Stan McDaniel
Yogasayings
There are three major divisions of yoga: yoga of works, yoga of devotion, yoga of knowledge. Yogasayings is a workbook in the last of these, yoga of knowledge; but since it deals very much with the heart and the nature of desire, it touches also upon yoga of devotion. Yogasayings is an expression of nondualistic, or transactional, philosophy. As such, it allows no wedge to be driven between the abstract realm of ideas and the affective realm of emotion. To use it, you must think; and to use it, you must feel. The reader who seeks to find in it feeling without thought, or thought without feeling, will most likely abandon it at one point or the other; or better, sloughing prejudice, will accept the two merging imperceptibly as the path is followed.
Yogasayings is not meant to be read in the way one reads an ordinary book. It is a practice, not a discourse. It is tempting to cast this introduction in the form of a commentary, giving a philosophical analysis of the book's content. But this is exactly what may not be done. For the content of Yogasayings is what you provide, the discoveries you make as you use the text in the intended manner. This introduction, then, will not explain what the book says, but will explain only how to use it, and what results you may expect to achieve.
The text is divided into six short books, each one serving a slightly different purpose. Book One sets forth a certain amount of background material, while Book Six, in contrast, contains no descriptive material at all. Yet each Book is of equal importance to the whole. In a work like this, which strives to be absolutely compact, every part makes its own indispensable contribution. Since the reader cannot anticipate what the whole is until actually experiencing it, he or she also cannot decide in advance what is essential and what is not, especially when treading on unfamiliar ground.
Each of the six books is divided into short passages called sutras, four hundred in all, and each sutra is numbered. To the right of many of these numbered sections, in brackets, there are references to other sutras that are to be read and considered in connection with the current one and with each other. Thus Yogasayings is to be read not only horizontally but also vertically, moving back and forth rhythmically among the marginal references. Indeed, when you reach Book Four, you will find further insight into this dynamic relation between the horizontal and the vertical axes of yoga.
Sutra means thread, and it is the thread of intuitive thought, woven back and forth by means of the references, that spins a vertical dimension of understanding against the horizontal continuity of the text; you, the reader, create this weaving personally at each reading. As the work progresses, a pattern among these references will emerge. The object is to seek out this pattern through intuitive reflection upon the inner relations between the sections as indicated by the references. This activity of intuitive reflection upon the relations of the cross-referenced passages is the yoga of Yogasayings. By this, the text is expanded to many times its apparent length, and the need of a separate teacher to expound its inner logic is diminished. At first, the relationships are easy; later on, they become more complex and more demanding.
Any reader who does not pursue this recommended method of reading Yogasayings may get something from it, but cannot say that he or she has truly experienced the book.
Using Yogasayings effectively, then, requires action as well as passion. The activity to be aimed for is that special concentration of mind that is the essence of the yoga of knowledge. The text should be approached slowly and carefully as a meditative exercise. Each sutra should be considered first by itself, second as a part of the horizontal continuity, and finally in relation to the larger ``vertical'' matrix of ideas and insights that constitutes the fundamental dimension of the work by means of the sutra references.
Frequently beside a given sutra there will be references to more than one additional sutra. You will notice that these are not necessarily in numerical order; rather they are in the order they may be read to provide maximum value. Additionally, when a referenced sutra itself contains references, these may be read also, following the thread of references until it comes to an end. This will result in your encountering some of the sutras many times, and as the meditation continues, you may come to feel the inherent rhythms and pulses flowing throughout. This, too, is to be sought for.
None of the statements in this workbook should be valued primarily as ``factual'' but only as functional in promoting the yogic process. That this is true in a broader sense of any text whatever is one of the lessons of the book. In the course of the text, the ``esoteric meanings'' of many terms of ``Religious Language'' are identified. But this meaning is not provided by the words that appear before the eyes of the reader upon the printed page. It can only be discerned through the action of the philosophical, or inner, eye. Unless this eye is active nothing is to be thought of as explained or stated at all.
Although ``yoga'' is traditionally associated with the east, as an idea it goes beyond insular forms and dogmas. In Yogasayings a particular kind of western philosophical viewpoint is associated with very ancient religio-philosophical ideas. This western viewpoint I refer to as Transactional Philosophy. Yogasayings is, in part, an introduction to transactional thought through its inner relationship to yoga. Full realization of the connection between transactional philosophy and eastern philosophy I call the Transtantric Synthesis.
Transactional Philosophy can be traced back to Immanuel Kant, but its chief exponent in this century was John Dewey. Guided by the idea that philosophy, to be worthwhile, must have a practical effect upon our lives, Dewey determined that the barrier keeping us from living up to our full potential as human beings was the pervasive influence of metaphysical dualism, the view that mind (or spirit) and matter (or body) are fundamentally separate kinds of existence. In the course of his lifelong endeavor to construct a philosophy free from dualistic influences, Dewey entered into realms reached also by many elements of eastern and esoteric thought.
Readers who confine ``yoga'' to the eastern cultural milieu, or who have been led (wrongly) to understand that all of western thought is inferior, may feel an initial sense of discomfort when western philosophers are mentioned freely within a context that includes esoteric eastern concepts. To read Yogasayings with profit, the student must overcome uncritical bias against western thought and terminology, and seek instead to find the common ground that allows this text to exist. Eventually, we learn to respect together the overlay of east and west that eventuates in the Transtantric Synthesis. The text, properly and thoughtfully used, may lead to spontaneous experiences of illumination. It is offered to the reader in the hope that this will be the case.