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The Yoga of Consciousness: From Waking, Dream and Deep Sleep to Self-Realization
The Yoga of Consciousness examines how our consciousness, identity and prana change through waking, dream and deep sleep - and more importantly how we can follow this process to higher levels of awareness behind the ordinary human state. The book proposes specific yogic insights and approaches to take us beyond these three ordinary states to the transcendent state of pure unity consciousness beyond both body and mind.
256 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 1, 2020
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43 people want to read
About the author
David Frawley
140 books311 followersDavid Frawley (or Vāmadeva Śāstrī वामदेव शास्त्री), b. 1950, is an American Hindu teacher (acharya) and author, who has written more than thirty books on topics such as the Vedas, Hinduism, Yoga, Ayurveda and Vedic astrology, published both in India and in the United States. He is the founder and director of the American Institute of Vedic Studies in Santa Fe, New Mexico, which offers educational information on Yoga philosophy, Ayurveda, and Vedic astrology. He works closely with the magazine Hinduism Today, where he is a frequent contributor.[1] He is associated with a number of Vedic organizations in several countries. He is a Vedic teacher (Vedacharya), Vaidya (Ayurvedic doctor), and a Jyotishi (Vedic astrologer).
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 28, 2022
Mixed response.
My goal here is not to review the belief system but to review a book about it. And the book seems OK as far as it goes. It comes across as a bit gushy in the beginning and I am sure it is just glossing over the surface of deep and rich traditions, writings and practices. Nonetheless it does settle down and eventually covers quite a bit of detail. It seems to get the basic ideas across pretty well. And they are certainly big ideas. And even without the dazzling ontological combinatorics, and supra-theological interpretations there is no doubt that many of the practices described are of great benefit and have been throughout the ages.
If it is all ultimately beyond thought or reason as is supposed then maybe the ontological combinatorics can just be dropped, as useful temporary scaffolding, once they have served their purpose. The metaphysical claims are by no means unique. See Plotinus in the neoPlatonic tradition or German 19th century idealists such as Kant and Hegel. We wont get into tedious and irrelevant arguments as to who influenced who.
The glaringly ugly and obtuse parts of the book, mercifully brief, are its attempts here and there to find some reconciliation of statements like ‘everything is a manifestation of universal consciousness’ and ‘The physical world is not real’ with modern physics and neuroscience. Ancient metaphysical poetry versus the hard won empirical knowledge of the last few centuries - verified and applied extensively. Really should have left that one alone. A few paragraphs doesn’t cut it. And the author clearly does not have the relevant expertise. I wont comment on the neuroscience except to say try telling someone with a progressive brain tumor that their consciousness does not really depend on the organic brain. But I can assert with some confidence that what he has to say about quantum physics is the usual nonsensical dribble. The older interpretations of quantum mechanics in all of their fluff and glory were dropped in the 1980s - forty years ago now - in the face of strong theoretical developments, experimental verification, and direct technological applications. In quantum physics consciousness/observation does NOT create reality. This is NOT part of the Theory and never was. It did for the first few decades in one form or another come up in attempted interpretations but no longer. People were desperate and a bit silly. QM is hard to understand and quite odd. In any case it’s about time for pop writers to catch up. They can still get some headway with non-locality and entanglement and intrinsic randomness if they want. But probably don’t want to stress the final one of these.
As for the belief system overall well there are some extraordinary claims and not much in the way of real evidence. ( With the usual tussles over what constitutes evidence. But it ‘feels’ right, or it ‘feels’ good, just doesn’t cut it for reasons which should be obvious. And just believe me, follow me is far worse.) At one level it’s just another religion - defined as unfounded beliefs in higher/ultimate powers that make you feel good, but also restrict freedom and free thought, and demand subordination to very worldly social/political hierarchies and their various ambitions. Conform, obey. Know your place.
Now of course you can believe whatever you want to believe - except if you are operating heavy machinery in which case you have a practical and moral duty to yourself and to others around you to have a rational objective evidence-based approach to goals and decision making. Anything else is fanatical, fantastical and irresponsible.
My goal here is not to review the belief system but to review a book about it. And the book seems OK as far as it goes. It comes across as a bit gushy in the beginning and I am sure it is just glossing over the surface of deep and rich traditions, writings and practices. Nonetheless it does settle down and eventually covers quite a bit of detail. It seems to get the basic ideas across pretty well. And they are certainly big ideas. And even without the dazzling ontological combinatorics, and supra-theological interpretations there is no doubt that many of the practices described are of great benefit and have been throughout the ages.
If it is all ultimately beyond thought or reason as is supposed then maybe the ontological combinatorics can just be dropped, as useful temporary scaffolding, once they have served their purpose. The metaphysical claims are by no means unique. See Plotinus in the neoPlatonic tradition or German 19th century idealists such as Kant and Hegel. We wont get into tedious and irrelevant arguments as to who influenced who.
The glaringly ugly and obtuse parts of the book, mercifully brief, are its attempts here and there to find some reconciliation of statements like ‘everything is a manifestation of universal consciousness’ and ‘The physical world is not real’ with modern physics and neuroscience. Ancient metaphysical poetry versus the hard won empirical knowledge of the last few centuries - verified and applied extensively. Really should have left that one alone. A few paragraphs doesn’t cut it. And the author clearly does not have the relevant expertise. I wont comment on the neuroscience except to say try telling someone with a progressive brain tumor that their consciousness does not really depend on the organic brain. But I can assert with some confidence that what he has to say about quantum physics is the usual nonsensical dribble. The older interpretations of quantum mechanics in all of their fluff and glory were dropped in the 1980s - forty years ago now - in the face of strong theoretical developments, experimental verification, and direct technological applications. In quantum physics consciousness/observation does NOT create reality. This is NOT part of the Theory and never was. It did for the first few decades in one form or another come up in attempted interpretations but no longer. People were desperate and a bit silly. QM is hard to understand and quite odd. In any case it’s about time for pop writers to catch up. They can still get some headway with non-locality and entanglement and intrinsic randomness if they want. But probably don’t want to stress the final one of these.
As for the belief system overall well there are some extraordinary claims and not much in the way of real evidence. ( With the usual tussles over what constitutes evidence. But it ‘feels’ right, or it ‘feels’ good, just doesn’t cut it for reasons which should be obvious. And just believe me, follow me is far worse.) At one level it’s just another religion - defined as unfounded beliefs in higher/ultimate powers that make you feel good, but also restrict freedom and free thought, and demand subordination to very worldly social/political hierarchies and their various ambitions. Conform, obey. Know your place.
Now of course you can believe whatever you want to believe - except if you are operating heavy machinery in which case you have a practical and moral duty to yourself and to others around you to have a rational objective evidence-based approach to goals and decision making. Anything else is fanatical, fantastical and irresponsible.
June 21, 2020
Required Reading for Humanity
Thank you again Vamadevaji for another practical and profound account of the deepest explorations of Consciousness! Must read for all students of Yoga and Spirituality!
Thank you again Vamadevaji for another practical and profound account of the deepest explorations of Consciousness! Must read for all students of Yoga and Spirituality!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews