This etext was produced by JC Byers.
An Introduction to Yoga
Annie Besant
Foreword
These lectures[FN#1: Delivered at the 32nd Anniversary of theTheosophical Society held at Benares, on Dec. 27th, 28th, 29th,and 30th, 1907.] are intended to give an outline of Yoga, inorder to prepare the student to take up, for practical purposes,the Yoga sutras of Patanjali, the chief treatise on Yoga. I haveon hand, with my friend Bhagavan Das as collaborateur, atranslation of these Sutras, with Vyasa's commentary, and afurther commentary and elucidation written in the light ofTheosophy.[FN#2: These have never been finished or printed.] Toprepare the student for the mastering of that more difficulttask, these lectures were designed; hence the many references toPatanjali. They may, however, also serve to give to the ordinarylay reader some idea of the Science of sciences, and perhaps toallure a few towards its study.
Annie Besant
Lecture I. The Nature of Yoga
1. The Meaning of the Universe
2. The Unfolding of Consciousness
3. The Oneness of the Self
4. The Quickening of the Process of Self-Unfoldment
5. Yoga is a Science
6. Man a Duality
7. States of Mind
8. Samadhi
9. The Literature of Yoga
10. Some Definitions
11. God Without and God Within
12. Changes of Consciousness and Vibrations of Matter
13. Mind
14. Stages of Mind
15. Inward and Outward-turned Consciousness
16. The Cloud
Lecture II. Schools of Thought
1. Its Relation to Indian Philosophies
2. Mind
3. The Mental Body
4. Mind and Self
Lecture III. Yoga as Science 1. Methods of Yoga 2. To the Self by the Self 3. To the Self through the Not-Self 4. Yoga and Morality 5. Composition of States of the Mind 6. Pleasure and Pain
Lecture IV. Yoga as Practice 1. Inhibition of States of Mind 2. Meditation with and without Seed 3. The Use of Mantras 4. Attention 5. Obstacles to Yoga 6. Capacities for Yoga 7. Forthgoing and Returning 8. Purification of Bodies 9. Dwellers on the Threshold 10. Preparation for Yoga 11. The End
Lecture I
In this first discourse we shall concern ourselves with thegaining of a general idea of the subject of Yoga, seeking itsplace in nature, its own character, its object in humanevolution.
The Meaning of the Universe
Let us, first of all, ask ourselves, looking at the world aroundus, what it is that the history of the world signifies. When weread history, what does the history tell us? It seems to be amoving panorama of people and events, but it is really only adance of shadows; the people are shadows, not realities, thekings and statesmen, the ministers and armies; and the eventsÄthe battles and revolutions, the rises and falls of states Äarethe most shadowlike dance of all. Even if the historian tries togo deeper, if he deals with economic conditions, with socialorganisations, with the study of the tendencies of the currentsof