Dominik Wujastyk-The Path to Liberation Through Yogic Mindfulness in Early Ayurvdda

8/20/2019 Dominik Wujastyk-The Path to Liberation Through Yogic Mindfulness in Early Ayurvdda

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/dominik-wujastyk-the-path-to-liberation-through-yogic-mindfulness-in-early 1/12

1 -

Te Path to Liberation through YogicMindflness in Early Ayurveda

Do inik Wuj k

It can come as a surpr se to discover that bur ed in one of the ear est medtreatises in Sanskrit is a short tract on the yogic path to bera on. is acta mere n ne verses ccurs in the Chapter on the Embodied Person( r r th na)in the Co pendiu Caraka (Carakasa hit )e Co pen-diu is a med ca encyc oped a and perhaps the ear est surviv ng com

ea se on c assica Indian medicine. It is even more surprising to nd thatyogic act cont ns severa references to Buddhist meditation and a prev ousunknown eightfo d path eading to the reco ection or mind ness that is tkey to beration. Fina y, Caraka's yoga act a most cert n y predates themous c assica yoga system of Pata a i. Let us exp ore these points int.

C assica Indian medicine,yurveda{"the know edge for ong fe , is base

on the bod of medica theory and pract ce that was rst co ected and sythesized in severa great medica en c opedias, inc uding especia y theeCo pendiu Carakaand e Co pendiu Su uta (S t a hit )However, there are traces of the format on of this med ca system o be found ear er Sanskrit and P tera re. e rst occurrence of the Sanskrit word

yurvedain Ind an history is in theMah bh rataepic. e epic a so refers tomedicine as hav ng eight components, a term that is so standard in ater

era re that the science "w th eight components( ga)becomes a synonym for medicine. These components inc ude topics such as therapeu cpedia ics, possession, surgery, and toxico ogy

But the very ear est reference in Indian tera re to a form of medicinthat is unmistakab y a forerunner of yu eda is found in the teachings ofthe Buddha {pr bab y ca480-400 BCE, but these dates are st debated .As far as we know, it was not yet ca ed y rveda, but the basic concepts wethe same as those that ater formed the founda ons of yurveda The P



Y O G C M N D F L N E S S N E A R LY Y RV E D A 33

2. at author can be called Pata jali 3. This uni ed te t can be plausibly dated to about 400 CE

Maas shows that the earliest references to "Veda y sa as the author of Bh !yaoccur at the end of the rst millenn um, in the works ofV caspatimi r(B.ca 9 1000 , in hisTattvava rad ;and K�emar a(f. ca 950 1050 , inhis SvacchandatantroddyotaFrom the eleventh cen ry onward authors suchas M dhava ( fteenth centurySarvadarfanasa graha)routinely refer to Pata-

al 'sYogaf stra,h sS khyapravacanaor hisYoga S tra,and to Vy sa as theauthor of theBh $ya

However, the ear est of these revisionist authors, V caspat , lso refers elwhere to Pata jali as the author of a part of theBh yaV caspati was appar-en y uncertain as to whethers traandbh $yawere by the same author or notIn fact, h s v ew was reasonably widespread amongst early authors suchr dharai his ca. 991 CENy yakanda Abhinavaguptai his ca 950 CE

Abhinavabh rat ,and many others Maas lso shows that the ear iest form othe wor s title in manuscript chapter colophons was probablyP ta a ayogaf stra s k apravacana,"Pata al 's S khya eaching that is the rea

tise on Yoga Wor ing from this as we l as interna te a arguments, Mconcludes that Pata ja took materia s about yoga om older sources, anadded his own e planatory passages to create the uni ed work that, sinceabout 1100 CE, has been considered the work of o people The e racts wedesignated ass tra and ascribed to Pata jali, whi e the e planations and ad-d tiona remarks were regarded as abh $yaand ascribed to Vy sa (meaning"the editor in Sanskrit)

As for the all important issue of the date of theP ta ja ayogaf stra,Maasnotes that it is par ly a matter of guesswork, but refers to the plausible cita-tions by M gha {in his 600 800 CEup avadha),V �abhadeva( .ca 650CE), and Gau<ap da {in his ca 500 CE commentary onvara � a'sS khyak rik )Maas therefore argues that theP ta a ayogaf strawas, bythe beginning of the si h century, regarded as an authoritative representatioof yoga phi osophy Such a reputation would have taken at least some time become estab ished The ear iest possible date for theP ta a ayogaf straisPata ja 's apparent engagement with the Vi nav da teaching of Vasubandhu in the fourth century, as already proposed long ago by Woods {1914Maas's na opinion is that the composi on of theP ta a ayogaf stracan beplaced in the period be een 32 and 425 CE

Whatever the nuances of the arguments, it is beyond reasonable doubt thatthe Co pendiu of C precedes the P ta a ayogaf stra,that the yogatract in theCo pendiu is older than Pata jali's yoga system, and that it pro



34 D O M I N K W J A ST Y K

pounds a yoga system that has closer l nks to Vai e�ika philosophy than to theS khya ofPata ja i's system

C 's Yog Tract

n t e yoga tract n s c apter on t e or g n an st cture o t e uman be ngthe r rasth na,Ca a a rst frames yoga as oth spiritual l eration and themeans of attaining it Verses138 39 e a direct citat on from the e ikas traCara con nues with a descrip on of the supernatural powers that acc e to

the practitioner of yoga as a result of h s self discipline and the power of h sconcentration Tis is very much in line with Pataa i s teaching onsiddhi ,and indeed with common ideas of the result of yoga practice across Indian

teratureAmong the ear est sources of the idea that supe atural powers result om

meditation are the descriptions in the Buddhist canonical tex , theS a a-pha asuttaof the D gha N k ya,when ch acterizing the monk who has completed the fo r medita ons (P jh na) he powers ise from eing te-grated (sa hita ,and are as follows:

1. ody power(k yavasa),or the power to self mult ply, vanish, ythrough w lls, even touch the sun or moon

2 nowledge from divine hea ing(dibbasota 1a) 3 mind reading(cetopariya 1a) 4. the recollection of past livesubbeniv s nussati 1a)5. di ne seeing(dibbacakkhu)6. nowledge of the destruction of the ad in uences( avakkhaya)

Many of the key terms used in this list of six powers e the same as those usedin C a s yoga tract when he descri es the eight powers that yoga pract cecan produce

Most interesting of ll, C a frames a new eightfo d practice eading torecollection (Skt.s ti),and places recollection at the very center of yog cpractice. For C a , it is recollec on that leads to yoga, and yoga that leads tothe acquisi on of supe atural powers and to ul mate l era on.

Te language and conceptua iza on of th s p sage in the medical terat rep aces it squa ely w thin the tradition of the Buddhist mind lness meditation(P isat a h na),often practiced today under the namev assan As Gyatso

1992has shown, in the Buddhist adi on, the P i termsati(Sanskrits i)can denote memory in two quite dis nct senses First, it denotes memory the simple ringing to mind of events that happened at an ea er period in



Y O G C M N D F L N E S S N E A R LY Y RV E D A 35

t me, the mental act requ red to answer such quest ons as, "what d d I have foreakfast? In a second sense, t means the dee en ng of one s consc ousn

of one's e e en a awa eness of he esent mo ent. s s t e alert seo on o n e a s a o s o ng om n

a a result of de erate forms of med tat on prac ce omet mes, such mo-ments of recollect on or m nd lness generate long term memor es of he rstt pe, wh ch are referred to as " ash ul memor es.

e P compound word sat pa h na,the med tat onal prac ce lead ngto recollec on or m nd lness, co esponds to he ansk ts ti upasth na

nd n verse 46, araka's text uses these very words to descr e he one prac-

ce that leads to all the other moral and sp r tual pract ces he has l sted eyar se om "a d ng n the memory of real ty, or n anskr ttattva s erupasth n tIn the follow ng verse,47, araka nverts the cause e ect rela-

on: t s the pract ce of he v rtues sted n43 44 hat leads to recollect onF nally, verse 47also den es the nal goal of recollect on w th eedom

om su er ng, anskr tdu kha,aga n he central doctr ne of Buddh sm sheme of su er ng and mpermanence s p cked up aga n n verses52and 53n completely Buddh st terms. araka s use of hese keywords taken d recom the Budd st med ta onal and doc nal m eu shows unam guously

that h s yoga act s an adapta on of ex emely old asce c mater al known tous ma nly om Buddh sm.

G ven all th s, t s all the more surpr s ng that he comment at the end verse 49 den es recollec on w th he ord nary language mean ng of memory, e , ca ng to m nd prev ous exper ence. It s tempt ng to see h s ment as an add t on y an author who was not fam l ar w th he Buddh s

understand ng of recollect on or m nd ness that underl es th s tract.nce recollec on s at the center of araka's method of yoga, he e gh oldpa h to recollect on that he ou nes n verses48and 49 s of spec al nterest.

h s appears to e a very early "e gh old path whose or g ns and deta lemean ng are o scure and requ re r her study. It ears no apparent relat on toother early forms of yog c path, sucha he s xfold path of theMaitr ya7 aUpan ad,or the e gh old path ofPata al 'sP ta a ayogaf tra rst fourof araka's e ght steps to m nd lness concern the deepen ng of percept onand d scr m na on e h step could mean an attachment tosattva n hesense of the khyagu7aof pur ty, al hough at the end of verse4 the sameword means, as t often does, "m nd e s xth step, pract ce, could refer topract c ng m nd lness, ut t could also po nt to memor zat on n the ordnary sense e seventh step, he yoga of knowledge, r ngs to m nd the famous teach ngs of theBhagavadg ton h s su ect, where l era on s att n-a le through true gnos s. But araka'sCo pendiu elsewhere shows no



36 D O M I N I K W J A ST Y K

a arene of theG . e la t tep " hat heard aga n yntact c ll ttle odd ce t not e ac y a procedura tep n a path But t a

ntended a the e ghth " tep It aga n u e t memor zat on, rather m nd lne n the Buddh t en e.

e la t part of ver e 5 ra e ne que t on e ph lo opher oS khya chool have norm ly een pre umed to e tho e who "count o"reckon (sa khy )the enty vetattva or evolute of the un ver e cre-a on Ho ever n ver e Caraka ha the S khya count ng nottattva

ut dha a .Th ongly u e t the u e of the worddhar a,or Pdha a n the en e of ent ty " ndamenta phenomenon or even m

neutr ly "th ng and m ght even ugge t the enumerat ve and de cr pcharacter t c of the Buddh t A dharma tera re e connect on tS khya con nue th ver e 3, w ch a d rect par lel ofS khyak ri6

Caraka yoga act an early and profoundly yncre c te t about the patof yoga It c tat on from Va e� ka and S khya ea e ho t gne to ynthe ze acro ph lo oph ca d v de But t the Buddca voca ulary and the te t focu on m nd lne a the mo t mpoyog c pract ce lead ng to berat on that ke u mo t ongly uthat Caraka ntegrated nto h med cal treat e an archa c yoga method to ed t or g n to Buddh t trad t on of cult vat ngs ti

Caraka yoga act d d not go un ot ced th n the San kr t l terary trt on t el£ In the fourth or th century t a cop ed y the author theY j ava as ti,and from there aga n nto yet another work theus tiIn th ay, t dea ga ned a reader h p far eyond phy c an

e pa age elo an lated from theCarakasa hit r ra th na ver e7 55. e San kr t ed t on u ed the tandard vulgate ed t on JadaTr-

kamj Acarya, ed.Mahar#1 Punarv unopad4 tacch4ye1 gnivefena pra1Caraka D haba bhy prat a sk t Carakasa hit Cakrap 1idattavcitay yurvedad ik vy khyay sa va it3rd ed. {Bombay N rnaya SagaraPre 94 ). Ear er tran lat on of th pa age none of h ch dev

der gn cance nclude Pr ya Vrat SharmaCaraka Sa hit AgnivefaTreatise Re ned and Annotated Cara and Re cted D haba a text ithEng ish trans ation4 vol Varana Chaukhambha Or ental a 98 99vol pp 409 ; and Ram Karan Sharma and Va dya Bha an DaAgnivefa Caraka Sa hit (Text ith Eng ish Trans ation and Critica Exption B ed on Cakrap 1i Dattayurveda D ik )7 vol . {VaranaCho kham a San kr t Ser e O ce 97 2002) vol 2,pp 345 50.



Y O G I C M I N D F L N E S S I N E R LY Y RV E D 37

Sugge on for Furter Rea ng

The ormat on and ear y h tory o the A rved med al tem outabove d u ed n more deta by Kenneth G. Zy k,Asceticis and Hea ingin Ancient ndia: Medicine in the Buddhist Mon te(New York and Bombay:O ord Un ver y Pre 991 repr nted Delh 1998, 2000) and by Duja yk, "Ind an Med ne, n F Bynu and oy Porter (ed .),Co pan

ion En opedia the Histo Medicine,2 vo (London: out edge, 993),vo . 1, pp 5 78; Dom n k uja tyk, "The S en e o Med ne, nF ood (ed.),e B ack e Co panion to Hinduis(O ord: B a kwe , 2003),pp. 393 409; and Dom n k uja tyk,e Roots yurveda: Se ections roSanskrit Medica Writings,3rd ed. (London and New York Peng n, 2003).The mo t author ta ve d u on o the date o Ayurved text GMeulenbe d,Histo ndian Medica Literature,5 vo (Gron ngen: E. For-

ten, 1999 2002), Meulenbe d' d u on o theCarak a hita 'date nvo .I pp. 105 15 The or g nal P text o theSa yuttanik yad u edabove appear n Leon Feer (ed ),Sa yutta Nik ya PartSa yatana a,3rd ed (London: Pal ext So e y, 9 ), pp 230 31 It ha been tranBh kkhu Bodh ,e Connected Discourses the Buddha: A Trans ation ro theP (Somerv e,M do Pub at on , 2000), pp. 1278 79.

The que t on o whether the Buddh t Canon re ord the d re t tea h nthe Buddha or a ater on u on by the mona t om un ty debated. T e top u e d by A ander ynn, "T e H tor al Authe

ty o Ear y Buddh t L terature: A Cr t al Eva uat on,Wiener Zeitschrr die Kunde S d iens49 (2005): 35 70, who de end a on ervat ve v ew o

the authent ty o the Canon a a re ord o the Buddha word A do how re ent manu r pt d over e a e t our v ew o theSa yuttanik ya'

orma on an be ound n Andrew G a and Mark Al n,Four G ndh rSa yukt ga a s tras Senior aro h rag ent5 (Seat e: Un ver ty oa h ngton Pre , 200 .I have tran ated the San kr t words tia " emory, "m nd ne , and

"re o e t on a ord ng to ontext. It ha been al ed "one o the mod -

ult word . .n the who e Buddh t y tem eth al p y ho ogy to tran(Dav d 1890 1894) Even n the ear y l terature o the Veda, word omverbal roots an denote memory o pa t event a we a the pre eawarene o obje t o on ou ne , a wa noted by Konrad K athe Mean ng o the oots n Ved L terature,Wiener Zeitschr r dieKunde S d iens,36 (Supp ementband) (1993): 86. Several re evant paper



38 D O M I N I K W J AS T Y K

on e co cep of memory Buddh sm are gathered Ja e Gyatso (edn the Mirror Me ory: Re ections on Min ness and Re e brance in n

dian and Tibetan Buddhis ,SUNY Se ies in Buddh st S udies (A bany Staten vers ty of New York Press,199 ) e fo ow ng mportant s udy staysery c ose to the origi a so rces se Kuan,Min ness in Ear Bud-

dhis : Ne Approaches rough Psycho o and Textua Ana sis Pa i Cnese and Sanskrit Sourcesondon and New or Rou edge ay orracis, 008). e ssues of memory, Buddh sm, a d theCarakasa hitarebrie y touched upon by ohannes Bron orst, "A Note on the C aka Saqhit and Buddhism, inEar Buddhis and Abhidhar a ought: n Honor

Doctor Haji e Sakurabe on His Seven seventh Birthday2 2.20. May(Kyoto He rakuji Shoten,00 ),pp 15 Gerhard Oberhammer,Struk-turen yogischer Meditation(Vienna Ver dsterr. Akad d Wiss ,9 ),discusses mind ness in the contex of theP taja ayogaf straand w t reference to the p a e s in theQuestions King Mi inda(Pa Mi indapa ha)See omas W am hys Da ds,e Questions King Mi inda,vo s(Oxford C arendon Press,89Q 894),vo . ,pp 58 59;and more recen y

era Nyanapon ka and Bh k u Nyanati oka,Mi indapa ha: ein historischesG tr n i re igi sen tgespr ch(Bern O W Barth [be ] Scher ,998),pp.6 63

e critica reassessment of the yoga teach ng ofPata ja is that of Ph ppdr Maas, Sa dh da: das erste Kapite des P ta a ayogaf stra zu erste

Ma kritisch ediert= e First Chapter the P ta ja ayogaf stra r therst ti eitica edited(Aachen Shaker,006).His key co c usions about the uni ed

nature of thes traand bh yaare on p x v, and h s arguments about the date

of the P ta ja ayogaf straare on pp xvi e e dence for Pata ja 's knowedge ofVasubandhu's works was given by ames Haughton Woods,e Yoga-syste Pata a i: o the ancient Hindu doctrine Concentration Mind E -bracing the Mne onic Ru es ca ed Yoga s tras Pata ja i and the Coca ed Yoga bh hy attributed to da sa and the Exp anation caTattvavai rad chaspati i ra, Harvard Orienta S ies,vo 7(Cambr dge,M Ha ard n versity Press,9 4),pp xvii xvi

Amongst the ear est descrip ons of a s ctured path of yoga, hav ng aseries ofa gasor "components is that of the sixthprap hakaof the re ative yateMaitr ya a Upani�adFor the Sanskrit t t, see V P. Limaye and D.

Vadek ( eds ),Eighteen princ a Upani�a : Upanqadic text ith para e s roextant dic iterature exegetica and gra atica notes(Poona Vaidika Samsodhana Manda a,958),pp 3 5 57 e Maitr ya a s -component yogaand some of its successors were use ly discussed by Anton Zigmund Cerbu,



Y O G C M N D F L N E S S N E R LY Y RV ED 3 9

"The ada gayoga,Hi to y Religion3:1 (1963): 128 34. Van Buitenen characterized the text a containing ome interpolation : J.A B. van Buitenen,eMait ya1 a U ani ad A itical ay With ext an lation and ta , D putat one Rheno ajectinae,vol 6 (The Hague Mouton& Co.,1962), pp 84 87 Thi point wa taken up by Somadeva Va udeva,e Yoga the Mal niv ayotta atant a C itical edit on an lation and Note ,(Pondi-cherry: IFP EFEO, 2004), p. 375, note 18, where it i a erted that thi ecof theMait ya atext may be an i terpola on later ]ay k a a hitand other early aiva ource .

utomu a a hita, "On the Na re of the Medica Pa age in the

Y j avalkya m ti, Zinbun,36 2 (2001/2002): 87 129, e tab i he that theY j avalkya m ti " tmantreati e i later than CarakaCompendiumand thatit derived almo t a o it concept in thi ec on om theCa ak a h tForthe Y avalkya m tpa age para el to ver e 146 in Caraka' yoga tract, eeSa arao Nara imha Narahara ya and Rai Bahadur Sri a Chandra Va u,eSa ed La he A a a aught in the School Yajnaval a and Explaine

V nane va a in h kno n Commenta y Named the Mitak a a il :e P aya chitta Adhyaya(Allahabad: The P ni O ce, 1913), p. 148. The text

edition i NarayanR Acharya (ed ,Y j aval a m ti Yog va a Yaj-aval a ith the Commenta y Mit a V ne va a Note ant

ing etc(Bombay: Nirnaya agara Pre , 1949), p. 390, ver e 3 160Ver e 137 o the tran lation talk about "pain . The San krit termvedan ,

omet me an lateda "feeling , i one of the key ter in the Buddhi t philo ophy of dependent origina on (Ppa{icca amupp da)and one of the vekhandhaor experien a aggregate of Buddhi t theory. The e Buddhi t con-

cept are di cu ed e pecia y in ighty by Sue Ham ton,Identi and Expe-ence the Con titution the Human Being Acco ding to Ea Buddh m(London: Luzac Orienta , 1996).

Ver e 138 139 contain a pa age para el toe ik t a5.2 16 17. The ehave been di cu ed by Antonella Comba, "Caraka a h t ,r ra th na I andVai e�ika Philo ophy, in Ge itJan Me lenbeld and Dominik Wuja tyk (edStudie on Indian Medical Hi to(Groningen: Egbert For ten, 1987), pp. 43 61;and by Ma anobu Nozawa, "Concept of oga ini e ik t a,nIndian

ought and Buddh t Cultu e E ay in Honou P o]unk chi Imani hi onHi Sixtieth Bi thday( o o: Shunj Sha, 1996), pp 17 30 The i cu ion

brecht Wezler, "Remark on the De nition of oga'in the Vai e�ika tra,Lui e A. Hercu et a (ed . ,Indological and Buddhi t Studie lume in Honou

P o Wde]ong on hi Sixtieth Bi thday(Canbe a: A a an NationalUniver ity Fac lty of A ian S die , 1982), i relevant, a though it doe



4 D O M N K W J AS Y K

ment on the a aka a h tpassage. Meulenbeld 1999 2002, vol. B, p 200note 213, g ves references for the dat ng of the e#k t a.he or g nal

e k t atext n quest on can be fo nd n the ed t on of Mun Jambuvjayaj (ed ) e#k t a Ka7 da th the commenta and nanda, Gk ad ental Se e ,vol. 1 6 (B oda: Or ental nst tute, 1961), p 42

Tran la on of te Caraka hit , ira t na 1,ver e 7-155

137

n yoga and l berat on, a pa ns are trans ent n l berat on, the cessatcomplete; yoga promotes berat on

138 139

Happ ness and pa n result f m the close prox m ty of the sel the senses, them nd, and the r objects By not commenc ng, wh e the m nd s steady an

focused on the sel that pa r stops and an embod ed person becomes powerSages who nderstand yoga know that that s yoga

1 141

Enter ng someone s m nd, knowledge of objects, free act on v s on hearreco ect on, beauty and nv s b l ty atw these are ca ed the e gh old lordlypower that og ns have.A that ar ses from med tat on( am dh na)w th a

p r ed m nd142

L bera on comes om the absence of pass on( aja )and leth gy( ama )dueto the d sappearance of potent karma Te d sjunct on f m a conjunct ons sca ed non reb rth

143 146

Constant attendance on good people, and the avo dance of those who are notgood; perform ng vows and fast ng as well as each of the sep ate res a nts(n ama);steady concentrat on(dh a7 )knowledge( v na)of the teach-

ngs abo t dharma, a penchant for so tude, an avers on to the objects of senses v ng tow ds bera on, and supreme w lpower Not n at ng dee



YO G I C M I N D F U L N E S S I N E A R LY Y U RV E D A 41

(ka ma),destruction of past deeds, unwor d iness, eedom om ego, seeingthe dangeri attachment, concen ation( am dh na)of mind and i te ect,investiga ng the true state of things.A this deve ops om abiding in themind ness of rea ity(tattv m t u th n t).147

Attendance on good peop e, etc , through to wi power (i e ,v. 143 4 thesemake mind ness( m ti)arise er hav ng become mind of the essentiana re of existing things, being mind , one is re eased om su ering(du kha)

148 149

The eight causes that are said to bring mind ness about are:

(a) perception of the cause(nimitta g aha7a)(b) perception of the form( a g aha7a)(c) simi arity( d a)(d) con ast

( av a aya)(e) attachment to at va ( attv nubandha)(f) practice(ab a)

the yoga of know edge nayoga)and(h) what is heard again una uta)Reco ec on is said to come om reco ecting what has been seen, heard

and experienced.

15o151

The power of reco ecting the truth(tattva)is the one path of iberation, theone that is revea ed by iberated peop e T ose who have gone by it have noretu ed again ogins ca this the way of yoga. T ose s khyas who havereckoned the dharmas and those who are iberated ca it the way of

iberation

152 153

Everything that has a cause is pain, not the se and impermanent For that isnot manufactured by the se £ And in that arises ownership, as ong as the uerea ization has not arisen by which the knower, having known"I am not this,this is not mine, transcends everything



42 D O M I N I K W J A S TY K

154-155

W en t s nal renunc at on ex sts,pa ns and t e causes, w t consc ous-ness, knowledge, and understand ng, stop completely ter t at, t e corporealse t at as becomeb ahmans not p rce ved Hav ng depa ted omcon-d t ons, not a s gn can be found But an gnorant person cannot know t sknowledge of t ose w o understandb ahman

Dominik Wujastyk-The Path to Liberation Through Yogic Mindfulness in Early Ayurvdda

Documents

Transcript of Dominik Wujastyk-The Path to Liberation Through Yogic Mindfulness in Early Ayurvdda