoga is the cessation of the mental turnings of the mind."/ - Yoga
Sutra, I.1.2
The Shakya formulated the 'Eightfold Path' leading to Nirvana. The term
'Nirvana' is Sanskrit, is the central concept in Buddhism, Hinduism,
Jainism, and Kashmir Shaivism. Nirvana is the state of being
'enlightened', free from ignorance. A state where the mind that has come
to a point of /"perfect lucidity and clarity due to the cessation of the
production of volitional formations."/ Patanjali says that yoga is the
/'cessation of the fluctuations of the mind-stuff"/.
/"Let there be soundless repetition of the [pranava] and meditation
thereon."/ - Yoga Sutra, I. 1.28
"Chit" is thought; "citta" is consciousness. "Citta vriti" means the
turning of thought in the mind. "Nirodha" is cessation - the turnings
have stopped, ceased, come to a halt, stilled, blown out, made peaceful,
"Nirvana" means release; thought has been totally left behind - pure
consciousness, all by itself; there is no returning; no more.
Siddhis are an indicator of natural law - Causation. According to my
professor, A.J. Bham, Yoga has to do *isolation* (Sanskrit kaivalya)
from the prakriti. Cessation, (Sanskrit "nirodha) of the fluctuations of
the mind-stuff and the attainment of freedom, based on the sheer
willpower of the individual (moksha).
/"Freedom is a reversal of the evolutionary course of prakriti, which is
empty of meaning for the purusha; it is also the power of consciousness
in a state of true identity."/ - Yoga Sutra, IV. 34.
Notes:
As a seed syllable (bija mantra), it is also considered holy in Esoteric
Buddhism. According to what I've read, in Advaita Vedanta philosophy OM
is /"frequently used to represent three subsumed into one, a triune, a
common theme in Hinduism. It implies that our current existence is
mithya and maya, "falsehood", that in order to know the full truth we
must comprehend beyond the body and intellect the true nature of
infinity. Essentially, upon moksha (mukti, samadhi) one is able not only
to see or know existence for what it is, but to become it. When one
gains true knowledge, there is no split between the knower and the
known: one becomes knowledge/consciousness itself. In essence, Om is the
signifier of the ultimate truth that all is one."/
Om:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Om
According to the The Pali Canon, which is the oldest known teachings of
The Buddha, meditation is mentioned numerous times. Other types of
meditation taught by The Buddha are also found in the in ancient
commentary Visuddhimagga.
Practice in detail here:
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/burns/wheel088.html#other
*Works cited:*
*
**'Yoga: Immortality and Freedom'*
by Mircea Eliade
/The standard text on Yoga; scholarly; definitive, by the author of
'Shamanism', The Myth of the Eternal Return, History of Religious Ideas,
etc./
Princeton, Bollingen Foundation, Second Edition 1969
p. 264
*The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, "The Book of the Spiritual Man" *
by Charles Johnston
Watkins, 1974)Paperback
