Indian philosophy and meditation: perspectives on consciousness

164 Pages·2018·1.387 MB·English

by  Banerjee, Rahul;Chatterjee, Amita

Indian Philosophy and Meditation
I ndia has a rich tradition of meditative practices designed to study the phenomenon
of consciousness. From the distant past to the present, India has evolved a unique
psychological culture with grand unifying themes and universal modes of meditative
practice.
This book provides a detailed analysis of classical and modern Indian views
on consciousness along with their related meditative methods. It offers a critical
analysis of three distinct trends of Indian thought, viz., a dualistic mode of
understanding and realizing consciousness in Hindu Sāńkhya, an interactive mode
in early Buddhist Abhidhamma, and the evolutionary transformational mode in
the teachings of the twentieth-century sage Sri Aurobindo. This book explores
the unifying features in Indian first-person practices with regard to consciousness
and the importance of these applied psychological practices and their associated
understanding of our conscious inner lives. The most striking feature of the work
is that side by side theoretical exposition of consciousness, it includes a number
of worksheets which explain how to use meditation to achieve relaxation as well
as cognitive ‘maps’ of the different levels of conscious states and instruction
how one can traverse from one state to another. The final chapter explores Sri
Aurobindo who introduced new and decisive Indian spiritual thought and practice
to India in the form of Integral Yoga.
T his innovative book will be of interest to scholars studying Indian philosophy,
Indian religion, and the emerging field of contemplation studies.
Rahul Banerjee is Professor, Crystallography & Molecular Biology Division,
Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Kolkata, India.
Amita Chatterjee is Professor Emerita, Department of Philosophy and School of
Cognitive Science, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India.
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21 Indian Philosophy and Meditation
Perspectives on Consciousness
Rahul Banerjee and Amita Chatterjee
Indian Philosophy and
Meditation
Perspectives on Consciousness
Rahul Banerjee and
Amita Chatterjee
First published 2018
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2018 Rahul Banerjee and Amita Chatterjee
The right of Rahul Banerjee and Amita Chatterjee to be identified as
authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections
77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 978-1-138-30897-8 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-14323-1 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
Dedicated to Our Parents
Whether on Earth or in Heaven

Contents
List of illustrations x
Foreword xi
Glossary of Indian terms xiii
1 Introduction 1
1.1 What do we mean by consciousness? 1
1.2 Western conception of internal states 2
1.3 Temporal scales associated with consciousness 5
1.4 Consciousness as the citta, Puruṣa, and the Indian model
of the internal state 6
1.5 The ontological status of consciousness in the natural
order 9
1.6 Phases of Indian thought: dualism – interactionism – monism 11
1.7 The status of first-person practices in the Indian systems 15
2 Dualism-Sāńkhya 20
2.1 Introduction 20
2.2 Puruṣa and Prakṛti 21
2.3 The evolutes of Prakṛti 22
2.4 Critical estimate of Sāńkhya 23
2.5 Sāńkhya and Pātañjala yoga 25
2.6 Yama, niyama, and āsana 26
2.7 Prāṇāyama 27
2.8 Worksheet 1 28
2.9 Worksheet 2 29
2.10 Worksheet 3 29
2.11 Worksheet 4 30
2.12 Worksheet 5 31
2.13 Worksheet 6 31
2.14 Worksheet 7 32
viii Contents
2.15 Worksheet 8 32
2.16 Worksheet 9 34
2.17 Worksheet 10 34
2.18 Pratyāhāra 35
2.19 Worksheet 11 35
2.20 Dhāraṇā – dhyāna – samādhi 35
2.21 Worksheet 12 36
2.22 Worksheet 13 37
2.23 Worksheet 14 37
2.24 Worksheet 15 38
2.25 Worksheet 16 39
3 Interactionism – the Abhidhamma 41
3.1 Introduction 41
3.2 Citta and cetasiks 41
3.3 Sańkhāras 43
3.4 The laws governing internal states 44
3.5 The first law of internal states: the principle of reciprocal
dependence 45
3.6 The second law of internal states: the principle of roots 45
3.7 Akusala cittas 45
3.8 Kusala cittas of the sensual realm 50
3.9 The third law of internal states: the principle of resultants
or karma 52
3.10 The fourth law of internal states: the principle of
dominance 54
3.11 The principle of dominance and the eight-fold path 55
3.12 Worksheet 17 56
3.13 Worksheet 18 57
3.14 Worksheet 19 58
3.15 Worksheet 20 59
3.16 Worksheet 21 59
3.17 Worksheet 22 60
3.18 Worksheet 23 63
3.19 Samādhi and the jhāna cittas 66
3.20 Worksheet 24 67
3.21 The fifth law of internal states: the principle of contiguity,
repetition, and pathways 73
3.22 The seventeen moment sense-door pathways 73
3.23 Mind-door pathway and the intuitive mind 75
3.24 The death experience 77
3.25 Vipassana 79
Contents ix
3.26 Purification of view 81
3.27 Worksheet 25 81
3.28 Worksheet 26 83
3.29 Worksheet 27 85
3.30 Purification by overcoming doubt 87
3.31 The sixth law of internal states: the principle of
prāṇa-jīvitindriya 87
3.32 Purification by knowledge and vision of what is the path
and what is not the path 88
3.33 Purification of knowledge and vision of the way 89
3.34 Nirvāṇa and lokuttara cittas 90
3.35 Critical estimate of the Abhidhamma 91
4 Monism – Sri Aurobindo 95
4.1 Introduction 95
4.2 Levels of consciousness 100
4.3 The Higher Mind 100
4.4 The Illumined Mind 101
4.5 The Intuitive Mind 102
4.6 The Overmind 103
4.7 The Supermind 104
4.8 Integral yoga 106
4.9 Karma yoga 109
4.10 Worksheet 28 110
4.11 Worksheet 29 110
4.12 Worksheet 30 111
4.13 Bhakti yoga 111
4.14 Worksheet 31 112
4.15 Faith and surrender to Śakti 112
4.16 Worksheet 32 113
4.17 Worksheet 33 113
4.18 The Intuitive Mind 114
4.19 Worksheet 34 114
4.20 The psychic being 114
4.21 Integral yoga and the earth consciousness 115
Appendix 1: the Upaniṣads and self-enquiry 120
Appendix 2: Jaina views on consciousness and Preksha meditation 127
Appendix 3: the bridging relations 135
Appendix 4: Śakti and Sri Ramakrishna 139
Index 145