Patanjali

This relatively short text is a buddhistic interpretation/commentary of Patanjali's Yoga-Sutra. The basic concepts are readily explained in the introduction; I believe that this helped my understanding a lot. The core part groups several verses together and elaborates on their meaning. Various appendices provide a contemporary perspective.

Since, the text is seriously written and dense, I often had to read paragraphs multiple times. Although, most parts are clear/understandable it also contains sentences like "[...] attention must narrow its scope [...] to just those impressions that evoke the felt sense of the body [...]" (end of p.42) that I could not endow with any meaning. Those parts that I could understand seemed logically sound and chapter 3 (about schamanic powers) is treated with an amount of distance that I found almost appropriate.

Given the subject at hand, the level of clarity achieved by the commentator is very respectable.… (more)

Approximately two thousand years old, The Yoga-Sutra of Patañjali is the landmark scripture on classical yoga. The translation and commentary provided here by Georg Feuerstein are outstanding for their accessibility and their insight into the essential meaning of this ancient and complex text.

About the Author:

A scholar of international renown who has studied and practiced yoga since the age of fourteen, Feuerstein also brings to The Yoga-Sutra of Patañjali his experience as a professional indologist. His faithful and informed rendering of the aphorisms (sutras) is based on extensive personal research into the Sanskrit sources. Each word is explained so that the entire text becomes readily available to the western reader and student of yoga.

"This is certainly one of the most profound and original contributions to the understanding of classical yoga." - (Professor Mircea Eliade, University of Chicago, author of Yoga: Immortality and Freedom ).… (more)