Glossary Flashcards
Abhāva
Absence, removal
Abhyāsa
Practice, here defined as effort to concentrate the mind
Ādhibautika
Suffering produced by other beings
Ādhidaivika
Suffering produced by nature and environment
Ādhyātmika
Suffering produced by one’s own body and mind
Advaita
Monism or nonduality
Āgama
Testimony, verbal communication; includes divine scripture (shruti or shabda)
Ahankāra
“I am the doer”; sānkhya term for ego. The Gīta describes the false ‘I’ as thinking of oneself as the doer of action.
Ahimsā
Nonviolence in thought, word, and deed
Akliṣṭa
Nondetrimental (to the ultimate goal of yoga)
Ālambana
Support, object, basis; refers to the object upon which the yogi has chosen to concentrate the mind.
Al-Bīrunī
Arab traveler and historian (973-1050 CE); translated Patañjali’s Sutras into Arabic
Alinga
That which has no sign; primordial, pre-creation prakrti has no signs or characteristics.
Anādi
Without beginning, beginning less time
Ānanda-samādhi
Absorption with bliss; the fifth level of samādhi. The guna of sattva predominates in ahankāra and Buddhi. Sattva is the source of bliss.
Savitarka-samādhi
State of absorption with physical awareness, conceptualization. The first category of samadhi. When the yogi’s awareness of the object of concentration is conflated with the word for and the concept of the object.
Mentioned in Sutra 1.17
Nirvitarka-samādhi
Meditative absorption without physical awareness, without conceptualization.
The second stage of samādhi.
A state when the mind has been purged of all samskāric memory in terms of any recognition of what the object of meditation is.
Savichāra-samādhi
The third stage of samādhi. When the yogī experiences the object of meditation as consisting of subtle elements (tanmātras), circumscribed as existing in time and space.
Nirvicāra-samādhi
The fourth stage of samādhi.
Samādhi beyond reflection.
A state where the yogī can focus on the subtle substructure of the object of meditation and transcend space and time.
Asmitā-samādhi
The sixth stage of samādhi. And the final stage of samprajñata-samādhi.
The yogī becomes indirectly aware of purusha or “I am ness,” rather than any external material prakrtic object or internal organ of cognition. Different from the asmita klesha.
Saṃyama
The seventh type of samādhi.
A state of extreme concentration.
The application of dhāranā, dhyāna, and samadhi
Nirbīja-samādhi
The only objectless samādhi. Synonymous with asamprajñata samādhi.
The eight stage of samādhi.
A state where the yogī’s awareness has no contact whatsoever with prakrti. Purusha is now simply aware of itself.
Ananta
Neverending, infinite; one of the names of the cosmic serpent Śeṣa, who holds the universes on his hood.
