Greek and Latin Roots English Word Shoots

The English Prefixes Pro-, Contra-, and Counter-

2012-01-20T15:53:00.000-08:00

Welcome back, fans of Greek and Latin root words as they pertain to the word origins of English vocabulary! I have been busy working on Greek and Latin root words podcasts, and would like to share with you in subsequent posts each week's discoveries. I am a huge devotee of Greek and Latin etymology, which can do wonders for your working vocabulary. For a complete list of these Latin and Greek roots podcasts, check out the archive.

This past sennight ("sennight" is short for a period of "seven nights," just as fortnight means a period of "fourteen nights") I've written the following podcasts and blogs, each of which has a beautiful graphic word tree with it. Check them out!

The English prefix pro-"forward, forth, for"
In this podcast and blog (otherwise know as a "rootcast") I focus on the following English vocabulary words that contain the English prefix pro-: "forward, forth, for":

*progress*: step 'forward'
*promise*: send an intention 'forward'
*procrastinate*: put off or 'forward' into tomorrow
*propellant*: fuel which pushes a vehicle 'forward'
*product*: that which is led 'forward' by a company to sell
*promote*: move 'forward'
*pro and con*: 'for' and against
*pronoun*: part of speech which stands in place of or 'for' a noun
*pro-Apple*: 'for' Apple products
*pro bono*: 'for' the common good
*quid pro quo*: this 'for' that
*professional*: one who has put 'forth' knowledge or advanced skills to the public
*pro*: short for 'professional'

Note that many of the words above have English morphemes in them that I've also written podcasts about. Check them out by going to the English prefix pro- podcast and blog!

The English prefixes "contra-" and "counter-": "opposite, against"

*contradict*: speak 'against'
*contrast*: that which stands 'against' something else, offering an 'opposite' viewpoint
*contrary*: having the habit of often going 'against' what others do
*counter*: to offer an 'opposite' opinion
*counterbalance*: a weight or force placed 'against' another to even it out
*counteract*: to do something 'against' or 'opposite' something else
*counterattack*: to go 'against' something that has attacked you
*counterfeit*: money that is made 'opposite' of real money
*counterclockwise*: to move in a path 'opposite' that of a clock's hands
*country*: land 'opposite' another that butts up 'against' it
*con*: evidence that speaks 'against' a proposal
*contraindicate*: to indicate 'against'
*encounter*: to run up "against"

Note that many of the words above have English morphemes in them that I've also written podcasts about. Check them out by going to the English prefixes contra- and counter- podcast and blog!

For an clear podcast that explains what morphology and morphemes are (prefixes, suffixes, roots, stems, etc.), check out this podcast on English morphology

I hope that you have enjoyed this week's podcasts, blogs, and beautiful graphic word trees. I'll have two more for you next week! Stay tuned!

Want to learn English vocabulary in the most advanced, interactive, and fastest way possible? Check out Membean! It will change your English vocabulary life!

The English Prefixes Sub-, Super, and Circum-

2012-01-15T08:32:00.000-08:00

Welcome back, fans of Greek and Latin root words as they pertain to the word origins of English vocabulary! I have been busy working on Greek and Latin root words podcasts, and would like to share with you in subsequent posts each week's discoveries. I am a huge devotee of Greek and Latin etymology, which can do wonders for your working vocabulary. For a complete list of these Latin and Greek roots podcasts, check out the archive.

This past fortnight (fortnight means "fourteen night") I've written the following podcasts and blogs, each of which has a beautiful graphic word tree with it. Check them out!

The English prefix sub-"under, below, at the foot of"
In this podcast and blog (otherwise know as a "rootcast") I focus on the following English vocabulary words that contain the prefix "sub-" and its variant spellings:

*submarine*: vehicle which goes 'under' the sea.
*subway*: 'under'ground transportation
*subpar*: of a performance that is 'under' what it should be
*subscribe*: to 'under'write a magazine
*subterranean*: pertaining to 'under' the ground
*suffix*: morpheme fastened 'under' a word
*sufficient*: a doing 'under'
*suffer*: a carrying 'under'
*succor*: a running 'under'
*suggest*: a carrying 'under'
*support*: a carrying 'under'
*surreal*: 'under' reality

The English prefixes "super" and "sur": "over, above"

*Superman*: man 'over' all others
*superstar*: star 'over' all other sports or music stars
*Super Bowl*: football game 'over' all others
*superintendent*: administrator 'over' an entire school system
*supervisor*: one who watches 'over' others
*surname*: name 'over' all in a family
*surface*: layer lying 'over' something
*surpass*: to pass 'over' others
*survey*: look 'over' something
*surcharge*: charge which is 'over' and 'above' a stated fee
*surround*: a wave 'over' something that engulfs it
*superlative*: of carrying 'over' and 'above'

For an clear podcast that explains what morphology and morphemes are (prefixes, suffixes, roots, stems, etc.), check out this podcast on English morphology

I hope that you have enjoyed this week's podcasts, blogs, and beautiful graphic word trees. I'll have two more for you next week! Stay tuned!

Want to learn English vocabulary in the most advanced, interactive, and fastest way possible? Check out Membean! It will change your English vocabulary life!

Easter, Food, and Cancer

2011-04-24T07:46:00.000-07:00

Welcome back, fans of Latin and Greek root words as they pertain to English vocabulary! Happy Easter to all! The word Easter derives from the Celtic goddess Eostre, the goddess of the dawn. Easter, of course, is all about new beginnings and new life: consider the fecund rabbit that loves to have so many little bunnies; consider the dyeing of eggs, the former which remind us of the beautiful flowers of the vernal season, the latter which is of course another ultimate symbol of animal life. Just as daylight is resurrected each and every day, just as Dionysus was torn apart by the Maenads each and every year only to be reborn every successive spring, so too do the flowers and plants regain life each and every spring, all wonderful symbols of the resurgence of life.
   Easter, too, is a time to eat brightly colored, well, candy. Milk chocolate rabbits. Brightly colored Cadbury creme eggs. Jelly beans of every hue. All permutations of sugar, sugar, and more sugar. Not necessarily a bad thing, if eaten as rarely as Dionysus rising from oblivion each year. Really bad if eaten every day.
Etymology moment:

Cancer: comes from the Latin root word cancer: crab, tumor, malignant disease.

Carcinogen: come from the Greek root word karkinos: cancer, crab. Root of such words as carcinogen ("gen" simply means "engenders"), carcinoma (cancer body), carcinogenesis (producing cancer), and teratocarcinoma (a "monster" cancerous tumor).

       And, unfortunately, what with processed foods, which contain all kinds of high fructose corn syrup and every other HGI (high glyemic index--meaning--too much sugar) sweetener, all of which are conveniently located in the center aisles of mass chain monolithic grocery institutions (highly profitable, I might add, because of a long shelf life and very cheap to produce), Americans eat them all the way to contracting cancer. Recent research has suggested that cancer tumors (we ALL have them--it's just a matter of whether they metastasize or not) feed on sugar. It's their favorite food, by far. The human tongue, unfortunately, loves sugar. The problem is is that most humans do not have enough discipline to not eat sugar, ignore obsesity or signs of ill health, and then when they contract cancer they blame it on elements beyond their control.
     Pretty convenient. Just like processed foods.
     OK, I know it's impossible for most people to give up processed foods, to give up candy, to give up sugar. But what can one do to combat the types of things ingested (hate to call processed food, well food, 'cause it's not)? To stop that food from feeding tumors (through angiogenesis)? It's actually quite simple, and does NOT require a trip to the doctor's office.
      I recently read a fabulous book entitled Foods to Fight Cancer. In it, the authors make the startling claim that it's not what you are exposed to in the outside environment, but it's rather what you eat that can put a halt to tumor growth for good. And be cancer free. Imagine eating what you want (within Apollonian moderation, while at the same time occasionally enjoying Dionysian wantonness) while still retaining the ability for your body to fight off cancer generation. All you have to do is eat the following foods (and these are actual foods):

1. Dark Chocolate. Make it dark: 70% or more.
2. Red Wine. Note that this is Red wine. Organic preferred.
3. Turmeric. Mix the turmeric with ground pepper (our human bodies cannot process turmeric very efficiently without piperine, a constituent of pepper). Ever wonder why there's a very low rate of cancer in India? Curry!
4. Garlic, garlic, and more garlic. Don't cook it, or lightly cook it. It's easy to grow. OG not necessary. Chew it raw, mix it with your favorite food. This is the most anti-carcinogenic substance known to humankind to date. Did I mention you should eat garlic? Onions too.
5. Blueberries. Blueberries. Blueberries.
6. Broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage.
7. Tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes. But you have to cook them to release the lycopene. Pasta sauce, anyone? With garlic ... a sure winner.
8. Oregano, basil, thyme, rosemary.
9. Oranges and grapefruit.
10. Were you paying attention to numbers 1 and 2???????????

So, enjoy your Easter candy. It's an important part of life. Enjoy your dessert, moderately. But eat that which stops cancer from forming--it's NOT beyond your control, and some might lead you to believe. Rather, it's all about what you eat. Think of it as pre-cancer therapy. As a way of injecting your body each and every day with cures for cancer. Yes, cures for cancer before it manifests. Doesn't have to come from a drug company, who stands to make billions from an artificial cure. Ingestion. Read the book for more information.
     And watch what you put into your digestive system.
     Especially that sugar. (try LGI: Agave syrup, coconut nectar, wild honey--better).

Namaste.

Studying for the verbal section of either the SAT or GRE? Need to learn all that English vocabulary? Don't want to go through 100s and 100s of flashcards, and try to rememorize the ones you can't remember? Want something to keep track of this for you, and teach you in a way that you won't forget? Check out membean.com ... its Memory Engine will help you with all the SAT and GRE vocabulary you need, and you'll remember it too!

The Bhagavad Gita's Primary Message

2011-04-17T06:52:00.000-07:00

Welcome back, fans of Latin and Greek root words as they pertain to English vocabulary! I and my colleagues in Portland, OR have just finished putting out our SAT and GRE vocabulary online learning system that has been a labor of love. Hence, I have a few moments to discuss yet another amazing text that I've just perused, The Bhagavad Gita as translated by Eknath Easwaran. This Hindu/Yoga text, probably the most enlightening religious text I have yet to learn from, has one primary message in it that supersedes all others: The Freedom That Comes from Renunciation. Let's first take a quick look at the Latin roots of the word "renunciation:"

re-: from the Latin root "re" meaning "back, again."
nunciat: from the Latin root word nuntio, nuntiare, nuntiavi, nuntiatus: "announce, report, send a message." Thus, renunciation is the taking in of something, and sending it back out into the world, or not acquiring the desire for the "message" you want in the first place. SAT and GRE English vocabulary words that come from this root include: renounce, denounce, denunciation, enunciatem and annunciation.

The freedom that comes from renunciation is a simple concept, and it works like this. In chapter two of the Bhagavad Gita, we find the following verse:

You have the right to work, but never to the
fruit of work. You should never engage in action
for the sake of reward, nor should you long for
inaction.

This, to me, is almost the meaning of life itself. Imagine that, if you were to do work with no selfish thoughts of what you were going to get out of it; that is, you renounce all results of the work, all that which you hope to gain from the work, such as material success, power, wealth, etc. This would bring about a state of moksha, or freedom. One would never have to worry again, scheme again, be disappointed again when things didn't work out.

In point of fact, Krishna, the Lord of Yoga in The Bhagavad Gita, tells Arjuna, his disciple, that those who do not desire or hanker for the fruit of their actions, the desired results, attain spiritual perfection, and in fact get everything they want. Whereas those who strive and think only about what's in it for them gain, in the end, nothing but disappointment. This renunciation of the fruit of action (note this is not giving up the action itself!) is, in Sanskrit, tyaga. Imagine working selflessly. And thereby freeing yourself from the bondage and pain that comes from lack of success (or sometimes even from success itself, which often brings about unintended entanglements in the swirling mass that is maya).

Namaste.

Interested in learning SAT or GRE English vocabulary that is taught to you so that you won't forget it? Is that even possible? It is through a fabulous Adaptive Memory Engine that is only available at membean.com. Try it out for free ... you won't be sorry. And it's fun! Or, if your more into learning the Greek and Latin root words of English, check out www.wordempire.com for the most comprehensive Greek and Latin roots dictionary available today.

Greek Root Words of Autobiography of a Yogi

2011-04-07T07:14:00.000-07:00

Welcome back, fans of Latin and Greek root words as they pertain to English vocabulary! I and my colleagues in Portland, OR have just finished putting out our SAT and GRE vocabulary online learning system that has been a labor of love. Hence, I have a few moments to discuss a truly amazing book that I've just perused, the Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda. Being true to this English vocabulary blog's mission, to fully analyze the Greek and Latin roots of the English translation of Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, rest assured that I shall return to that labor of love in my next post. But this cannot wait.

First, let's discuss two words in the title:

autobiography: This word is comprised of the prefix auto-, which comes from the Greek root word autos, which means "self." A few GRE (and more difficult) words that come from this prolific prefix include autochthonous, automaton, autodidactic, and autonomous. From the stem, or primary morpheme, of this word, which derives from the Greek root word bios, "life," comes multiplicitous English vocabulary words: biology, biome, biochemistry, bioethics, bionic, and bioengineering. And lastly, the suffix -graphy, derived from the Greek root word graphein , "to write", come a whole host of English vocabulary words, such as: geography, paleography, cartography, selenography, and epigraphy. Can you see what each of these has to do with writing?

yogi: This word comes from a Sanskrit word meaning "to join." It is a yogi's and yogini's task to "join" with the Self, not to be confused with the phenomenal self, thereby recognizing her or his own true divinity. This word is cognate with the Latin root word iungo, iungere, iunxi, iunctum, "to join," whence: junction, adjunct, conjunction, conjunctivitis, juncture, adjoin, etc. Interested in more English derivatives that come from the aforementioned Greek and Latin roots? Check out www.wordempire.com, the most exhaustive etymological dictionary in terms of visually displaying the power of Greek and Latin vocabulary as the foundation of the English language.

Now, on to the phenomenal and I dare stay outstanding Autobiography of a Yogi. If you have ever "done" yoga, or been interested in a modern-day experience and/or life of a fully accomplished yogi, this book sheds a great deal of light on those very topics. Paramahansa Yogananda, founder of the Self-Realization Fellowship in California, engagingly and eruditely covers his variegated and colorful life from his origin in India, his days of schooling there (not a model student, I might add, but certainly a most interesting one), his apprenticeship in Yoga under Sri Yukteswar, and his eventual coming to the United States to bring the message of Kriya Yoga here. Many yogis that Yogananda met in his travels are fully discussed, such as the ageless Babaji, The "Perfume Saint," the Levitating Saint, The Sleepless Saint, Giri Bala (a yogini who never eats), etc. etc. He also discusses bilocation, a particular interest of mine. Patanjali discusses various mystic powers of a yogi that are derived from the path of Yoga, most of which were shown to be physically possible from the people that Yogananda met and so eloquently speaks of. I must admit that this book was a true eye opener, and has added dimensions to my own yoga practice that I had not even considered prior to its reading. It's almost a modern-day corroboration of the seemingly far-removed expostulations and aphoristic conundrums of Patanjali, giving us all hope in this crazy modern-day world of a better way, possible for each and every human being on this planet.
Even if you only have a small interest in yoga, read this book anyway. Its verbiage uses exalted levels of English vocabulary, and it's a highly entertaining and informational read. It's probably the best non-fiction work that I've ever perused.

Namaste.

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Latin and Greek Roots of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali--Aphorism 19, Chapter 1

2011-03-17T19:06:00.000-07:00

Welcome back fans of Greek and Latin roots as they relate to English vocabulary words! I apologize for my rather lengthy absence ... I've been very hard at work on an online vocabulary teaching system where you can learn SAT and GRE vocabulary words--and NOT FORGET THEM. Recently I have been focusing this SAT and GRE English vocabulary blog on analyzing the Greek and Latin root words of the aphorisms that comprise Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, translated by Chip Hartranft. To help in this considerable and profound endeavor, I am mining the wisdom of both Swami Satchidananda (I live near Yogaville, of which he is the founder) and Edwin G. Bryant's rabbinical and I dare say canonical exegesis of these profound sutras (the commentary on each and every one of the sutras is both classically diachronic and most enlightening). I have found the aphoristic style of these sutras (sutra means "aphorism") to be not only engaging, but also deeply profound; in them, Patanjali discusses the considerable spiritual, mental, and physical rewards that one can derive from the continuous practice of Yoga, which is much, much more than the usually held Western conception of Yoga as just the asanas, or physical postures/poses.

The purpose behind Yoga, according to Patanjali, is seeing things as they really are, not as our minds construct them to be; to do this, the ultimate goal or teleology of Yogic practice is to cease the fluctuations of the mind, that is, to calm the sem, that part of our minds that generates on average an annoying and astounding 60,000 random thoughts per day (vrittis), and while doing so mostly misperceiving samsara (the manifestations of prakrti, or worldly phenomenology), thereby leading us down paths of irreality, making the self we create seem more real than our eternal Self, (purusa or atman). This calming of the mind's thoughts causes suffering to cease, the ultimate goal of what Yoga can do for us. Life is, after all, what you think it is, and how you nonreact to all its myriad evolutes (some of which can be so very enticing!).

During the next three years, I will devote myself to writing about each of Patanjali's sutras, sequentially, contained in his remarkable 2nd-century BCE text, with a focus on analyzing the text in terms of its classical Greek and Latin roots of the fine English translation, and then providing an individual's exegesis of the text itself, based upon my own wonderful experience with Yoga (and also qigong, which was highly influenced by Yoga) thus far. It has been said that memorizing the Sanskrit text of the Yoga-Sutra in and of itself can re-pattern the mind; I am most curious to see if this phenomenon is also metalinguistic, that is, can English and its root words via Greek and Latin effect (hence, a tri-lingual, diachronic linguistic heritage) the same transformation?

Last post I focused on the Latin roots of the Yoga-Sutra: Chapter 1: Aphorism 18:   Later, after one practices steadily to bring all thought to a standstill, these four kinds of cognition fall away, leaving only a store of latent impressions in the depth memory. This post I move on to: Aphorism 19: These latent impressions incline one to be reborn after one leaves the body at death and is dissolved in nature.

Before I begin commentary on Aphorism 19, let's check out the Latin root words of some of the English vocabulary present in the aphorism:

Latent: From the Latin root word lateo, latere: to lie hidden, lurk. A "latent" impression "lies hidden" until being spurred to reappear, in this case in a later life. Note that the "-ent" suffix is nothing more than a present active participle ending, hence "latent" is "lying hidden." Latency is another key derivative, simply the substantive form of "latent."

impression: From the Latin root word premo, premere, pressi, pressum: press, crush, overpower, exert force upon. An "impression" is simply that which is "exerted upon" something else, in this case, the experiences of one's life being "pressed upon" one's memory. This Latin root word is prolific, to wit: compression, suppress, oppressive, impressionable, repressive, irrepressible, etc. A complete list of over 100 derivatives from this root word can be found via Word Empire III: Clarity, the most comprehensive Greek and Roots etymology dictionary available today.

incline: This word is derived from the Greek root word klinein: to lean. If one is "inclined" to do something, one "leans on" that choice, or "leans towards" it. Of course, one "leans" on a bed in a "clinic," where a "clinician" might take a look at you before a doctor arrives, who may either "decline" or "lean away from" treating you because you're really not sick, or put you into a "recliner" so that you can "lean back" for a more thorough look into your malady. This Greek root has given us a number of SAT and GRE words: inclination, anticlimax (via the Greek root word klimax: ladder, which "leans" against a building), declination, climax, and disinclination.

dissolve: From the Latin verb solvo, solvere, solvi, solutus: untie, loosen, destroy. When a problem is "solved," it is untied. When a substance is "dissolved" into water, its atoms are "thoroughly loosened" or broken down so as to disappear, appearing to have been "destroyed." A "solution" to a problem is its "untying," or the "loosening" of the knot of the problem. Some nice SAT derivatives that come from this Latin root word are: solvent, irresolute, absolve, resolution, dissolute, and resolve.

nature: From the Latin root word nascor, nasci, natus sum: to be born. "Nature" is that power which causes life to "be born" into the world. Many, many SAT and GRE vocabulary words come from this root word, including but not limited to: nascent, innate, naive, renaissance, naive, cognate, supernatural, and preternatural. Note that the Latin word "natura" means "power which gives birth to the world."

Now, on to Aphorism 19: These latent impressions incline one to be reborn after one leaves the body at death and is dissolved in nature.

   The latent impressions that Patanjali is referring to include all the past experiences that we've had that are lying hidden within the mind that must be dealt with in either this or a later lifetime. One can only deal with so much during one phase of life ... how hard it is to work through just one flaw, much less all of one's personality issues! Imagine dealing with not only all of one's errors one has made in this lifetime, but also in past lifetimes as well! These latent impressions, or samskaras, however, must be dealt with, for they form our karmic deposits that arise at different times during each of our different lives, and must be burned away before we can be released to go beyond the samsaric circle (cycle of life and death) with which we all must deal. Our task is to burn away these samskaras by creating what are known as restraining samskaras, that is, a bulwark or bastion that not only helps to keep at bay the creation of more samskaras (remember that impressions are created anew by the manas, or mind, each and every day) but also helps to settle and burn away the seeds of latent samskaras that form the architecture that comes with us from one life to another. If you've made great errors in previous lives, they have to be dealt with (yes, no one ever really gets away with anything from a karmic standpoint) in future incarnations where you get a new body, but have the same purusa which carries along one's challenges from lifetime to lifetime.
     So, what is the best way to deal with these latent impressions? There are eight steps in the highly pragmatic and utilitarian system called Yoga. Most of the people in the West tend to think of Yoga as only the third limb, or Yogasana, that is, the physical positions. However, Yoga is much more than that, rather comprising a system of 8 steps, or 8 limbs (much more on this as we continue to study the sutras):

1. yamas: ethical practices (including ahimsa, non-violence; aparigraha, non-possessiveness; asteya: non-theft; bramacharya--sexual self-restraint; and asteya--truthfulness)
2. niyamas: internal tasks (including cleanliness; restraint; devotion to Isvara, or Lord; contentment; and study of religious texts)
3. asana (the typical western notion of yoga, or the postures. The postures create a hardened yet supple body that can endure the rigors of the later stages of the 8-limbed path, especially sitting for long periods of time in dhyana, or meditation)
4. Pranayama: regulated inflow and outflow of the breath
5. Pratyahara: non-focus on the senses but rather beginning to travel inwards
6. Dharana: concentration within
7. Dhyana: meditation (the next step up from dharana)
8. Samadhi (enlightenment, or the vision of the Purusa, or unchanging Self: the soul, atman)

   Yogic metaphysics is predicated upon Sankhyan metaphysics, which stated, in a nutshell, the following:
1. Each and every person is divine, and possesses an individual Purusa, that is, an atman, soul, or unchanging Witness who is the true Self.
2. Each and every person, instead of identifying with the Purusa, instead identifies with the self, yet another manifestation of prakrti, that matrix that creates, perpetually, all that is around us, including our minds. The self is what we all pay attention to, but is not Reality; rather, the purusa, or Self, is. The purusa, unfortunately, has become so colored by the prakrtic self that it, too, does not fathom its divinity, immutability, and eternal immanence, and so we believe ourselves to be the collection of thoughts, beliefs, attributes that make our prakrtic selves, but have nothing to do with who We really are.

How do we realize the Self? That is where Yoga comes in. Yoga is a system whereby one is led, through a series of steps, ever increasing in difficulty, to the ultimate stage of samadhi, where we apprehend the purusa, the true Self, untainted by the prakrtic self. But it's tough. In order to stop creating more and more latent impressions, however, and deal with the existing ones, and to stop being reborn over and over again (via the samsaric process of reincarnation or metempsychosis), one can follow the very practical system of Yoga. As Patanjali states, this may take many lifetimes, but restraining samskaras transfer from life to life.

What I do: I have been practicing yogasana now for four years. I have become a vegetarian, hence fulfilling ahimsa (at least in part). Every day, or as much as I can, I practice 40 minutes of dhyana, during which time I focus upon an alambana, a bronze sculpture of Visnu, and repeat the Universal sound, AUM (which helps to quiet the mind, leading myself to mySelf--Patanjali assures us that this is the "quickest" way to access samadhi). As I focus upon Isvara Vishnu (Vishnu and Shiva are both manifestations of Isvara, the ultimate Purusa; Krishna is, in turn, a manifestation or inflection of Vishnu), I also focus upon my third eye (between the eyes and a little up towards the crown) and my heart center. I refocus, again and again and again, as thoughts continue to be generated; I simultaneously practice pranayama, the gentle but controlled and even luxurious inbreath to outbreath, retain, inbreath to outbreath, retain, all the way from the belly to the top of the rib cage, focusing not only on length, but also breadth.
     I also practice qigong, an ancient Chinese art of healing that was highly influenced by Yoga, facing the north in a copse of pine trees. More on that later.
      Stay tuned for my next post, which will focus on Aphorism 20, Chapter 1.

Fascinated with English vocabulary words? Want to pick them apart into their constituent Greek and Latin roots? Want to know even more SAT and GRE words that come from such Latin root words as premo, premere and solvo, solvere? Studying hard for the SAT or GRE verbal section, and just can't get a handle on all of those vocabulary words, which are truly legion? Check out the Greek and Latin roots site Word Empire, where you will find the most comprehensive Greek and Latin roots dictionary available today, and also the most beautiful ... it's in full color, and artistically designed--lexicoaesthetic! There's even a Greek and Latin roots poster available, which nicely illustrates the full power of what Greek and Latin root words can do for you.
Or, do you want to be taught SAT and GRE vocabulary words with an online learning system? Check out Membean.com --the newest and completely online vocabulary teaching system that is not only revolutionary in helping you remember SAT and GRE vocabulary, but also is fun! Try it--you'll like it!

Latin and Greek Roots of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali--Aphorism 18, Chapter 1

2010-12-04T16:33:00.000-08:00

Welcome back fans of Greek and Latin roots as they relate to English vocabulary words! Recently I have been focusing this SAT and GRE English vocabulary blog on analyzing the Greek and Latin root words of titles of great works of literature, and then discussing why those works are nonpareil. I am currently perusing Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, translated by Chip Hartranft. To help in this considerable and profound endeavor, I am mining the wisdom of both Swami Satchidananda (I live near Yogaville, of which he is the founder) and Edwin G. Bryant's rabbinical and I dare say canonical exegesis of these profound sutras (the commentary on each and every one of the sutras is both classically diachronic and most enlightening). I have found the aphoristic style of the these sutras (sutra means "aphorism") to be not only engaging, but also deeply profound; in them, Patanjali discusses the considerable spiritual, mental, and physical rewards that one can derive from the continuous practice of Yoga, which is much, much more than the usually held Western conception of Yoga as just the asanas, or physical postures/poses.

The purpose behind Yoga, according to Patanjali, is seeing things as they really are, not as our minds construct them to be; to do this, the ultimate goal or teleology of Yogic practice is to cease the fluctuations of the mind, to calm the sem, that part of our minds that generates an annoying 60,000 random thoughts per day (vrittis) and mostly misperceives samsara (the manifestations of prakrti, or worldly phenomenology), and can lead us down paths of irreality. This calming of the mind's thoughts causes suffering to cease, the ultimate goal of what Yoga can do for us. Life is, after all, what you think it is, and how you nonreact to all its myriad evolutes (which are all so very interesting!).

During the next three years, I will devote myself to writing about each of Patanjali's sutras, sequentially, contained in his remarkable 2nd-century BCE text, with a focus on analyzing the text in terms of its classical Greek and Latin roots of the fine English translation, and then providing an individual's exegesis of the text itself, based upon my own wonderful experience with Yoga (and also qigong) thus far. It has been said that memorizing the Sanskrit text of the Yoga-Sutra in and of itself can re-pattern the mind; I am most curious to see if this phenomenon is also metalinguistic, that is, can English and its root words via Greek and Latin effect (hence, a tri-lingual, diachronic linguistic heritage) the same transformation?

Last post I focused on the Latin roots of the Yoga-Sutra: Chapter 1: Aphorism 17: At first the stilling process is accompanied by four kinds of cognition: analytical thinking, insight, bliss, and feeling like a self. This post I move on to: Aphorism 18: Later, after one practices steadily to bring all thought to a standstill, these four kinds of cognition fall away, leaving only a store of latent impressions in the depth memory.

Let's first take a look at a couple of the most important Latin and Greek root words of this sutra:

Practices: From the Greek root word praktikos: active, fit for action, business-like,which is related to pragma, pragmatos: deed, act. Practice is nothing more than doing; praxis is a fancier word for the same idea. Numerous SAT and GRE derivatives come via this word, such as impracticality, pragmatic, pragmatism, malpractice, and practiced (adj.).

Cognition: From the Latin root word cognosco, cognoscere, cognovi, cognitum: to learn, know. Cognition is the act of learning or knowing (in an extremely broad sense). Other fine SAT and GRE derivatives that come from this root include cognitive, incognito, quaint, reconnaissance, reconnoiter, cognoscenti, and prognosis.

Latent: From the Latin root word lateo, latere: to lie hidden, lurk. A "latent" impression "lies hidden" until being spurred to reappear, in this case in a later life. Note that the "-ent" suffix is nothing more than a present active participle ending, hence "latent" is "lying hidden." Latency is another key derivative, simply the substantive form of "latent."

Impressions: From the Latin root word premo, premere, pressi, pressum: press, crush, overpower, exert force upon. An "impression" is simply that which is "exerted upon" something else, in this case, the experiences of one's life being "pressed upon" one's memory. This Latin root word is prolific, to wit: compression, suppress, oppressive, impressionable, repressive, irrepressible, etc. A complete list of over 100 derivatives can be found via Word Empire III: Clarity, the most comprehensive Greek and Roots etymology dictionary available today.

Memory: Via the Latin root word memoro, memorare: to recall to mind; to remind. Memory is the ability to recall something to mind, which intimates that all impressions are there in the mind of past experiences or objects perceived, but it's the power of the memory that enables one to retrieve those perceptions. Other SAT and GRE level vocabulary from this includes: memorial, commemorate, memoir, memorandum, immemorial, and memorabilia.

Now let's move on to Aphorism 18: Later, after one practices steadily to bring all thought to a standstill, these four kinds of cognition fall away, leaving only a store of latent impressions in the depth memory.

The idea behind Yoga is to still the fluctuations of the mind, clearing it in order to be able to attain samadhi, or enlightenment, which brings true joy and a vision of things as they really are. When one is no longer plagued by the four forms of cognition, or analytical thinking, insight, bliss, and feeling like a self, they do not disappear, but remain lying dormant, as it were, ready at any moment to pop back up again, either during this lifetime or future reincarnations. That is why it is of paramount importance to practice Yoga each and every day, for cognition is very strong, and the cause truly of all worldly woes. It has always been curious to me that the mind, which can bring us so much, can also take away so much; that is, there are as many different worlds of the mind as there are people on this one planet, and clearly they cannot all be "right," but merely see one version of a mind-clouded truth. Yoga stipulates that each and every one of us has divinity immanent in ourselves; that is, we each have a purusa, a transcendent power that is capable, according to Yoga, of omnipotence and omniscience, equal almost in grandeur to Isvara (taking the various forms of Vishnu or Shiva), the One Purusa, the only difference being that Isvara can create worlds, whereas a particulated, unique purusa cannot. So we are all divine, as it were, capable of immense greatness, but this mind that impedes our progress must be dealt with first, and recognized for what it is.

But why? Why the game? Prakrti, the matrix of all evolutes, that which creates all phenomenology, that which forms constantly changing states of matter all about us, is there for purusa, for its entertainment, as it were. The problem is is that our minds take those prakrtic manifestations as reality with a capital "R," which fools the purusa into thinking that it, too, is a part of prakrti, when it, in fact, is not. The mind or citta dupes it, as it were, causing purusa to think that the mind and all its craziness and the world of manifestation is ultimate Reality. Once purusa becomes tired of the never-ending dance of forms (which may takes thousands of lifetimes), it will eventually realize its true self, and all forms of cognition will be seen as what they are, simply yet another form of prakrti. The discipline (and a hard discipline it is) of Yoga speeds along that process, allowing purusa to shine forth more quickly, to gain samadhi more rapidly, to burn the samskaras more quickly, so that purusa may ultimately be liberated, no longer bound by the chains of cognition, no longer chained by duhkha, suffering. Freed to claim its own birthright: omnipotence and omniscience, and ultimately kaivalya, ultimate enlightenment (comparable to the nirvana of Buddhism). The mystic powers of the yogi are hard to conceive of, which Patanjali fully addresses in Book III. Things like teleportation, polymorphing, invisibility, levitation, elephantine strength, moving at the speed of thought, omniscience, and omnipotence. Wow. Unlimited human potential through the taming, and ironically then the harnessing, of the mind. But only through recognition of prakrti for what it is, a long and difficult process. Nihil sine magno labore. Nothing without great effort. Ad astra per aspera. To the stars through hard work. Wouldn't Nietzsche be enthralled vis-a-vis his concept of the Ubermensch, or Overman, concocted in his most well-known brilliant work, Thus Spake Zarathustra?

Fascinated with English vocabulary words? Want to pick them apart into their constituent Greek and Latin roots? Want to know even more SAT and GRE words that come from the Latin root words cedo, cedere, and gnosco, gnoscere? Studying hard for the SAT or GRE verbal section, and just can't get a handle on all of those vocabulary words, which are truly legion? Check out the Greek and Latin roots site Word Empire, where you will find the most comprehensive Greek and Latin roots dictionary available today, and also the most beautiful ... it's in full color, and artistically designed--lexicoaesthetic! There's even a Greek and Latin roots poster available, which nicely illustrates the full power of what Greek and Latin root words can do for you.

Latin Roots of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali--Chapter 1--Aphorism 17

2010-11-17T06:28:00.000-08:00

Welcome back fans of Greek and Latin roots as they relate to English vocabulary words! Recently I have been focusing this SAT and GRE English vocabulary blog on analyzing the Greek and Latin root words of titles of great works of literature, and then discussing why those works are nonpareil. I am currently perusing Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, translated by Chip Hartranft. To help in this considerable and profound endeavor, I am mining the wisdom of both Swami Satchidananda (I live near Yogaville, of which he is the founder) and Edwin G. Bryant's rabbinical and I dare say canonical exegesis of these profound sutras (the commentary on each and every one of the sutras is both diachronic and most enlightening). I have found the aphoristic style of the these sutras (sutra means "aphorism") to be not only engaging, but also deeply profound; in them, Patanjali discusses the considerable spiritual, mental, and physical rewards that one can derive from the continuous practice of Yoga, which is much, much more than the usually held Western conception of Yoga as just the asanas, or physical postures/poses.

During the next three years, I will devote myself to writing about each of Patanjali's sutras, sequentially, contained in his remarkable 2nd-century BCE text, with a focus on analyzing the text in terms of its classical Greek and Latin roots of the fine English translation, and then providing an individual's exegesis of the text itself, based upon my own wonderful experience with Yoga (and also qigong) thus far. It has been said that memorizing the Sanskrit text of the Yoga-Sutra in and of itself can re-pattern the mind; I am most curious to see if this phenomenon is also metalinguistic, that is, can English and its root words via Greek and Latin effect (hence, a tri-lingual, diachronic linguistic heritage) the same transformation?

Last post I focused on the Latin roots of the Yoga-Sutra: Chapter 1: Aphorism 16: When the ultimate level of nonreaction has been reached, pure awareness can clearly see itself as independent from the fundamental qualities of nature This post I move on to: Aphorism 17: At first the stilling process is accompanied by four kinds of cognition: analytical thinking, insight, bliss, and feeling like a self.

Let's first take a look at a couple of the most important Latin and Greek root words of this sutra:

process: From the Latin root word cedo, cedere, cessi, cessus: move, give in, give way, yield, and the Latin preposition pro: forward, forth. Therefore, a process is simply a "moving forth" with some activity. The verb cedo, cedere has a legion of GRE and SAT derivatives, including: antecedent, cede, precedent, accede, incessant, unprecedented, and recession. Want many more? Check out www.wordempire.com where you can find a Greek and Latin roots based dictionary in full color that has a full listing of English words derived not only from this root, but 1170 others, a complete distillation of the English language in terms of its Greek and Latin roots.

accompanied: The primary stem of the word "accompany" comes from the Latin root word panis, "bread." Looking at the two prefixes (ac--to, towards, near, at, com--with together), we see that "company" is etymologically the people that we share "bread with;" to "accompany," then, is a going "towards" or being "near or at" those with whom one "shares bread." Panis, of course, is the root word behind the French word for bread, pain, and the Spanish, "pan;" note that Spanish and French are evolved forms of Latin (to the tune of about 90% root representation). One of my favorite English words is "paneity," "the state or condition of being bread." Huge. Do you know anyone whose brain appears sometimes afflicted by "paneity," or perhaps is in a permanent state of?

cognition: From the Latin root word cognosco, cognoscere, cognovi, cognitum: to learn, know. Cognition is the act of learning or knowing (in an extremely broad sense). Other fine SAT and GRE derivatives that come from this root include cognitive, incognito, quaint, reconnaissance, reconnoiter, and prognosis.

analytical: From the Greek root word lyein: loosen, destroy, dissolve. When one analyzes something, one is able to "loosen" any secrets from it, whereas if one is begin analytical, one is "loosening" or "destroying" any obstacles that prevent one from full knowledge of something. Other SAT and GRE vocabulary words that come from this root include: catalyst and palsy. Many, many medical terms derive from this root as well, such as: dialysis, hemolysis, electrolysis, paralysis, etc. Check out Word Empire III: Clarity for a full listing of these medical terms, as well as those involved with chemistry and biochemistry.

Now, with these key words and roots in mind, let's take a look at Aphorism 17, Chapter 1: At first the stilling process is accompanied by four kinds of cognition: analytical thinking, insight, bliss, and feeling like a self.

Patanjali now lists what happens when a yogi becomes nonreactive or attempts to cease the fluctuations of the mind, the vrittis, stilling the violent reactions of the mind in favor of ceasing the never ending flow of the citta. As per the style of Patanjali, much will be said in future sutras about these four types of cognition. I would like to bring in my own experience at this point to discuss these four types of thinking.

Japa is the way of meditation, that is, the focusing upon an alambana, or object of concentration, exclusive of all else, the intense focus stills the mind, creates restraining samskaras, and thereby helps circumscribe the multitudinous outgoing samskaras that plague us all so. Patanjali states that the fastest way to enlightenment is through the help of a divinity, most notably Vishnu or Shiva, but that the second fastest way to enlightenment is the repetition of the sacred syllable OM (which encompasses the Universe) over a course of many years, which brings one closer to Vishnu or Shiva, who then grants samadhi, or the realization that one is not prakrtic in nature at all, but that one is one's purusa, or atman, or soul, and that the body and all its various accoutrements that it brings (job, family, career, that is, identity) is not you, but is yet another manifestation of prakrti, there for purusa to experience, but, when all is said and done, as illusory and evanescent as any other manifestation that prakrti brings for purusa to witness. Getting there, of course, is way difficult, so difficult, in fact, that it requires many, many lifetimes to get there. Thanks to Isvara, the Lord of the Yogis, for metempsychosis, for reincarnation. Indeed, this process of clearing the mind is a multi-lifetime process.

The problem is thought. Thinking, thinking, thinking and always thinking. Sem, sem, sem, sem, sem. The mind, the citta, is whorled continuously by the vrittis; the yogi's task, by doing japa (Iyengar nicely melds japa with yogasana so that one can physically flow and meditate concurrently) is to build up what are called restraining samskaras, which are by and large small fortifications against the outgoing samskaras, those latent impressions in the mind that are continuously popping up, leading to thought upon thought upon thought (ad nauseam). A samskara can be there from yesterday (dwelling upon events in one's life that are currently troubling), or a samskara can be from childhood, or even feelings that arise from a previous life. Samskaras seem limitless! How one is to build enough restraining samskaras to stop the outflow of the outgoing samskaras has seemed like a huge task to me. The other day I spoke with one of my friends who has been meditating for over 30 years; he told me that his mind is more quiet now during japa, but certainly the vrittis still whorl, egged on by those ever appearing and disappearing samskaras.

I wonder if, as I analyze, analyze, analyze (you'd think we'd all get bored of this neverending thought and worrying that is, after all, just inflections of the very same thing day after day after day), if the restraining samskaras might perhaps be not a one-to-one correspondence with the outgoing samskaras, but if, rather, one restraining samskara might be able to defend, against, say, 100 outgoing samskaras? I feel as if I am outmatched, as it were; the outgoing team is going to beat the restraining team, and right now the outgoing is winless. If samskaras are measured by time, I'm going to be around for a very, very long time.

However, despite the 90% frustration level, the restraining samskaras are building. As I look upon my bronze statue of Shiva, candle glowing from behind, darkness of pre-dawn reigning, there are moments of pure concentration, when my citta is held at bay, when the restraining samskaras are multiplying. Perhaps by the thousands; they must be time-independent, for if they weren't, no one would ever get out of the cycle of rebirth. Sometimes at yoga I will experience the bliss of samadhi, realizing that it's all there, it's all true, it's all right beyond the onionskin. The other day, while practicing japa, I felt a conscious shift in my brain, almost as if an entire layer of something peeled away. I'm not sure what it was, but I know it was something to do with burning up those outgoing samskaras. My mind has been calmer lately. Even amongst the vicissitudes and vagaries of teaching Latin in middle school.

These epiphanic moments are what encourage the yogi to continue, even through the ardor of sitting (yes, that sounds like an oxymoron, but it is most certainly not).

Patanjali will deal later with "feeling like a self." The idea here is that the prakrtic self is not who we are; we are not a body, our thoughts, our experiences, our prakrtic evolute. Rather, we ARE our purusa. If we could but realize that, all of the vicissitudes of our prakrtic, phenomenological self could be seen as what they are: illusory. I realize that I stated that already in this post, but perhaps you had forgotten?

Fascinated with English vocabulary words? Want to pick them apart into their constituent Greek and Latin roots? Want to know even more SAT and GRE words that come from the Latin root words cedo, cedere, and gnosco, gnoscere? Studying hard for the SAT or GRE verbal section, and just can't get a handle on all of those vocabulary words, which are truly legion? Check out the Greek and Latin roots site Word Empire, where you will find the most comprehensive Greek and Latin roots dictionary available today, and also the most beautiful ... it's in full color, and artistically designed--lexicoaesthetic! There's even a Greek and Latin roots poster available, which nicely illustrates the full power of what Greek and Latin root words can do for you.

Latin Roots of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali--Chapter 1--Aphorism 16

2010-09-28T06:52:00.000-07:00

Welcome back fans of Greek and Latin roots as they relate to English vocabulary words! Recently I have been focusing this SAT and GRE English vocabulary blog on analyzing the Greek and Latin root words of titles of great works of literature, and then discussing why those works are nonpareil. I am currently perusing Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, translated by Chip Hartranft. To help in this considerable and profound endeavor, I am mining the wisdom of both Swami Satchidananda (I live near Yogaville, of which he is the founder) and Edwin G. Bryant's rabbinical and I dare say canonical exegesis of these profound sutras (the commentary on each and every one of the sutras is both diachronic and most enlightening). I have found the aphoristic style of the these sutras (sutra means "aphorism") to be not only engaging, but also deeply profound; in them, Patanjali discusses the considerable spiritual, mental, and physical rewards that one can derive from the continuous practice of Yoga, which is much, much more than the usually held Western conception of Yoga as just the asanas, or physical postures/poses.

The purpose behind Yoga, according to Patanjali, is seeing things as they really are, not as our minds construct them to be; to do this, the ultimate goal or teleology of Yogic practice is to cease the fluctuations of the mind, to calm the sem, that part of our minds that generates an annoying 60,000 random thoughts per day (vrittis) and mostly misperceives samsara, and can lead us down paths of irreality. This calming of the mind's thoughts causes suffering to cease, the ultimate goal of what Yoga can do for us. Life is, after all, what you think it is, and how you nonreact to all its myriad manifestations.

During the next three years, I will devote myself to writing about each of Patanjali's sutras, sequentially, contained in his remarkable 2nd-century BCE text, with a focus on analyzing the text in terms of its classical Greek and Latin roots of the fine English translation, and then providing an individual's exegesis of the text itself, based upon my own wonderful experience with Yoga (and also qigong) thus far. It has been said that memorizing the Sanskrit text of the Yoga-Sutra in and of itself can re-pattern the mind; I am most curious to see if this phenomenon is also metalinguistic, that is, can English and its root words via Greek and Latin effect the same transformation?

Last post I focused on the Latin roots of the Yoga-Sutra: Chapter 1: Aphorism 15: As for nonreaction, one can recognize that it has been fully achieved when no attachment arises in regard to anything at all, whether perceived directly or learned. This post I move on to:

Yoga-Sutra, Chapter 1: Aphorism 16: When the ultimate level of nonreaction has been reached, pure awareness can clearly see itself as independent from the fundamental qualities of nature.

Let's first take a look at a couple of the most important Latin and Greek root words of this sutra:

ultimate: From the Latin root word ultimus: last, farthest away. Good English derivatives that flow from this root include ultimate, penultimate ("almost" last; "pen" comes from paene, "almost;" source of words like peninsula .... "almost" an island and penumbra), antepenultimate (the 3rd to last syllable), preantepenultimate (the 4th to last syllable, that is, the "before the before the second to last") and Ultimate Thule.

non-re-act-ion: Via the Latin root words non: "not;" the prefix re-: "back, again;" act: from ago, agere, egi, actum: do, drive; and the suffix -ion "act, state, or result of doing something." So, etymologically, "nonreaction" is "the state of not doing (something) back" when something is done to you. Of these root words, hundreds of English words are derived from ago, agere, egi, actum; some SAT and GRE words include: exacting, ambiguous, prodigal, mitigate, exigent, and exiguous. Wanting more? Check out the most comprehensive Greek and Latin roots dictionary available today.

Pure: From the Latin purus: clean, spotless. Words like impurity and purity come via this, but also the SAT-level vocabulary words puritanical, expurgate, and purge (the last two directly via purgo, purgare: to clean or cleanse).

Independent: Primarily from the Latin root word pendeo, pendere: to hang, weigh. An "independent" person "is in the condition of not hanging from" anything else. A huge number of words come via this root word, including many SAT and GRE level words--a small sampling follows: expend, suspend, append, compensate, recompense, stipend, pendulous, poise, penchant, and pensive. Interested in learning all of the words that come from this highly prolific root word? Check out www.wordempire.com , where you'll discover the most comprehensive and colorful Greek and Latin roots etymology dictionary available today.

Fundamental: Via the Latin root word fundus: bottom, depths, basis. Something "fundamental" forms the underpinning or "basis" from which other things arise. It is kind of like an infrastructure upon which more things can be built. For example, one must know the "basis" of knowledge of a certain area, or "basic" facts, or the "fundamental" facts of mathematics before one can truly understand the more abstract variable system. Other great English vocabulary words that come from this root include: profound, founder (of course, a ship that "founders" sinks to the "bottom" of the sea), found, fund, and flounder.

Quality: From the Latin adjective qualis: of which sort, or which kind, in what state. The quality of one's work describes "of what kind or sort of substance" it is composed. Is it of a poor kind? Of a good sort? Other SAT-level vocabulary words that stem from this root of good quality include: qualitative, qualifier, and kickshaw (via French quelque chose).

Now, with these key words and roots in mind, let's take a look at Chapter 1, Aphorism 16:
When the ultimate level of nonreaction has been reached, pure awareness can clearly see itself as independent from the fundamental qualities of nature.

In this sutra, Patanjali tells us that our soul, purusa or the atman, mistakes itself for being a part of nature, since the citta, that part of our mind that engages with the world, imagines that it is the only reality and truth. Since the citta, however, is also a manifestation of prakrti (prakrti again is the matrix of phenomenology, that is, it is the creative force that creates all phenomena around us in this physical world, including, and most importantly, the citta, or mind), it tricks the purusa into thinking that it too is bound up within prakrti as it conceives of it. This holds true as well for the buddhi part of the citta, which lies closest to purusa, and acts as a mirror which shines back to it, enabling it to behold itself. "Pure awareness," or unsullied consciousness of the purusa is not possible with any sort of reaction, because the purusa itself is, by definition, reactionless; it, in and of itself, cannot react to anything because it is not of the nature of prakrti, but transcendent to it; it is beyond the world of opposites, beyond any phenomenology: it is transcendent (and hence a piece of the divine dwells immanent within us all, making us all equal, making us all ineffable). It is only the citta, the mind, which can thus react. The ultimate purpose of prakrti once again is to provide experience for purusa, and once purusa deems that it is indeed not of prakrti, and becomes disengaged from it, or disinterested, only then will enlightenment be possible. This process of the falling away of interest of those things prakrtic (yes, that was tautological all you cavilers) ultimately consummates in total nonreaction because of the realization that prakrti is nothing but an ever-changing show, irreal, but nevertheless necessary for purusa to at long last divine that it, and only it, that is, one Pure Witness, or Pure Awareness, can have any lasting "reality" in the samsaric mokestrom. The "fundamental qualities of nature" simply refers to the creative matrix of prakrti.

And so, it seems that we can practice (it's oh so interesting that "praxis" takes place amongst the productions of "prakrti") nonreaction to the ongoing show. Why be oh-so-invested by reacting negatively or harshly to one's neighbor, when, in truth, it it nothing but yet another guise of prakrti that will all too soon evanish, as all of prakrti is evanescent (at best, or at worst)? My wonderful, wonderful good friend Ruth Frederick used to say "This too shall pass." And so it shall. The nature of prakrti is Heraclitean; Heraclitus had many wonderful aphorisms about change: a few follow:

Everything flows, nothing stays still.
The sun is new each day.
You cannot step twice into the same river, for other waters are continually flowing on.
There is nothing permanent except change.

We could view this as highly disenchanting, since, after all, we cling to the unclingable. We yearn to keep the unkeepable. But, Yoga tells us that we do, each and every one of us, possess a unique purusa, all of "our" own, that is unchangeable, that is divinely immanent, and that is not influenced whatsoever by the ever changing flow of objects and images that is the phenomenology of this world, this training ground. We should take very great comfort and solace from that. That notion could form the very core of our inner calm abiding. Let us remember, in the thick of it, that this too shall pass.

We can count on that.

One last thought: have you ever looked through old photo albums from your family or extended family, and wonder just who those people were in the black and white photographs? Sometimes we're lucky if we even get a name, much less anything about them. Recall that one day, you, too, will be part of a similar black and white photograph. This can allow us to pause, and regard the samsaric onslaught of prakrti with perspective and equanimity.

With nonreaction. Because, at heart, it is all equivalent, and equally illusory.

Fascinated with English vocabulary words? Want to pick them apart into their constituent Greek and Latin roots? Want to know even more SAT and GRE words that come from the Latin root words ago, agere, and pendeo, pendere? Studying hard for the SAT or GRE verbal section, and just can't get a handle on all of those vocabulary words, which are truly legion? Check out the Greek and Latin roots site Word Empire, where you will find the most comprehensive Greek and Latin roots dictionary available today, and also the most beautiful ... it's in full color, and artistically designed--lexicoaesthetic! There's even a Greek and Latin roots poster available, which nicely illustrates the full power of what Greek and Latin root words can do for you.

Interested in Greek and Roman mythology? Check out Mr. Brunner's Greek mythology!

Latin Roots of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali--Chapter 1--Aphorism 15

2010-09-10T07:04:00.000-07:00

Welcome back fans of Greek and Latin roots as they relate to English vocabulary words! Recently I have been focusing this SAT and GRE English vocabulary blog on analyzing the Greek and Latin root words of titles of great works of literature, and then discussing why those works are nonpareil. I am currently perusing Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, translated by Chip Hartranft (found in the fascinating and life-transforming book The Wisdom of Yoga: A Seeker's Guide to Extraordinary Living by Stephen Cope), and also those translations of Swami Satchidananda, Edwin Bryant, and Christopher Chapple. I have found the aphoristic style of the these sutras (sutra means "aphorism") to be not only engaging, but also deeply profound; in them, Patanjali discusses the considerable spiritual, mental, and physical rewards that one can derive from the continuous practice of Yoga, which is much, much more than the usually held western conception of Yoga as just the asanas, or physical postures/poses.

The purpose behind Yoga, according to Patanjali, is seeing things as they really are, not as our minds construct them to be; to do this, the ultimate goal or teleology of yogic practice is to cease the fluctuations of the mind, to calm the sem, that part of our minds that generates an annoying 60,000 random thoughts per day (vrittis) and mostly misperceives samsara, and can lead us down paths of irreality. This calming of the mind's thoughts causes suffering to cease, the ultimate goal of what Yoga can do for us. Life is, after all, what you think it is, and how you nonreact to it.

During the next three years, I will devote myself to writing about each of Patanjali's sutras, sequentially, contained in his remarkable 2nd-century BCE text, with a focus on analyzing the text in terms of its classical Greek and Latin roots of the fine English translation, and then providing an individual's exegesis of the text itself, based upon my own wonderful experience with Yoga (and also qigong) thus far. It has been said that memorizing the Sanskrit text of the Yoga-Sutra in and of itself can re-pattern the mind; I am most curious to see if this phenomenon is also metalinguistic, that is, can English and its root words via Greek and Latin effect the same transformation?

Last post I focused on the Latin roots of the Yoga-Sutra: Chapter 1: Aphorism 14: This practice becomes firmly rooted when it is cultivated skillfully and continuously for a long time. This post I move on to:

Yoga-Sutra, Chapter 1: Aphorism 15: As for nonreaction, one can recognize that it has been fully achieved when no attachment arises in regard to anything at all, whether perceived directly or learned.

Let's first take a look at a couple of the most important Latin and Greek root words of this sutra:

recognize: via cognosco, cognoscere, cognovi, cognitum: learn, know, get to know (conn, quaint). Here is a short paragraph utilizing English vocabulary words derived from this prolific word root:

When Billy recognized Morgan after not seeing her for many years, he ‘got to know’ her ‘again’. After this recognition had occurred, he really wanted to reacquaint himself with her bubbling effervescent personality (note the funny spelling change of this Latin root from "cognit" to "quaint:" Old French is the culprit; French has certainly added a great deal of color to our language, and is a major contributor to difficult Scripps National Spelling Bee words!), so he decided to invite her on a date to a quaint (the adjective "quaint" can mean ‘cunningly made’ by someone who has ‘learned’ a skill, but has also evolved into meaning ‘strange’ and ‘odd’ in an old-fashioned sort of way) French restaurant so as to make the soiree a highly memorable rendezvous.
Billy must have possessed some sort of oracular precognition, or foreknowledge, because Morgan had, over the years, become quite the cognoscente of French cuisine, "having learned" all the ins and outs of haute cuisine. Billy, certainly no connoisseur whatsoever of food, "knowing" little of its art, therefore decided to reconnoiter the restaurant to "learn" a little about it beforehand in order to impress his hoped-for new beloved, so he went, incognito (or name "unknown"), to the place itself, pretending to be one of those magazine food tasters that would later report on the sumptuousness, or lack thereof, of the offered bill of fare. Displaying a tad bit of cognitive dissonance in his new role, he ordered biftec, and pronounced it a veritable miracle (grass fed, hugged, kissed, and all). Raving about his successful reconnaissance mission in which he "learned" everything he needed to "know" so he could report "back" to others, he felt fully prepared for his restaurant revel, ready to drop linguistic tidbits upon the lift of the fork, until he discovered, later on the next evening, that Morgan had gone incognita as well and was going for none of his obsequious culinary cognition (and who herself was a vegetarian anyway).

perceive: from the Latin verb capio, capere, cepi, captum: "take, capture, seize." "Perception," etymologically, is the "thorough seizing or capturing" by the mind of experience, or of the world that the mind "perceives." Note that the prefix "per" in this case acts as an intensive prefix, adding emphasis to the main stem "cept." ("pre" in the word "prefix," on the other hand, means "before, in front of," as "prefixes" are those words that are "fastened in front of a word"). The suffix "-ion" means "act, state, or result of doing something." Hence, etymologically, "perception" is the "act of thoroughly capturing or seizing" the world around one, through the mind, or to "perceive" is to "thoroughly capture" that which is around you (limited, of course, by the strictures of the human mind). Capio, capere gives us many English SAT and GRE words, including but certainly not limited to: inception, encapsulate, incipient, susceptibility, captious, capacious, cater, conceit, and recuperate. Want more? Check out www.wordempire.com.

Now, with these key words and roots in mind, let's take a look at aphorism 15:
As for nonreaction, one can recognize that it has been fully achieved when no attachment arises in regard to anything at all, whether perceived directly or learned.

Nonreaction, or dispassion for those objects of the world, or for those niggling, annoying, and troublesome events that happen to us all, is perhaps one of the toughest lessons that we all must learn; for all of us, it will take many lifetimes. How many people that we all know try to convince us of their opinions? How many try to win arguments to feed their own ego? How many of us need the next thing, the next smart phone, the next flat screen TV, the next version of the iPod? One of each item doesn't seem to be enough in this day and age, as companies continue to focus on growth. Yoga teaches us the freeing discipline of aparigraha, or non-possessiveness. This leads towards freedom, and limits our involvement with prakrti, that unending matrix of phenomenology that is continuously being created anew, forever beguiling the vrittis, or fluctuations of the mind, into focusing upon it. Much like the Schopenhauerian Will.

People will always "get our goat." I remember my father saying that there is always a rotten apple in the barrel, which I took to mean that there are always going to be some people who will annoy us, irritate us, downright make us furious. Say, for instance, that a co-worker speaks to you sharply one day, over a seemingly trivial event. Most people's minds will latch onto that, and the whole process of endless cycles of thought will begin: Why did he do that? Whom does he think he is anyway? I'm going to tell him off! Maybe there is something wrong with me! I really need to call a meeting with just my boss and that jerk to get even. You know how it goes; endless mental energy is spent, taking precious time; your days are filled with something that is, in reality, no more. Yoga teaches us to live in the moment, and in the moment only. Charlotte Joko Beck, in her wonderful book Living Everyday Zen, speaks a wonderful truth. She describes an argument that a wife has with a husband. The wife stews about it for weeks on end, making it live and come alive into the present. Beck asks her, "Where is that? Show me the argument." Of course, it is not there at all. It's now nothing but a fluctuation of the mind. She also states, that when thoughts arise, simply label them. "Here's a thought about my ridiculous neighbor." "Here's a thought about why I'm not quite getting it." Reality is not the citta, the mind, with all its silliness. Label, and the thought will eventually disappear. Even if it takes 1000 labels.

Many of us crave simplicity. Aparigraha is a wonderful concept of Yoga that simplifies our lives because it allows us to chip away at our reactivity, at our need to have more and more, and realize that what is important is not stuff, it's stilling the mind, which does lead to peace and happiness (really!). One of my friends and I used to go to sports card shows in Chicago; we would go about the merchants and desire rookie cards, old cards, cards of superstars, mostly because we'd think that those cards would be worth double the money in future years, maybe even tomorrow!. We wouldn't want to pass up the remarkable opportunities present, and in this haze of buying frenzy we'd load up, sure that we'd strike it rich. On the way home we'd gloat and guzzle over our newfound treasures ... but in another year we'd have completely forgotten about those cards because now there were even more that we just had to have! I soon realized that all of that was just a mirage ... it was just another version of the endless permutations of prakrti that luckily I soon became wise to. Prakrti just got me in other ways after that.

One of the gifts of Yoga is a becoming nonreactive to both things and the things that people do in our lives. We must remain in the present, and the present moment only. Where is that new smart phone right now? Where is that 50th pair of shoes right now? What is wrong with right now giving this moment its due? What is wrong with giving each and every moment its due? We live our lives not so much day to day or year to year, but moment to moment. Yoga, the stilling of the fluctuations of the mind, the vrittis, is a deceptively simple task, but is vastly difficult; but over time it becomes easier. We realize, as we appreciate each and every moment of nowness, that all snippets of time are worthy of being snooped out, of being attended to. That our day should not be predicated upon wishing the day be past so that we can head to that sale to get more stuff. Which will only make us crave more stuff. Increasing the vrittis. Do you see the insidiousness?

There is nothing wrong with this moment.
There is nothing wrong with this moment.
There is nothing wrong with this moment.
Image this mantra in your life.
And imagine a life of nonreactivity.
Wow.

Fascinated with English vocabulary words? Want to pick them apart into their constituent Greek and Latin roots? Want to know even more SAT and GRE words that come from the Latin root words teneo, tenere; colo, colere, and firmus? Studying hard for the SAT or GRE verbal section, and just can't get a handle on all of those vocabulary words, which are truly legion? Check out the Greek and Latin roots site Word Empire, where you will find the most comprehensive Greek and Latin roots dictionary available today, and also the most beautiful ... it's in full color, and artistically designed. There's even a Greek and Latin roots poster available, which nicely illustrates the full power of what Greek and Latin root words can do for you.

Interested in Greek and Roman mythology? Check out Mr. Brunner's Greek mythology!

Latin Roots of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali--Chapter 1--Aphorism 14

2010-07-06T07:18:00.000-07:00

The purpose behind Yoga, according to Patanjali, is seeing things as they really are, not as our minds construct them to be; to do this, the ultimate goal or teleology of yogic practice is to cease the fluctuations of the mind, to calm the sem, that part of our minds that generates an annoying 60,000 random thoughts per day and mostly misperceives samsara, and can lead us down paths of irreality. This calming of the mind's thoughts causes suffering to cease, the ultimate goal of what Yoga can do for us.

During the next three years, I will devote myself to writing about each of Patanjali's sutras, sequentially, contained in his remarkable 2nd-century BCE text, with a focus on analyzing the text in terms of its classical Greek and Latin roots of the fine English translation, and then providing an individual's exegesis of the text itself, based upon my own wonderful experience with Yoga thus far. It has been said that memorizing the Sanskrit text of the Yoga-Sutra in and of itself can re-pattern the mind; I am most curious to see if this phenomenon is also metalinguistic, that is, can English and its root words via Greek and Latin effect the same transformation?

Last post I focused on the Latin roots of the Yoga-Sutra: Chapter 1: Aphorism 13: Practice is the sustained effort to rest in that stillness. This week I move on to: Yoga-Sutra, Chapter 1: Aphorism 14: This practice becomes firmly rooted when it is cultivated skillfully and continuously for a long time.

Let's first take a look at the Latin and Greek root words of this sutra:

Practice: via the Greek root prassein: to make, do, or achieve (morphemes from various principal parts of this verb include: pract and prax). Hence, practice is "doing," "making," or "achieving." Other SAT and GRE level vocabulary words include: pragmatic (via pragma: deed, act); malpractice; practitioner; praxis; and impractical.

Firmly: via the Latin root firmus: strong, stable, immovable. When one does something firmly, one's intent in that action is "strong" and "stable." Someone who is infirm, on the other hand, is not strong or stable, but weak; hence he or she possesses an infirmity of some kind. When one affirms an action, one is "strong" in one's acceptance of it. Other SAT and GRE level derivatives include: confirm, unfurl, furl, and affirmation. Note that the word "farm" derives from this root as well, as the land of a "farm" is "stable, strong, and immovable."

Cultivate: via the Latin root word colo, colere, colui, cultum: to till, grow, tend, maintain, develop, revere, worship, or inhabit. When one "cultivates" an action, one "grows" it by carefully "tending, maintaining, and developing" it over time so that it bears fruit (like a farmer cultivating her fields). SAT and GRE vocabulary words that come from this root include the ff.: acculturate, subculture, cyberculture, and terricolous. Note that a "cult" is a place where a divinity of some kind is "worshiped," whereas a "horticulturist" is one who "tends and grows" gardens.

Continuously: From the Latin root teneo, tenere, tenui, tentum: have, hold; "continuous" is the "thorough holding" of something over a long period of time (note that the prefix "con" comes via the Latin root word cum, which in this case acts as an intensive prefix meaning "thoroughly"). The difference between "continual" and "continuous" is this: whereas something that happens on a "continual" basis has breaks (continual rain would have periods of relief), a "continuous" action is nonstop. Teneo, tenere is another one of those huge roots that have given rise to a multiplicity of SAT and GRE English derivatives, such as: abstain, abstinence, tenacious, pertinacious, tenet, pertinent, detain, appurtenance, malcontent, etc. etc.

Now, let's take a look at aphorism 14: This practice becomes firmly rooted when it is cultivated skillfully and continuously for a long time. The mind is very, well, sticky, very pertinacious, very, very busy. One has been thinking continuously everyday for almost one's entire life (one would like to think that as infants we were spared that continuous barrage, merely continually delighting without spurious, fallacious analysis, golden years of the mind, as it were). Because of this neverending thought stream (stream of consciousness) it is very hard at first to cease those fluctutations of the mind, that interminable mind stuff, that never seems to want to be quiet. The sem, or flea-mind, has over 60,000 thoughts/day ... no wonder the goal of Yoga of cessation of that sem is so very difficult. This is why the practice of yoga must be "firmly" rooted in one's life, imbued in one's day, always and continuously present in one's actions and thoughts; it must be cultivated and tended lovingly and skillfully each and every day on a continuous basis over a long, long period of time. Then, and only then, will the amazing fruits of yoga be realized. Otherwise the mind and its diabolical vrittis or fluctuations will continue to take us over, making us slaves to our false selves. Be sticky. Be tenacious. Be pertinacious. This is well within the range of anyone who has sticky gumption. B.K.S. Iyengar, one of the world's masters of Yoga, states this in his preface to his enlightening book Light on Life: "If this book is to lay any claim to authenticity, it must make one point clear above all others. It is this: By persistent and sustained practice, anyone and everyone can make the yoga journey and reach the goal of illumination and freedom." "Sadhana" is the Sanskrit term for the "practice of Yoga." Be continuous in your sadhana. One's life, to have meaning, must have a teleological bent; what good is a goal if it is for material gratification only? "I've always wanted a Porsche." Then, when you finally get one, all of a sudden you want something else. Then something else again. Ad nauseam. But when one realizes the ultimate goal of Yoga, there is no wanting. No grasping. Only joy and bliss. One of the nicest conceptualizations of yogic practice is the idea of aparigraha: nonpossession. That alone can set you free. Today's world is one of instant gratification. I remember at one time when I was a kid that if I wanted a particular song, I'd have to travel 10 miles to the record store, only to find out that it was out of stock; I would then order it, and have to wait another two or three weeks--but was it sweet when I finally got it! The waiting, in and of itself, was educative. Now, what with instant downloads on one's iPod, one can get music immediately. Periods of waiting are on the decline. Which continues to create false needs because we get into the habit of avarice, wanting more and more and more ... how many gigabytes do you really need on that iPod anyway? You can only fit 5000 songs on it? Why not more? Patience and diligent application are a fire that refines the soul, refines the character, and defines who you are. You are not your likes, dislikes, status, professional standing, or any of the other trappings of modern life. You are purusa, which is realizable via continuous practice. The soul, purusa, the Witness, is not of the physical world; it is of a timeless, non-spatiotemporal realm. Meaning cannot come overnight; rather, those things which really matter in life take many, many years of hard practice before they come to fruition. A man may seek his beloved for an entire lifetime before he finds her; and yet, in that meeting, he will see that all his searching, all his efforts, all his time were more than worth the pain and agony in getting there. One cannot build castles upon sand, but one must carve out the difficult rock to construct something lasting. Ani Tenzin Palmo says in Reflections on a Mountain Lake that humans are lazy; that we let our minds run away with us, being too filled with lassitude to care. Yoga is well worth the effort. What could be more important than a search for the soul, for the ending of suffering, for finding the immanent transcendent that dwells within each and every one of us? If we all understood that the phenomenological manifestations of prakrti are nothing but illusory, merely there for the entertainment of purusa, then we would know that we all are the same, less the specious trappings that we all think are ourselves. What freedom, what peace, what joy, what love, and what bliss would come from that realization. Is that not worth the continuous effort of the discipline that Yoga offers each and every one of us? Fascinated with English vocabulary words? Want to pick them apart into their constituent Greek and Latin roots? Want to know even more SAT and GRE words that come from the Latin root words teneo, tenere; colo, colere, and firmus? Studying hard for the SAT or GRE verbal section, and just can't get a handle on all of those vocabulary words, which are truly legion? Check out the Greek and Latin roots site Word Empire, where you will find the most comprehensive Greek and Latin roots dictionary available today, and also the most beautiful ... it's in full color, and artistically designed. There's even a Greek and Latin roots poster available, which nicely illustrates the full power of what Greek and Latin root words can do for you. Interested in Greek and Roman mythology? Check out Mr. Brunner's Greek mythology!

Latin Roots of the Yoga-Sutra--Chapter 1--Aphorism 13

2010-06-09T08:29:00.000-07:00

Welcome back fans of Greek and Latin roots as they relate to English vocabulary words! Recently I have been focusing this SAT and GRE English vocabulary blog on analyzing the Greek and Latin root words of titles of great works of literature, and then discussing why those works are nonpareil. I am currently perusing Patanjali's great work concerning yoga, the Yoga-Sutra, translated by Chip Hartranft. I have found the aphoristic style of the Yoga-Sutra to be not only engaging, but also deeply profound; in it, Patanjali discusses the considerable spiritual, mental, and physical rewards that one can derive from the practice of yoga, which is much, much more than the usually held western conception of yoga as just the asanas, or physical postures/poses.

The purpose behind yoga, according to Patanjali, is seeing things as they really are, not as our minds construct them to be; to do this, the ultimate goal or teleology of yogic practice is to cease the fluctuations of the mind, to calm the sem, that part of our minds that generates an annoying 60,000 random thoughts per day, and can lead us down paths of irreality. This calming of the mind's thoughts causes suffering to cease, the ultimate goal of what yoga can do for us.

During the next three years, I will devote myself to writing about each of Patanjali's aphorisms, sequentially, contained in his remarkable 2nd-century BCE text, with a focus on analyzing the text in terms of its classical Greek and Latin roots of the fine English translation, and then providing an individual's exegesis of the text itself, based upon my own wonderful experience with yoga beyond the asanas. It has been said that memorizing the Sanskrit text of the Yoga-Sutra in and of itself can re-pattern the mind; I am most curious to see if this phenomenon is also metalinguistic, that is, can English and its root words via Greek and Latin effect the same transformation? Last post I focused on the Latin roots of the Yoga-Sutra: Chapter 1: Aphorism 12. This week I move on to:

Aphorism 13: Practice is the sustained effort to rest in that stillness.

Let's first discuss the Greek and Latin roots of five words in aphorism 13:

Practice: via the Greek root prassein: to make, do, or achieve (morphemes from various principal parts of this verb include: pract and prax). Hence, practice is "doing," "making," or "achieving." Other SAT and GRE level vocabulary words include: pragmatic (via pragma: deed, act); malpractice; practitioner; praxis; and impractical.

Sustained: From the Latin root teneo, tenere, tenui, tentum: have, hold; "sustained" is the "holding under" of something in order to support it. Teneo, tenere is another one of those huge roots that have given rise to a multiplicity of English derivatives, such as: abstain, abstinence, tenacious, pertinacious, tenet, pertinent, detain, appurtenance, malcontent, etc. etc.

Effort: The word "effort" derives from the Latin adjective fortis: "strong, vigorous, powerful." English gets its word "force" from this (ts often changed to cs when moving from Latin into English). Hence, "effort" is "thoroughly strong, vigorous, or powerful" action in order to bring something about. Other SAT-level derivatives that come from fortis include: forcible, fortitude, forced, fortifying, force majeure (just to throw in a legal term).

Stillness/rest: Christopher Lee Chapple (in Yoga and the Luminous, <p>an </p>an incredible explication of Patanjali) offers the word "stability" as an alternate translation for "rest in stillness." The English word "stability" ultimately derives from the Latin sto, stare, steti, statum: "stand, stand still" a hugely prolific root word that has given rise to hundreds of English words, including the following SAT and GRE level vocabulary words: rest, stature, substantial, constitute, statuesque, oust, obstinate, restive, and staunch, to name a very few. Interested in more? Check out the most comprehensive Greek and Latin roots dictionary available today at www.wordempire.com.

Now, let's take a look at aphorism 13: Practice is the sustained effort to rest in that stillness; or substitute "rest in that stillness" with "stability."

Patanjali offers many avenues of Yogic "practice" that can help one cease the fluctuations of the mind, or at least slow them down (mine are unfortunately still running at thousands/day, but at least not tens of thousands any more! Wouldn't that be cool to have a "thought counter"? What a helpful tool that would be!). Ani Tenzin Palmo, in her fine book Reflections on a Mountain Lake, makes a reference to the fact that allowing one's thoughts to run amok is akin to pure laziness on the practitioner's behalf. Ceasing the mind's sem requires "sustained effort," that is, not only "effort" when one is meditating, but also, and even more pointedly, during the heated combat of daily life when remaining "stable" by nonreaction is not only the most difficult, but also the most salutary in leading one out of the ceaselessness of fluctuation. The sem loves samsara! And remains most alive while within its grasp.
The wonderful idea behind Yoga is that we can practice at any time. It does not require us to go out and buy expensive equipment (in fact, one of the nicest notions in Yoga is that of aparigraha, or "nonpossessing"); it does not require a particular venue or commute; it does not even require us to leave where we are right now (for are we not always "where we are?" a point nicely made in Wherever You Go, There You Are by John Kabat-Zinn). It "only" requires us to have mental stamina to cease that seemingly ceaseless sem, to shut it down, simply by "being" instead of erringly "becoming."
Something happens? Observe, don't react.
Something happens? Observe, don't react. ad infinitum. This takes years, so take it easy on yourself. I'm entering only my third year of yogic practice. Slip, slip, slip, tread, slip, slip, slip, tread. You get the idea.

Hence, Yoga, stringently, demands constant practice (how slippery are the thoughts that can take us from elation to the doldrums seemingly at a whim--how illusory it all is!) in order to be "still." A concept similar to the stillness of the nirvanic lake. The stillness of the center of the hurricane, a fine metaphor: being:stillness:stability:truth vs. becoming:motion:samsara:illusoriness.
Yoga takes us there with many different kinds of practices. Patanjali does not hammer one particular system as dogmatic and infallible; rather, he offers the yogi many egalitarian ways from which to pick and choose. Whatever metaphor works for you. His system thereby has not become concretized, is not proselytizing at all, and has no hidden or ulterior agenda. Comforting I must say in an age of capitalism (which pervades all).
Stay tune for my next post which shall speak of Aphorism 14: This practice becomes firmly rooted when it is cultivated skillfully and continuously for a long time. (my italics). Be not lazy!

Fascinated with English vocabulary words? Want to pick them apart into their constituent Greek and Latin roots? Want to know even more SAT and GRE words that come from the Latin root words teneo, tenere; sto, stare, and fortis? Studying hard for the SAT or GRE verbal section, and just can't get a handle on all of those vocabulary words, which are truly legion? Check out the Greek and Latin roots site Word Empire, where you will find the most comprehensive Greek and Latin roots dictionary available today, and also the most beautiful ... it's in full color, and artistically designed. There's even a Greek and Latin roots poster available, which nicely illustrates the full power of what Greek and Latin root words can do for you.

Interested in Greek and Roman mythology? Check out Mr. Brunner's Greek mythology!

Latin Roots of the Yoga-Sutra--Chapter 1--Aphorism 12

2010-05-19T06:23:00.000-07:00

Welcome back fans of Latin roots as they relate to English vocabulary words! Recently I have been focusing this SAT and GRE English vocabulary blog on analyzing the Greek and Latin root words of titles of great English and world literature, and then discussing why those great works are nonpareil. I am currently perusing Patanjali's great work concerning yoga, the Yoga-Sutra, translated by Chip Hartranft. I have found the aphoristic style of the Yoga-Sutra to be not only engaging, but also deeply profound; in it, Patanjali discusses the considerable spiritual, mental, and physical rewards that one can derive from the practice of yoga, which is much, much more than the usually held western conception of yoga as just the asanas, or physical postures/poses.

The purpose behind yoga, according to Patanjali, is seeing things as they really are, not as our minds construct them to be; to do this, the ultimate goal or teleology of yogic practice is to cease the fluctuations of the mind, to calm the sem, that part of our minds that generates an annoying 60,000 random thoughts per day, and can lead us down paths of irreality. This calming of the mind's thoughts causes suffering to cease, the ultimate goal of what yoga can do for us.

During the next three years, I will devote myself to writing about each of Patanjali's aphorisms, sequentially, contained in his remarkable 2nd-century BCE text, with a focus on analyzing the text in terms of its classical Greek and Latin roots of the fine English translation, and then providing an individual's exegesis of the text itself, based upon my own wonderful experience with yoga beyond the asanas. It has been said that memorizing the Sanskrit text of the Yoga-Sutra in and of itself can re-pattern the mind; I am most curious to see if this phenomenon is also metalinguistic, that is, can English and its root words via Greek and Latin effect the same transformation? Last week I focused on the Latin roots of the Yoga-Sutra: Chapter 1: Aphorism 11. This week I move on to:

Aphorism 12: Both practice and nonreaction are required to still the patterning of consciousness.

Let's first discuss the Greek and Latin roots of five words in aphorism 12:

Practice: via the Greek root prassein: to make, do, or achieve (morphemes from various principal parts of this verb include: pract and prax). Hence, practice is "doing," "making," or "achieving." Other SAT and GRE level vocabulary words include: pragmatic (via pragma: deed, act); malpractice; practitioner; praxis; and impractical.

Nonreaction: via the Latin root words non: "not;" the prefix re-: "back, again;" act: from ago, agere, egi, actum: do, drive; and the suffix -ion "act, state, or result of doing something." So, etymologically, "nonreaction" is "the state of not doing (something) back." Of these root words, hundreds of English words are derived from ago, agere, egi, actum; some SAT and GRE words include: exacting, ambiguous, prodigal, mitigate, exigent, and exiguous. Wanting more? Check out the most comprehensive Greek and Latin roots dictionary available today.

Required: via the Latin root word quaero, quaerere, quaesivi, quaesitum: search, seek for, inquire, and Latin preposition re-: "back, again." If something is "required," it is "sought for again," that is, one must have that "requirement" to move forward. Other SAT and GRE vocabulary words that come via this root are: inquisitive, query, inquisition, requisite, perquisite, and disquisition.

Patterning: The word "pattern" comes from the Latin root pater, patris: father. Just as a "father" or pater contributes to children via his genetic pattern, so too are patterns progenitors of forms. Patterning in the conscious mind becomes the "father" of action or thought; early patterns that are formed in the mind lead to children of restricted thought. Many SAT-level English vocabulary words arise from the Latin root word pater, patris, including but not limited to: patriarch, paternity, expatriate, patron, patronize, patronizing, patronage, perpetrate, and patricide.

Consciousness: The word "consciousness" arises via the Latin prefix "con" which comes from the Latin preposition "cum," which in this case acts as an intensive, meaning "thoroughly," and the Latin verb scio, scire, "to know." It is one's "consciousness" that allows one to "thoroughly know" the world around one, making one aware that one is not only alive, but that much, apparently, surrounds one in this world; a whirling vortex of samsara which leads to the kleshas, or afflictions. Other SAT-level derivatives that derive from the Latin verb scio, scire include: conscientious, omniscient, prescient, conscionable, unconscionable, nicety, and plebiscite.

Now, let's take a look at aphorism 12: Both practice and nonreaction are required to still the patterning of consciousness.

When one speaks of stilling the patterning of consciousness, one primarily means to cease the fluctuations of the mind that perceives its own reality, which has very little to do with reality. To do that, one must practice, or do those things which help cease that seemingly never-ending flow of sem, the flea mind, which distracts us all from what is. Patanjali begins to discuss that "practice," or what one can do, to still that mind, which reveals an entire Universe within that is completely veiled or hidden. From what I've seen thus far, it's epiphanic. Truly immanence, the indwelling divinity, is infinite.

Let's discuss "nonreaction." Many of the problems in our lives arise not from our surroundings or other people or the vicissitudes of our lives, but simply in our reaction to them. I can respond very negatively to criticism from a co-worker; I can stew about it all day, into the night, not sleep, ignore that person the next day at work, plot vengeance, complain about him or her to my family (thus embroiling them as well), and generally make myself miserable. The sem is trying to gain dominance at this point, and it loves the free flow of angst it creates; the sem is most alive and powerful at that point. How to stop this self-defeating thought, this fluctuation that so flummoxes?

I must ask: "Where is that criticism now? Does it exist? Show me that criticism. Can I hold it? What color is it? What properties does it possess?" We will see that indeed the criticism is, in fact, nowhere, but is simply being illusorily perpetrated by our minds; it exists nowhere tangibly, and the person who did the criticizing might not even remember doing so, or worse yet, it could be a misinterpretation of what that person said that is causing all the brouhaha, simply a misunderstanding!

One might also try labeling that thought: "I'm having a thought about that criticism again." Labeling it destroys it. After 20, 30, even 40 labelings it will not arise anymore. Try this with a negative thought that arises today. Hmmm ... let's see ... "I thought that person was my friend ... why was she so mean today?" To stop the inevitable further mind analysis of that thought, stop it short by labeling it: "Having a thought that that person was my friend ..." And it shall evanish, like the vaporous thing it is (or, really, is not).

Multisensory perception: One could also realize that the co-worker's criticism isn't about you, buit really is all about her or him. Often words will bubble up from a person which have nothing to do with the person to whom they are being said, but rather are all about the person who is saying them. Rex could be having a horrible day (or a horrible life, for that matter); words, metamorphosed to reflect Rex's reality, lash out, hurting others, when really they are nothing but an oblique conduit for his own hurt. We may still be hurt by those denigrating words, but realizing the provenance of the bilious words should put an end to their effectiveness.

The sem loves drama. It loves to think, think, think, and stress, stress, stress. This flea mind will take every opportunity to do so ... don't let it. The Witness, or supraconsciousness, can watch, and not react. Tough, but yoga provides the key. The golden key to the Door of Infinity.

You may know what is bothering you today, what is stressing you out, but do you remember what was doing so last week? A month ago? Of course not ... all of these so-called afflictions (kleshas) created by the mind are merely inflections of the same thing ... the sem's Will to Power (to use a nice Nietzschean term). Anything will do, any magnification is welcome ... at base, however, it's naught but whimsical, nebulous creations that are neither here nor there. Will 'o wisps wandering about, insubstantial.

*Yoga Book Corner* A very fine exegesis of Patanjali's Yoga-Sutras is the exhaustive and comprehensive study by Edwin G. Bryant. This amazing book is a compilation of old and new explicative material concerning these dense, aphoristic sutras. They are well worth the time and effort to digest, and Bryant does a superb job of just that.

Fascinated with English vocabulary words? Want to pick them apart into their constituent Greek and Latin roots? Want to know even more SAT and GRE words that come from the Latin root words ago, agere; scio, scire; and pater, patris? Studying hard for the SAT or GRE verbal section, and just can't get a handle on all of those vocabulary words, which are truly legion? Check out the Greek and Latin roots site Word Empire, where you will find the most comprehensive Greek and Latin roots dictionary available today, and also the most beautiful ... it's in full color, and artistically designed. There's even a Greek and Latin roots poster available, which nicely illustrates the full power of what Greek and Latin root words can do for you.

Interested in Greek and Roman mythology? Check out Mr. Brunner's Greek mythology!

Latin Roots of the Yoga-Sutra--Chapter 1--Aphorism 11

2010-04-25T08:21:00.001-07:00

Welcome back fans of Latin roots as they relate to English vocabulary words! Recently I have been focusing this SAT and GRE English vocabulary blog on analyzing the Latin root words of titles of great English and world literature, and then discussing why those great works are nonpareil. I have recently perused Patanjali's great work concerning yoga, the Yoga-Sutra, translated by Chip Hartranft. I have found the aphoristic style of the Yoga-Sutra to be not only engaging, but also deeply profound; in it, Patanjali discusses the considerable spiritual, mental, and physical rewards that one can derive from the practice of yoga, which is much, much more than the usually held western conception of yoga as just the asanas, or physical postures/poses.

The purpose behind yoga, according to Patanjali, is seeing things as they really are, not as our minds construct them to be; to do this, the ultimate goal or teleology of yogic practice is to cease the fluctuations of the mind, to calm the sem, that part of our minds that generates an annoying 60,000 random thoughts per day, and can lead us down paths of irreality. This causes suffering to cease, the ultimate goal of what yoga can do for us.

During the next two years or so, I will devote myself to writing about each of Patanjali's aphorisms, sequentially, contained in his remarkable 2nd-century BCE text, with a focus on analyzing the text in terms of its classical Greek and Latin roots of the fine English translation, and then providing an individual's exegesis of the text itself, based upon my own wonderful experience with yoga beyond the asanas. It has been said that memorizing the Sanskrit text of the Yoga-Sutra in and of itself can re-pattern the mind; I am most curious to see if this phenomenon is also metalinguistic, that is, can English and its root words via Greek and Latin effect the same transformation? Last week I focused on the Latin roots of the Yoga-Sutra: Chapter 1: Aphorism 10. This week I move on to:

Aphorism 11: Memory holds mental images of things perceived, without modifying them (courtesy Stephen Nachmanovitch: www.dharmaviolin.com + www.freeplay.com ). Memory is the not letting go of an object that one has been aware of. (courtesy William Q. Judge) Remembering is the retention of experiences. (Hartranft)

You will recall that aphorism 11 is a direct answer of the last of aphorism 5: There are five types of patterns, including both hurtful and benign and aphorism 6: They are right perception, misperception, conceptualization, deep sleep, and remembering.

Let's first discuss the Greek and Latin roots of three of the following words in aphorism 11:

Memory: via the Latin root word memoro, memorare: to recall to mind; to remind. Memory is the ability to recall something to mind, which intimates that all impressions are there in the mind of past experiences or objects perceived, but it's the power of the memory that enables one to retrieve those perceptions. Other SAT and GRE level vocabulary from this includes: memorial, commemorate, memoir, memorandum, immemorial, and memorabilia.

Mental: via the Latin root mens, mentis: mind. The adjective "mental" means "of or pertaining to the mind." Many SAT-level vocabulary words derive from this Latin root, including but not limited to: mentor, commentary, dementia, mentality, reminisce (via reminisci--to call to mind), commentator, and memento.

Images: via the Latin root word imago, imaginis: image, likeness, idea. A mental "image" is a likeness or idea that the mind creates from experiential perception of the world "without," that is, supposedly independent of the mind. Consider the ff. SAT and GRE vocabulary words that derive from Latin root: image, imagery, inimitable (via imitor--copy, resemble), emulate (via aemulus--comparable with), unimaginative, and imitative.

Modifying: via the Latin root word modus: measure, manner, method, way, rhythm, moderation. To "modify" something is to "make the measure or manner or way" of it different in some way, but not to change it wholesale. Multiplicitous English SAT words come from this root, including: outmoded, mode, modality, immoderate, moderate, accommodate, unaccommodating, modulate, modernization, modem, and Quasimodo (Quasimodo, the Hunchback of Notre Dame, was "part-way" human, kyphotic and reclusive as he was; the Latin word quasi means "as it were, nearly, almost").

Object: via the Latin verb iacio, iacere, ieci, iactus: to throw and the prefix (preposition in the Latin language) ob: in the way, against (formally obicio, obicere, obiece, obiectus; an "i" often turned to "j" when coming over into English, so the "obiectus" turned into "object."). An "object" is therefore something that is "thrown in the way" of your mind, which you then perceive as clouded by that mind. A huge number of SAT and GRE derivatives arise from iacio, including but not limited to: projectile, projection, adjacent, subjectivity, interject, trajectory, dejected, objectionable, gist, conjecture, jettison, jetsam, circumjacent, and malaise. Interested in even more SAT and GRE words that come from this root (there are many, many more)? Check out www.wordempire.com, the most complete classical etymology source available.

Retention: From the Latin root teneo, tenere, tenui, tentum: have, hold; "retention" is the "holding back" or "thoroughly holding" of that which the mind has received. Teneo, tenere is another one of those huge roots that have given rise to a multiplicity of English derivatives, such as: abstain, abstinence, tenacious, pertinacious, tenet, pertinent, detain, appurtenance, malcontent, etc. etc.

Experience: From the Latin root word experior, experiri, expertus sum: to try, test, attempt. Experience, therefore, is the "testing" of the world by the mind to figure out what it's all about. Other derivatives that come via this word or are related to this word include: empirical, experiential, perilous, piracy, malapert, experiment, and expertise. Interested in the connections of these words? Check out the most comprehensive Greek and Latin roots dictionary available today.

Now, let's take a look at Aphorism 11: a. Memory holds mental images of things perceived, without modifying them. or: b. Memory is the not letting go of an object that one has been aware of. or c. Remembering is the retention of experiences. Remember that this is the fifth response to aphorism 5: There are five types of patterns, including both hurtful and benign.

A note on translation: it's fascinating to see how the same Sanskrit can give such varied English translations, although, at core, these are pretty much the same.

Memory holds impressions of the world as the mind/ego perceives it. The ego believes itself to be the ultimate experiencer or arbiter of the world as it is, which, according to Yoga and Patanjali, is misguided. Ego, or the perceiving mind, is but another manifestation of prakrti, the phenomenological world that is eternally being created for the seer, or the Witness (purusa) to perceive. In yogic belief, the Witness, or that eternal part of each of us that purely witnesses or sees the empirical world about us, is a pure mirror perceiving (in a thoughtless, noninterpretive state or completely pure apprehension or perfect reflective transference) the endless fluctuations or inflections of prakrti. Ironically, one of those manifestations of prakrti is the ego, the mind, our own individual perceiving apparatus itself, that thinks it perceives reality, but is really nothing but another form of prakrti (although it doesn't know that). This perceiving ego, since it belongs to the world of praktri, is impermanent, possessing no stasis or eternal qualities.

When one realizes this, that the ego in and of itself is deluded, one can then witness that ego in its delusions, and be liberated. The purpose of Yoga is to move us towards the realization that the ego, the perceiving entity in each of us, is illusory and flawed, and leads us all down the path of suffering; once one realizes that prakrti (the beautiful and eternal feminine matrix) exists only for the transcendent purusa or Witness, to perceive (in complete clarity with no attachments of any thought whatsoever), one loses all yearning, all kleshas (forms of suffering), and one becomes liberated from both fear and desire (deep mythological roots abound here -- the suffering and joys of this world are all in terms of polar opposites). When one transcends the opposites of prakrti, one becomes enlightened.

This is difficult to do, but is the way that yoga offers us.

Hence, memory of empirical observations, clouded by the ego which believes itself to be the arbiter of ultimate truth, cannot lead she who seeks liberation towards the path of revealed luminosity; rather, memories, in and of themselves, can be Witnessed, but cannot be taken as Real, but simply as an even more clouded form of phenomenological irreality. Memory is clouded from Reality, from Truth, and, in truth, is nothing but an illusory manifestation of the ego that perceived it, and leads the sufferer down the path of suffering. Hence, tainted, opaque, and turbid memory can only be hurtful towards he or she who seeks shelter from suffering.

Consider all the memories that we daily go through; how much suffering does that cause us? How much worrying do we do (which is all, after all, based upon nothing but mental impressions, which, in turn, is clouded by memorial time) that is needless? We worry based upon memory, which is suspect; but when memory is based, itself, upon a suspect observer, who claims hegemony over truth but is nothing but another part of that which is observes (as the brain cannot objectively perceive itself, so too the ego, cannot objectively observe that which it, itself, is a part of), we can be thankful that the Witness dwells, unruffled and rife with equanimity, continuing to observes impassively, impartially, luminously, and Truthfully.

What a gift that is. We all have it. We all are equal. But it is our task to get there. To see the world, as William Blake said, "unclouded from the senses five," in its true "infinite" state. Dharma megha samadhi.

Consider the shelter of this concept: since the Witness is eternal, and our single experiencing mind is duly flawed, cannot we take comfort in the fact that this Witness, that we all possess, but which has been clouded by our ego, is there for us? Let us learn to dispassionately still our minds in order to awaken purusa, the Witness, and be set free.

Fascinated with English vocabulary words? Want to pick them apart into their constituent Greek and Latin roots? Want to know even more SAT and GRE words that come from the Latin root words mens, mentis; teneo, tenere; and iacio, iacere? Studying hard for the SAT or GRE verbal section, and just can't get a handle on all of those vocabulary words, which are truly legion? Check out the Greek and Latin roots site Word Empire, where you will find the most comprehensive Greek and Latin roots dictionary available today, and also the most beautiful...it's in full color, and artistically designed. There's even a Greek and Latin roots poster available, which nicely illustrates the full power of what Greek and Latin root words can do for you.

Interested in Greek and Roman mythology? Check out Mr. Brunner's Greek mythology!

Latin Roots of the Yoga-Sutra--Chapter 1--Aphorism 10

2010-04-08T11:42:00.000-07:00

Welcome back fans of Latin roots as they relate to English vocabulary words! Recently I have been focusing this SAT and GRE English vocabulary blog on analyzing the Latin root words of titles of great English and world literature, and then discussing why those great works are nonpareil. I have recently perused Patanjali's great work concerning yoga, the Yoga-Sutra, translated by Chip Hartranft. I have found the aphoristic style of the Yoga-Sutra to be not only engaging, but also deeply profound; in it, Patanjali discusses the considerable spiritual, mental, and physical rewards that one can derive from the practice of yoga, which is much, much more than the usually held western conception of yoga as just the asanas, or physical postures/poses. During the next two years or so, I will devote myself to writing about each of Patanjali's aphorisms, sequentially, contained in his remarkable 2nd-century BCE text, with a focus on analyzing the text in terms of its classical Greek and Latin roots of the fine English translation, and then providing an individual's exegesis of the text itself, based upon my own wonderful experience with yoga beyond the asanas. It has been said that memorizing the Sanskrit text of the Yoga-Sutra in and of itself can re-pattern the mind; I am most curious to see if this phenomenon is also metalinguistic, that is, can English and its root words via Greek and Latin effect the same transformation? Last week I focused on the Latin roots of the Yoga-Sutra: Chapter 1: Aphorism 9. This week I move on to:

Aphorism 10: Deep sleep is a pattern grounded in the perception that nothing exists.

You will recall that aphorism 10 is a direct answer of aphorism 5: There are five types of patterns, including both hurtful and benign and aphorism 6: They are right perception, misperception, conceptualization, deep sleep, and remembering.

Let's first discuss the Greek and Latin roots of three of the following words in aphorism 10:

Perception: from the Latin verb capio, capere, cepi, captum: "take, capture, seize" and the Latin preposition "per," which in this case means "thoroughly." "Perception," etymologically, is the "thorough seizing or capturing" by the mind of experience, or of the world that the mind "perceives." Note that the prefix "per" in this case acts as an intensive prefix, adding emphasis to the main stem "cept." ("pre" in the word "prefix," on the other hand, means "before, in front of," as "prefixes" are those words that are "fastened in front of a word"). The suffix "-ion" means "act, state, or result of doing something." Hence, etymologically, "perception" is the "act of thoroughly capturing or seizing" the world around one, through the mind. SAT and GRE words are legion through this root, e.g.: captious, conceit, precept, encapsulate, incipient, principle, capacious, recuperate.

Pattern: from the Latin word pater, patris: “father;” a “pattern” is the “father” of something because it generates the limitations within which forms can arise, that is, according to its “pattern,” in much the same way that a father’s genetic information helps form the physical “pattern” of his offspring, and also the child’s mental “patterning” by the way that the father behaves, highly influencing the child. Other SAT and GRE-level derivatives from pater, patris include: patriarch, paternal, patron, patronize, repatriate, patriarch, and compatriot.

Exist: The word "exist" exists because of the following Latin root word:

Exsisto, exsistere, exstiti, exstitum—to come forth, be, come into being {exist}

When something "exists," it "comes into being" or "comes forth." Other SAT and GRE vocabulary words that come from this root or are related to it include: consistent, existentialism, subsistence, persist, desist, coexist, interstitial, interstices, solstice. Interested in more SAT and GRE level derivatives? Take a gander at www.wordempire.com, the ultimate source for Greek and Latin roots of the English language.

Now, let's take a look at Aphorism 10: Deep sleep is a pattern grounded in the perception that nothing exists. One of the five types of patterns from aphorism 5:
There are five types of patterns, including both hurtful and benign.

I think, which this aphorism clearly says to not do, intimates that, while in the waking state (that of experience) we are becoming, that is, doing, acting, breathing, etc., but in the state of deep sleep, there is an intention to just be, and not become. How could there be an intention while unconscious in the throes of deep sleep? A fair question, but one which is rooted in the very nature of consciousness itself, I believe, and in the roots of yogic mystery itself: the soul is constantly striving to return to its home sans patterning, sans fluctuation of the sem, to return to that stillness, which is manifested in deep sleep (except REM, I should think, when the mind is active). Imagine the vacuity, the non-becoming, the beingness of deep sleep, and one can fathom the ultimate teleology or goal of the yogini. Indeed, if nothing exists, if all of illusory waking is foisted upon us by our conscious, patterned sem, what joy there would be, what kleshas would be annihilated, if that state of perception entitled deep sleep could be attained in the conscious or awakened state. Consciousness of the void, of the ding an sich, that that which is, sans our labeling, thought patterns, and noetic grapplings. And so, deep sleep is that metaphor and real state that reminds consciousness each and every night (hopefully!!) that transcendence is ultimately doable, that enlightenment is perceivable: we just must switch from the unconscious depths of sleep into the conscious depths thereof. How that word just is risible and most irritating!

This gentle but perhaps, ironically, imperceptible memory jog, is a benign pattern to help us on our way towards the transcendent. Perhaps when we meditate we can think of the perception of deep sleep, what that means and what that is, and that will still our conscious rambling thoughts, will deepen the drafts of prana deep within our bodies, and send us into an aware sleep, as it were, watching but not reacting to the thoughts that arise within us, until at long last, like the dreamer watching her dream, will at long last be aloof from it until thoughts themselves evanish into their unreality so that we can at long last come home to the samadhi or joy of nonexistence.

Fascinated with English vocabulary words? Want to pick them apart into their constituent Greek and Latin roots? Want to know even more SAT and GRE words that come from the Latin root words capio, capere; pater, patris; and existo, existere? Studying hard for the SAT or GRE verbal section, and just can't get a handle on all of those vocabulary words, which are truly legion? Check out the Greek and Latin roots site Word Empire, where you will find the most comprehensive Greek and Latin roots dictionary available today, and also the most beautiful...it's in full color, and artistically designed. There's even a Greek and Latin roots poster available, which nicely illustrates the full power of what Greek and Latin root words can do for you.

Latin Roots of the Yoga-Sutra--Chapter 1--Aphorism 9

2010-03-17T06:34:00.000-07:00

Welcome back fans of Latin roots as they relate to English vocabulary words! Recently I have been focusing this SAT and GRE English vocabulary blog on analyzing the Latin root words of titles of great English and world literature, and then discussing why those great works are nonpareil. I have recently perused Patanjali's great work concerning yoga, the Yoga-Sutra, translated by Chip Hartranft. I have found the aphoristic style of the Yoga-Sutra to be not only engaging, but also deeply profound; in it, Patanjali discusses the considerable spiritual, mental, and physical rewards that one can derive from the practice of yoga, which is much, much more than the usually held western conception of yoga as just the asanas, or physical postures/poses. During the next two years or so, I will devote myself to writing about each of Patanjali's aphorisms, sequentially, contained in his remarkable 2nd-century BCE text, with a focus on analyzing the text in terms of its classical Greek and Latin roots of the fine English translation, and then providing an individual's exegesis of the text itself, based upon my own wonderful experience with yoga beyond the asanas. It has been said that memorizing the Sanskrit text of the Yoga-Sutra in and of itself can re-pattern the mind; I am most curious to see if this phenomenon is also metalinguistic, that is, can English and its root words via Greek and Latin effect the same transformation? Last week I focused on the Latin roots of the Yoga-Sutra: Chapter 1: Aphorism 8. This week I move on to:

Aphorism 9: Conceptualization is based on linguistic knowledge, not contact with real things.

You will recall that aphorism 8 is a direct answer of aphorism 5: There are five types of patterns, including both hurtful and benign and aphorism 6: They are right perception, misperception, conceptualization, deep sleep, and remembering.

Let's first discuss the Greek and Latin roots of three of the following words in aphorism 9:

Conceptualization: from the Latin verb capio, capere, cepi, captum: "take, capture, seize" the Latin prefix cum, (morphed to "con") which here acts as an intensive (thoroughly), and a string of suffixes, the more important of which is "-ation" (act, state, or result of doing something). So, "conceptualization" is the "act of thoroughly seizing" what the mind considers reality via the tool of language (with which the mind must work, as language is the mind's primary tool). SAT and GRE words are legion through this root, e.g.: captious, conceit, precept, encapsulate, incipient, principle, capacious, recuperate, perceptive.

Linguistic: via the Latin root words lingua: "tongue, language,"-ist (one who performs a certain action) and -ic (of or pertaining to). A linguist studies languages, so "linguistic" etymologically means "of or pertaining to the use of language;" are we not all linguists in that our primary tool is language? Other SAT and GRE level derivatives from lingua include: lingo, sublingual, multilingual, bilingual, and polylingual. Note that "linguini," a type of pasta, etymologically means "little tongues" of pasta. Check out my Greek and Latin roots English vocabulary site where you will find out just how important language is!

Contact: via the Latin root word tango, tangere, tetigi, tactum: "touch." Con, as above, derives from the Latin root word cum, but in this case means "together, with," so "contact" with something is a "touching together" with another object that you perceive not to be yourself. SAT level derivatives are legion from this root: tactile, tangent, tactful, contingent, contagion, tangible, contaminate, intact, etc. etc. Note the almost invisible dropping of the "n" from "tango, tangere:" this is a common occurrence, this nullification of "n" across languages. For a huge list of GRE and SAT level derivatives, check out www.wordempire.com and www.wordempire.com/examples .

Real: simplest, and yet most, most complex. The adjective "real" derives from the Latin root word "res," meaning, at base, "thing," and in context, just about anything. GRE and SAT level derivatives from this root include: surreal, realist, realizable, irreal, and realization. Note that the word "Republican" derives from this word; the "Res Publica" are the "things" (that is, matters or affairs) of the "people:" via the Latin word populus: "people." Note Grimm's law changing the "p" of the Latin to a "b" in English.

Now, let's take a look at Aphorism 9: Conceptualization is based on linguistic knowledge, not contact with real things. I'll let you decide which category aphorism 9 falls into: aphorism 5:
There are five types of patterns, including both hurtful and benign.

As we learned in my post concerning aphorism 4 of Patanjali's Yoga-Sutra, patterns of thought that are formed at birth and early on in life limit one's view of reality, coloring one's awareness of what the world truly is and restricting it to the view of the pattern, which is not necessarily where reality lies, but only the reality of the pattern itself, which is not actual truth or clear perception. A large part of this patterning derives, in addition to perception, from "conceptualization," which becomes clouded by "linguistic" knowledge, which cannot know "real" things, or things as they actually are.
Let me explain. Language, despite the fact that it is the primary tool of human interaction and thought, is limited by the very fact that it, inherently, is a metaphor (and so how much more nebulous do metaphors themselves become!). The word "table" is NOT the "table," or "real" thing itself, but rather is a symbolic referent to a "table." The word itself really gives us very little information about the inherent nature of this thing we, as English speakers, happen to call a "table." Language does not allow us to "know" the table, but only to refer to it. In time, language dupes us into thinking that we know something simply because we know the word which is the referent of the thing. We become, well, desensitized, as it were, in a cloud of linguistic, abstract unknowing. And become rather complacent, even insouciant.
Consider the word "I." We all take it for granted that when we say "I am dancing," that there is a subject, namely the "I," that is indeed dancing. But wait ... what about non-subject based languages? There are languages which do not admit a doer of the deed, but rather an action flowing through as a vector; so, instead of "clouds raining," one might say "there is raining;" instead of saying "I am dancing" or "we are dancing," a speaker of a gerund-based language would say "there is dancing." Can you see the subtle difference? Hard for someone imbued with the notion only of subjects. If one were to assume that a subject-based language is reality, one would assume that language is an infallible tool, which it is clearly not. In fact, language clouds reality and circumscribes reality in terms of its way of looking at experience, not experience as it actually is. Add that to the inherently biased ways that language has of presenting and perpetuating "reality" (provincial and parochial to be sure), and you end up with all kinds of problems.
The above is why Nietzsche hated librettos. Unlike language, which is multiple steps away from "reality" (or that which is the transcendent, the Unmoved Mover, the ding an sich, the ineffable nondual, the non-subject mirror to nature), music is believed by many to be one step away from truth as Keats envisioned it (beauty is truth, truth beauty). Music is an audial form of the luminous sunset (both of which are completely inadequately described by language, and why we become much more emotional from music or visual beauty than we do with words, which much stretch and pull, but also why poetry comes closer than prose to the Unrealizable), and so it is but one step away; when words are thrown in, it's like mixing rancid oil with beautiful, aquamarine, tropical water. You get my point.
And so, language leads us astray. Consider the sem and all the thinking it does, all with language, that just perpetuates its own reality, not unsullied truth. Rather, the yogi looks for contact not with vaporous mind fluctuations that are only a metaphor for general inanity, but with "reality" as Plato envisioned it: the true Real form, or template, that gives rise to our experiences with the person who must do the experiencing, which ultimately changes what reality is. We must lose this linguistic dross, this mental prattle, this detritus of intellect before we can approach the pristine "Real."
Or that which we all desire to "link back" to.

Fascinated with English vocabulary words? Want to pick them apart into their constituent Greek and Latin roots? Want to know even more SAT and GRE words that come from the Latin root words res, rei; capio, capere; tango, tangere; and lingua? Studying hard for the SAT or GRE verbal section, and just can't get a handle on all of those vocabulary words, which are truly legion? Check out the Greek and Latin roots site Word Empire, where you will find the most comprehensive Greek and Latin roots dictionary available today, and also the most beautiful...it's in full color, and artistically designed. There's even a Greek and Latin roots poster available, which nicely illustrates the full power of what Greek and Latin root words can do for you.

Latin Roots of the Yoga-Sutra--Chapter 1--Aphorism 8

2010-02-10T08:37:00.000-08:00

Welcome back fans of Latin roots as they relate to English vocabulary words! Recently I have been focusing this SAT and GRE English vocabulary blog on analyzing the Latin root words of titles of great English and world literature, and then discussing why those great works are nonpareil. I have recently perused Patanjali's great work concerning yoga, the Yoga-Sutra, translated by Chip Hartranft. I have found the aphoristic style of the Yoga-Sutra to be not only engaging, but also deeply profound; in it, Patanjali discusses the considerable spiritual, mental, and physical rewards that one can derive from the practice of yoga, which is much, much more than the usually held western conception of yoga as just the asanas, or physical postures/poses. During the next two years or so, I will devote myself to writing about each of Patanjali's aphorisms, sequentially, contained in his remarkable 2nd-century BCE text, with a focus on analyzing the text in terms of its classical Greek and Latin roots of the fine English translation, and then providing an individual's exegesis of the text itself, based upon my own wonderful experience with yoga beyond the asanas. It has been said that memorizing the Sanskrit text of the Yoga-Sutra in and of itself can re-pattern the mind; I am most curious to see if this phenomenon is also metalinguistic, that is, can English and its root words via Greek and Latin effect the same transformation? Last week I focused on the Latin roots of the Yoga-Sutra: Chapter 1: Aphorism 7. This week I move on to:

Aphorism 8: Misperception is false knowledge, not based on what actually is.

You will recall that aphorism 8 is a direct answer of aphorism 5: There are five types of patterns, including both hurtful and benign and aphorism 6: They are right perception, misperception, conceptualization, deep sleep, and remembering.

Let's first discuss the Greek and Latin roots of three of the following words in aphorism 8:

Misperception: from the Latin verb capio, capere, cepi, captum: "take, capture, seize" and the Germanic prefix mis-: "bad, badly, wrong, wrongly." "Perception," etymologically, is the "thorough seizing or capturing" by the mind of experience, or of the world that the mind "perceives." Note that the prefix "per" in this case acts as an intensive prefix, adding emphasis to the main stem "cept." ("pre" in the word "prefix," on the other hand, means "before, in front of," as "prefixes" are those words that are "fastened in front of a word"). The suffix "-ion" means "act, state, or result of doing something." Hence, etymologically, "perception" is the "act of thoroughly capturing or seizing" the world around one, through the mind. Following on that, "misperception" is the "act of thoroughly and wrongly capturing or seizing" the world around one. SAT and GRE words are legion through this root, e.g.: captious, conceit, precept, encapsulate, incipient, principle, capacious, recuperate.

False: The word "false" comes to English via the Latin verb fallo, fallere, fefelli, falsum: "trick, deceive." Hence, something "false" deceives the viewer, or has tricked her into believing something that is not true. Some interesting SAT-level derivatives run through fallo, fallere, including: fallacy, fallacious, infallible, fallible, fault, default, unfailing, and faux. Note also that the word "faucet" "flows" through this word: can anyone guess why? I will provide the answer in my next post, and the name of anyone who is so incisive and perspicacious so as to see through the etymological trickery.

Actually: runs through the highly prolific Latin root word ago, agere, egi, actum: "do, act, drive." Something that "actually" is has been "done," and therefore exists in reality (Platonic or not). A truly astounding number of English derivatives flow through ago, agere, including but not limited to the ff. SAT and GRE level derivatives: exacting, retroactive, intransigent, variegated, castigate, cogent, ambiguous, prodigal, mitigate, purge, and cogitate. Interested in (many) more? Check out my Greek and Latin roots English vocabulary site.

Now, let's take a look at Aphorism 8: Misperception is false knowledge, not based on what actually is: the second of the five patterns mentioned in aphorism 5:
There are five types of patterns, including both hurtful and benign.

As we learned in my post concerning aphorism 4 of Patanjali's Yoga-Sutra, patterns of thought that are formed at birth and early on in life limit one's view of reality, coloring one's awareness of what the world truly is and restricting it to the view of the pattern, which is not necessarily where reality lies, but only the reality of the pattern itself, which is not actual truth or clear perception. Hence, to understand how to supersede such patterning, one must learn the "types" or forms of these patterns; all of them, according to Patanjali, are not necessarily hurtful, although some are. Being able to harness those that are benign to further the process towards enlightenment and obviating those that are hurtful will take us a long way towards fulfilling our goal, that is, to allow one's awareness of true reality to be unhindered and unfettered by those hurtful or debilitating patterns. In aphorism 6, we are given the names of these patterns, the second of which is delineated in our current aphorism.

Misperception of the physical world can be as simple as mistaking a rope for a snake, or a bear for Sasquatch. What we thought was one thing turns out to be another. Traditionally this sutra has been exegetically limited to that interpretation. I would like to advance another that extends this idea from the purely physical realm to the phantoms of the mental realm.

Misperception, unfortunately, is the way in which most of us view reality, in a clouded and "unreal" state. We do not see what "actually" is, but rather we see with "false knowledge," which launches us into suffering via the kleshas, or five afflictions (caused by defective mental patterns): craving, aversion, ignorance, ego, and clinging to life (in the sense of not accepting that death is but another bardo, or stage of existence). Having wrongly perceived what actually is, we come to have false conceptions of what existence is, especially of who we are (false self vs. true self), and thus react blindly and with little sagacity to many situations in our lives. Most of us, unless we are enlightened yoginis or bodhisattvas, spend our lives in a cloud of confusion, battling our way through a reality that is only wrongly constructed by our minds, and is not actual. Kant examined a concept of this sort nicely in his Critique of Pure Reason (1781) when he spoke of noetic a priori filters that our mind has at birth, patterns, as it were, that cloud our vision of reality, much as clear water becomes stained when it flows through coffee grounds. Yogis correctly perceive the clear water of what is actual, and thus are unaffected by the kleshas; the rest of us are drinking our coffee, pleased with the caffeine, but then needing more the next day, sometimes more that very day. Clearly aphorism 8 is one of the hurtful patterns because reality is not presented as it actually is, but as the mind misperceives it to be.

My next post will focus on aphorism 9: Conceptualization is based on linguistic knowledge, not contact with real things.

Fascinated with English vocabulary words? Want to pick them apart into their constituent Greek and Latin roots? Want to know even more SAT and GRE words that come from the Latin root words ago, agere; capio, capere; and fallo, fallere? Studying hard for the SAT or GRE verbal section, and just can't get a handle on all of those vocabulary words, which are truly legion? Check out the Greek and Latin roots site Word Empire, where you will find the most comprehensive Greek and Latin roots dictionary available today, and also the most beautiful...it's in full color, and artistically designed. There's even a Greek and Latin roots poster available, which nicely illustrates the full power of what Greek and Latin root words can do for you.

Interested in Greek and Roman mythology? Check out Mr. Brunner's Greek Mythology Blog!

Latin Roots of the Yoga-Sutra--Chapter 1--Aphorism 7

2010-02-01T08:42:00.000-08:00

Dirigo, dirigere, direxi, directum—to make straight, arrange, guide, direct {dress, droit}

which in and of itself derives from the Latin verb rego, regere, rexi, rectum: rule, guide, direct, keep straight. Hence, when one "directs" one's observation, one "rules" or "guides" it in a way that makes one's observation "straight," that is, truthful (in the sense of Platonic Idealism). The verb rego, regere, rexi, rectum has a legion of SAT and GRE derivatives to its credit, including: regimented, adroit, regime, regimen, maladroit, unruly, and incorrigible. These are but a very few of the English vocabulary words that come from this root word.

Observation: Runs through the primary stem:

Servo, servare, servavi, servatum—to guard, keep, save, protect, watch

and also contains the prefix -ob, where here means "over," or can be construed as an intensive, hence "thoroughly." One's "observation," therefore, is the way that one's mind (limited again by experiential patterning) "watches over" or "thoroughly watches" experience. Note that the core idea is one of survival, that is, a "keeping" or "protecting" of the individual as she "guards" her person. In a yogic sense, this "directing" of "observation" must be done in the "right" or "ruled" way. Various other SAT and GRE English vocabulary words run through servo, servare, including but not limited to: conservatory, conservation, preservation, reservoir, reservation, and reserved.

Inference: via the Latin verb fero, ferre, tuli, latum, a truly prolific root that has given English hundreds of vocabulary words, including: indifferent, referendum, collate, circumference, vociferous, defer, superlative, proliferate, insufferable, proffer, oblation, and referent. Like a complete word list? Check out the most comprehensive Greek and Latin roots dictionary available.
"Inference," etymologically, is a "bearing or carrying in," (note the present active participial suffix -ence which accounts for the English -ing) that is, reasoning from empirical knowledge gathered from one's "observation" of the "real" world (that of the ding an sich) gathered via one's clarified senses, or the deriving of logical conclusions therefrom.

Now, let's take a look at Aphorism 7: Right perception arises from direct observation, inference, or the words of others, which is the first of the five patterns mentioned in aphorism 5:
There are five types of patterns, including both hurtful and benign.

As we learned in my post concerning aphorism 4 of Patanjali's Yoga-Sutra, patterns of thought that are formed at birth and early on in life limit one's view of reality, coloring one's awareness of what the world truly is and restricting it to the view of the pattern, which is not necessarily where reality lies, but only the reality of the pattern itself, which is not actual truth or clear perception. Hence, to understand how to supersede such patterning, one must learn the "types" or forms of these patterns; all of them, according to Patanjali, are not necessarily hurtful, although some are. Being able to harness those that are benign to further the process towards enlightenment and obviating those that are hurtful will take us a long way towards fulfilling our goal, that is, to allow one's awareness of true reality to be unhindered and unfettered by those patterns. In aphorism 6, we are given the names of these patterns, the first of which is delineated in our current aphorism:

Right perception is the mind's ability to "thoroughly capture" experience and the world as it actually is in order to see clearly through to unadulterated or unsullied reality (less clouded patterning). How to? Direct observation, not just observation. Empiricism. Aphorism 7 discusses yogic epistemology, or how do we know what we know what we know. As we have learned from our etymological musings above, direct observation must occur when there is an uninterrupted link between the world as it is and out perception of it. Patterning cannot get in the way, or it leads to misperception. Thus, observation without limiting thought is direct, or ruled, by that which is called the Witness (much more later about what that is). Seeing things through our own senses must be our path to right cognition or right perception; for instance, yoga requires our own direct experience of something to be our guiding post to things real--when we touched fire as an infant, we found our through our own direct knowledge (epistemological autodidacticism) that fire is hot. This kind of perception is the purest form of perception according to Yoga--the other two are more indirect experiences.

Inference is perception of reality in an indirect fashion. For instance, we know that where there is smoke there must be fire. We don't have to see that fire, but we indubitably know that, if there is smoke off in the distance, that a fire is generating it. This, of course, is weaker than perception, and can lead to misperception--the "smoke" that we see, for instance, could be a cloud of dust that we mistake for smoke.

Right perception derived from the words of others can only be a reference perhaps to the words of Patanjali himself, shorn of affectation (hence aphoristic); beware, however, that words are mere metaphors or simple referents to that which they semantically signify (cf. Nietzsche and his dislike of librettos in the opera--music is one step from the noumenal, whereas words are two steps away, hence vastly inferior as a tool to attain the transcendent). Words of others can also refer to others' experiences of things that they describe to us (very limited--our own empiricism is highly superior), or holy words from sacred scripts, taken to be universal truths, that is, if there is a common archetype amongst many different inflections of many different religions, then it is a pretty good bet that it is a universal truth and can be trusted.

Hence, "right perception" would be a benign pattern (or function) of the a priori mind , before it becomes clouded by the more pejorative patterns of experience in this world, and a forgetting of those Wordsworthian "trailing clouds of glory." "Right perception" by the a posteriori mind is a little more suspect, although Yoga says that it must be trusted, at least in terms of one's own empirical observation; that of inference and words of others must be subordinate to one's own senses in apprehending the manifestations of phenomology.

My next post will focus on aphorism 8: Misperception is false knowledge, not based on what actually is.

Fascinated with English vocabulary words? Want to pick them apart into their constituent Greek and Latin roots? Want to know even more SAT and GRE words that come from the Latin root words rego, regere; fero, ferre; and capio, capere? Studying hard for the SAT or GRE verbal section, and just can't get a handle on all of those vocabulary words, which are truly legion? Check out the Greek and Latin roots site called Word Empire, where you will find the most comprehensive Greek and Latin roots dictionary available today, and also the most beautiful...it's in full color, and artistically designed. There's even a Greek and Latin roots poster available, which nicely illustrates the full power of what Greek and Latin root words can do for you.

Interested in Greek and Roman mythology? Check out my Greek and Roman Mythology blog!

Latin Roots of the Yoga-Sutra--Chapter 1--Aphorism 6

2010-01-18T08:31:00.000-08:00

Welcome back fans of Latin roots as they relate to English vocabulary words! Recently I have been focusing this SAT English vocabulary blog on analyzing the Latin root words of titles of great English and world literature, and then discussing why those great works are nonpareil. I have recently perused Patanjali's great work concerning yoga, the Yoga-Sutra, translated by Chip Hartranft. I have found the aphoristic style of the Yoga-Sutra to be not only engaging, but also deeply profound; in it, Patanjali discusses the considerable spiritual, mental, and physical rewards that one can derive from the practice of yoga, which is much, much more than the usually held western conception of yoga as just the asanas, or physical postures/poses. During the next two years or so, I will devote myself to writing about each of Patanjali's aphorisms, sequentially, contained in his remarkable 2nd-century BCE text, with a focus on analyzing the text in terms of its classical Greek and Latin roots of the fine English translation, and then providing an individual's exegesis of the text itself, based upon my own wonderful experience with yoga beyond the asanas. It has been said that memorizing the Sanskrit text of the Yoga-Sutra in and of itself can re-pattern the mind; I am most curious to see if this phenomenon is also metalinguistic, that is, can English and its root words effect the same transformation? Last week I focused on the Latin roots of the Yoga-Sutra: Chapter 1: Aphorism 5. This week I move on to:

Aphorism 6: They are right perception, misperception, conceptualization, deep sleep, and remembering.

You will recall that aphorism 6 is a direct answer of aphorism 5: There are five types of patterns, including both hurtful and benign.

Let's first discuss the Greek and Latin roots of four of the following words in aphorism 6:

n.b. The words "perception," "misperception," and "conceptualization" have the same stem cept, which is derived from the Latin verb capio, capere, cepi, captum.

Perception: from the Latin verb capio, capere, cepi, captum: "take, capture, seize" "Perception," etymologically, is the "thorough seizing or capturing" by the mind of experience, or of the world that the mind "perceives." Note that the prefix "per" in this case acts as an intensive prefix, adding emphasis to the main stem "cept." ("pre" in the word "prefix," on the other hand, means "before, in front of," as "prefixes" are those words that are "fastened in front of a word"). The suffix "-ion" means "act, state, or result of doing something." Hence, etymologically, "perception" is the "act of thoroughly capturing or seizing" the world around one, through the mind.

Misperception: "misperception" contains all the same roots as the word "perception," but adds yet another prefix (a prefix can precede or antecede another prefix), which radically changes the meaning. In this case, the Germanic prefix "mis" means "wrong, wrongly, bad, badly." Hence, etymologically, "misperception" is the "act of thoroughly but wrongly or badly capturing or seizing" the world of experience which surrounds the mind.

Conceptualization: the main root word of "conceptualization" remains capio, capere, cepi, captum: take, capture, seize; the prefix "con," which comes from the Latin preposition cum: "with, together," also here acts as another intensive, whereas the two Latin suffixes "-al" (of or pertaining to) and "-ation" (act, state, or result of doing something) (note that suffixes, as prefixes, can also be serried in formation: consider antidisestablishmentarianism which has fully two prefixes and 5 suffixes): hence, etymologically, "conceptualization" is the "act or state pertaining to thoroughly capturing or seizing" something, that is, forming a "concept" or "conceiving" of something within the mind.

N.b. the Latin root word capio, capere, cepi, captum has many, many SAT and GRE derivatives, including such words as: captious, captivating, inception, encapsulate, incapacitate, conceit, etc. etc. For a full list of these SAT and GRE vocabulary words, check out Word Empire, the most exhaustive source on the web for SAT and GRE vocabulary based on Greek and Latin roots.

Remembering: this word comes to us through the Latin prefix "re-" (back, again) and the Latin root word memor, memoris: "remembering, mindful" and "memoro, memorare, memoravi, memoratum": to remind, call to mind. When one "remembers" something, it is "called to mind again" since it has already been learned. Numerous SAT and GRE vocabulary words come from this root as well, consider: memorial, commemorate, memoir, memorandum, immemorial, etc.

Now, let's take a look at Aphorism 6:

Aphorism 6: They are right perception, misperception, conceptualization, deep sleep, and remembering.

A direct answer of aphorism 5:
There are five types of patterns, including both hurtful and benign.

As we learned in my post concerning aphorism 4 of Patanjali's Yoga-Sutra, patterns of thought that are formed at birth and early on in life limit one's view of reality, coloring one's awareness of what the world truly is and restricting it to the view of the pattern, which is not necessarily where reality lies, but only the reality of the pattern itself, which is not actual truth or clear perception. Hence, to understand how to supersede such patterning, one must learn the "types" or forms of these patterns; all of them, according to Patanjali, are not necessarily hurtful, although some are. Being able to harness those that are benign to further the process towards enlightenment and obviating those that are hurtful will take us a long way towards fulfilling our goal, that is, to allow one's awareness of true reality to be unhindered and unfettered by those patterns. In aphorism 6, we are given the names of these patterns, both hurtful and benign:

Right perception: clearly benign. If the mind were to "thoroughly capture" experience and the world as it actually is, one would see clear to the truth.

Misperception: clearly harmful. If the mind "badly" or "wrongly" perceives reality (which unfortunately is where most of us are), it becomes afflicted with the kleshas, those "causes of suffering" or "poisons," in Sanskrit named the ff.: avidya, asmita, raga, dvesha, and abhinivesha.

Conceptualization: unsure whether harmful or benign. The formation of images or concepts or ideas in our minds could, I gather, go either way: future aphorisms of Patanjali will clear up the obfuscation.

Deep sleep: hopefully benign. Who doesn't like a deep and restful sleep?

Remembering: hopefully benign. Remembering, I think, in this sense is like Wordworth's Intimations of Immortality, a "remembering" of where we came from, "trailing clouds of glory." What is the etiology of the mind? The body? Our soul? Whither the origin? The origin itself, the Transcendent, the Numinous, the Ineffable Nondual, the Unmoved Mover, Ptah, or whatever other referent or inadequate word you wish to give that which comprises the very nature of the Universe...love in its purest, most pristine, most powerful, and most wonderful form.

My next post will focus on aphorism 7: Right perception arises from direct observation, inference, or the words of others.

Fascinated with English vocabulary words? Want to pick them apart into their constituent Greek and Latin roots? Want to know even more SAT and GRE words that come from the Latin root words capio, capere and memor, memoris? Studying hard for the SAT or GRE verbal section, and just can't get a handle on all of those vocabulary words, which are truly legion? Check out the Greek and Latin roots site called Word Empire, where you will find the most comprehensive Greek and Latin roots dictionary available today, and also the most beautiful...it's in full color, and artistically designed. There's even a Greek and Latin roots poster available, which nicely illustrates the full power of what Greek and Latin root words can do for you.

Latin Roots of the Yoga-Sutra--Chapter 1--Aphorism 5

2009-12-29T04:19:00.000-08:00

Welcome back fans of Latin roots as they relate to English vocabulary words! Recently I have been focusing this SAT English vocabulary blog on analyzing the Latin root words of titles of great English and world literature, and then discussing why those great works are nonpareil. I have recently perused Patanjali's great work concerning yoga, the Yoga-Sutra, translated by Chip Hartranft. I have found the aphoristic style of the Yoga-Sutra to be not only engaging, but also deeply profound; in it, Patanjali discusses the considerable spiritual, mental, and physical rewards that one can derive from the practice of yoga, which is much, much more than the usually held western conception of yoga as just the asanas, or physical postures/poses. During the next two years or so, I will devote myself to writing about each of Patanjali's aphorisms, sequentially, contained in his remarkable 2nd-century BCE text, with a focus on analyzing the text in terms of its classical Greek and Latin roots of the fine English translation, and then providing an individual's exegesis of the text itself, based upon my own wonderful experience with yoga thus far. It has been said that memorizing the Sanskrit text of the Yoga-Sutra in and of itself can re-pattern the mind; I am most curious to see if this phenomenon is also metalinguistic, that is, can English and its root words effect the same transformation? Last week I focused on the Latin roots of the Yoga-Sutra: Chapter 1: Aphorism 4. This week I move on to:

Aphorism 5: There are five types of patterns, including both hurtful and benign.

Let's first discuss the Greek and Latin roots of four of the following words above:

type: From the Greek root typos: "blow, impression, form." One "types" on a keyboard by making "impressions" on the keys with one's fingers, just as a "type" of candy is the "form" it takes, just as character traits "form" a "type" of person. Numerous SAT and GRE-level vocabulary words run through the Greek root typos, including: archetype, stereotype, atypical, typify, prototype, genotype, and timbre. Pattern: from the Latin word pater, patris: “father;” a “pattern” is the “father” of something because it generates the limitations within which forms can arise, that is, according to its “pattern,” in much the same way that a father’s genetic information helps form the physical “pattern” of his offspring, and also the child’s mental “patterning” by the way that the father behaves, highly influencing the child. Other SAT and GRE-level derivatives from pater, patris include: patriarch, paternal, patron, patronize, repatriate, patriarch, and compatriot. Include: from the prolific Latin verb claudo, claudere, clausi, clausum: "shut, close;" when something is "included" with something else, it is etymologically "shut in" with it. This root has many, many English derivatives at the SAT and GRE-level that come from it, "including" but not limited to the ff.: exclusive, inclusion, exclusion, preclude, occlude, recluse, conclusive, closure, disclosure, seclude, conclusive, claustrophobia, seclusion, cloister, and foreclose. For even more SAT and GRE vocabulary words, check out www.wordempire.com where you will find many more examples! Benign: this word comes directly from the Latin word benignus: "kind;" this includes the Latin adverb bene: well and ago, agere: "do;" so, someone who "does well" is kind. English words are legion from ago, agere (in the 100s); from bene: benediction, benefactor, beneficent, benevolent, beneficial, etc. Aphorism 5: There are five types of patterns, including both hurtful and benign. As we learned in my last post concerning aphorism 4, patterns of thought that are formed at birth and early on in life limit one's view of reality, coloring one's awareness of what the world truly is and restricting it to the view of the pattern, which is not necessarily where reality lies, but only the reality of the pattern itself, which is not actual truth or clear perception. Hence, to understand how to supersede such patterning, one must learn the "types" or forms of these patterns; all of them, according to Patanjali, are not necessarily hurtful, although some are. Being able to harness those that are benign to further the process towards enlightenment and obviating those that are hurtful will take us a long way towards fulfilling our goal, that is, to allow one's awareness of true reality to be unhindered and unfettered by those patterns. We all live with the purview or even control of these patterns, and without even being able to recognize them as such, one cannot know how to deal with them, for through the patterns we perceive the reality dictated by the pattern, not unadulterated, pure reality. This concept is fully discussed in Plato's Allegory of the Cave, in which men live who have only ever seen shadows dancing on the wall of the cave and have never been out in the real world; imagine one man's surprise one day when he leaves the cave and comes upon glorious, colorful, three-dimensional reality--what a blow to his mind and preconceptions that must have been! In much the same way do our mind's patterns cause us to remain in the shadows, shackling awareness and giving us only the smallest glimpses of the glory of reality as it truly is. My next post will focus on aphorism 6: They are right perception, misperception, conceptualization, deep sleep, and remembering. Fascinated with English vocabulary words? Want to pick them apart into their constituent Greek and Latin roots? Want to know even more SAT and GRE words that come from the Latin root words pater, bene, ago, and claudo? Studying hard for the SAT or GRE verbal section, and just can't get a handle on all of those vocabulary words, which are truly legion? Check out www.wordempire.com , where you will find the most comprehensive Greek and Latin roots dictionary available today, and also the most beautiful...it's in full color, and artistically designed. There's even a Greek and Latin roots poster available, which nicely illustrates the full power of what Greek and Latin root words can do for you.

Latin Roots of the Yoga-Sutra--Chapter 1--Aphorism 4

2009-12-15T18:22:00.000-08:00

Consciousness: from "scio, scire": to know; the “con” of “consciousness” means “thoroughly” (from the preposition “cum” which here acts as an intensive), so one who exhibits “consciousness” possesses the “state, quality, or condition” of “thoroughly knowing” one’s surroundings. Other SAT and GRE-level derivatives that come from "scio, scire" include: conscience, conscientious, conscionable, conscientiousness, unconscionable, omniscient, omniscience, prescient, nicety, plebiscite, and nice.

Pattern: from the Latin word pater, patris: “father;” a “pattern” is the “father” of something because it generates the limitations within which forms can arise, that is, according to its “pattern,” in much the same way that a father’s genetic information helps form the physical “pattern” of his offspring, and also the child’s mental “patterning” by the way that the father behaves, highly influencing the child. Other SAT and GRE-level derivatives from “pater, patris” include: patriarch, paternal, patron, patronize, repatriate, patriarch, and compatriot.

Aphorism 4: Otherwise awareness takes itself to be the patterns of consciousness.

A human’s “awareness,” if having been proscribed or circumscribed or limited by the early “patterns” that have delimited or delineated her “consciousness,” cannot see reality for what it is, but only reality as it appears to the “patterns” or “filters” that keep true, or unfiltered, reality in check. It is as if she were seeing reality through rose-colored glasses. Imagine, if you will, true reality as clear, unsullied water, and ground coffee as the “patterning” or “filter” through which that “reality” must pass; the grounds stain the water as it passes through the coffee maker, creating an end product that is opaque and indiscernible to that clear water, despite the fact that the clear water is the primary substrate or underpinning of all that darkness or lack of clarity. Transcendent vision is all around one, permeating one’s senses, but the “patterns” of “consciousness” themselves are so impermeable that they act to obscure or obfuscate our vision of the ding-an-sich, the “thing-in-itself.” How does one remove these patterns of the mind, these dark coffee grounds that so influence our vision of the transcendent? How does one clear one’s consciousness for clear viewing? Is it truly as difficult as removing the dark color from that once clear water that created the coffee? Hmmm…maybe, maybe not. Patanjali contends that the patterns of consciousness can be stilled through the discipline of yoga, a new reverse filtration system, as it were, that can make pellucid the opacity of compromised vision, that can return lucidity to the darkness of that cup of coffee, to those clouds swirling in one’s cup of awareness. The substrate of clear water is comfortably there, and yoga is the path to clear the way.

Fascinated with English vocabulary words? Want to pick them apart into their constituent Greek and Latin roots? Want to know even more SAT and GRE words that come from the Latin root words scio, scire and pater, patris (there are a good number)? Studying hard for the SAT or GRE verbal section, and just can't get a handle on all of those vocabulary words, which are truly legion? Check out www.wordempire.com , where you will find the most comprehensive Greek and Latin roots dictionary available today, and also the most beautiful...it's in full color, and artistically designed. There's even a Greek and Latin roots poster available, which nicely illustrates the full power of what Greek and Latin root words can do for you.

Latin Roots of the Yoga-Sutra--Chapter 1--Aphorism 3

2009-11-22T08:11:00.000-08:00

Welcome back fans of Latin roots as they relate to English vocabulary words! Recently I have been focusing this SAT English vocabulary blog on analyzing the Latin root words of titles of great English and world literature, and then discussing why those great works are nonpareil. I have recently perused Patanjali's great work concerning yoga, the Yoga-Sutra, translated by Chip Hartranft. I have found the aphoristic style of the Yoga-Sutra to be not only engaging, but also deeply profound; in it, Patanjali discusses the considerable spiritual, mental, and physical rewards that one can derive from the practice of yoga, which is much, much more than the usually held western conception of yoga as just the asanas, or physical postures/poses. During the next two years or so, I will devote myself to writing about each of Patanjali's aphorisms, sequentially, contained in his remarkable 2nd-century BCE text, with a focus on analyzing the text in terms of its classical Greek and Latin roots of the fine English translation, and then providing an individual's exegesis of the text itself, based upon my own wonderful experience with yoga thus far. It has been said that memorizing the Sanskrit text of the Yoga-Sutra in and of itself can re-pattern the mind; I am most curious to see if this phenomenon is also metalinguistic, that is, can English and its root words effect the same transformation? Last week I focused on the Latin roots of the Yoga-Sutra: Chapter 1: Aphorism 2. This week I move on to:

Chapter 1: Integration
Aphorism 3: Then pure awareness can abide in its very nature.

The name of this chapter (itself derived from the Latin root caput, capitis: "head") comes from the Latin root integer: "whole, entire, untouched." Thus, this first chapter, the first of but four in the Yoga-Sutra, from an etymological point of view, will focus upon "the act of becoming whole, entire, or untouched."

The third aphorism includes three key English derivatives, all three from Latin root words:

pure: from the Latin root word purus: "clean, pure, spotless," source of the following English SAT vocabulary words: purgation, expurgate, impurity, purge, puritanical, et al.

very: from the Latin root word verus: "true," source of numerous and sundry English SAT words, including but not limited to: verify, verdict, verity, verisimilitude, veracious, and aver. Hence, "very," at core, is "truly."

nature: from the Latin root word nasci, nasci, natus sum: "to be born," and, more directly, natura: "character, power which gives birth to the world," source of a huge number of SAT and GRE English vocabulary words, including but certainly not limited to: innate, nascent, nativity, naive, puny, renaissance, cognate, preternatural, etc. The key here is the power of giving birth, or of creating the world.

Aphorism 3: Then pure awareness can abide in its very nature.

"Awareness" is defined as "knowing, realizing, or perceiving." Consciousness brings about awareness, that ability we humans have of being cognizant of not only our own existence, but also of that which surrounds us. Once aphorism 2 has been attained, that is, the "patterns of consciousness have been stilled," "pure," or "spotless, clean" knowing can transpire--which intimates that patterns of consiousness control our thought processes and give us an "impure" view of the world around us, somehow tainting our awareness (in much the same way that Kant described the mind as a a-priori filter that sees "reality" only in terms of itself, not as it really is). So, once the knowing becomes spotless, it can "reside" or "abide" or "be" in its "very" (or "true") nature..the question is, what is the "true nature?" A linguistic or etymological clue here, I believe, resides in the root of the word "nature" discussed above, that is, natura: "character, power which gives birth to the world." If the "nature" of this "pure awareness" is a "power which gives birth to the world," and the inherent "patterns of consciousnss" that is that "awareness" are not "spotless" or "pure," we cannot know the true essence of the world as it really is, what its "truth" is, because the "power which gives birth to the world" is blocked by patterning. But...this awareness, this "very nature," if it indeed does have the "power to give birth to the world," must contain the seeds of enlightenment, indeed must be an immanent, divine force which can allow us to see the world as it is, to view truth (the Platonic Ideals, discussed in the Allegory of the Cave in Plato's Republic), indeed, allow us (since we possess awareness) to "abide in true nature." With the intimation that this "true nature" in an inherent part of every human being, and that every human being can become and has the innate ability to become enlightened.
I guess that blows the "divine elect" out of the water. And supports the conviction that all people are indeed equal. And that all people are sacred and divine and ONE. Sorry, hierarchy of priests and all you infallible ones, we are all infallible.
But...a big but here...how to cleanse the patterning of consciousness so that we can reside in our "true nature," so that we can take the blinders off "awareness" so that we can apprehend the transcendent, the divine, the ineffable nondual that surrounds us? Yoga, in all its phases. How huge is that?
Next: Aphorism 4: “Otherwise awareness takes itself to be the patterns of consciousness.”

Fascinated with English vocabulary words? Want to pick them apart into their constituent Greek and Latin roots? Want to know even more SAT and GRE words that come from the Latin root words purus, natura, and verus (there are a great number!)? Studying hard for the SAT or GRE verbal section, and just can't get a handle on all of those vocabulary words, which are truly legion? Check out www.wordempire.com, where you will find the most comprehensive Greek and Latin roots dictionary available today, and also the most beautiful...it's in full color, and artistically designed. There's even a Greek and Latin roots poster available, which nicely illustrates the full power of what Greek and Latin root words can do for you.

Latin Roots of the Yoga-Sutra: Chapter 1: Aphorism 2

2009-11-08T06:37:00.000-08:00

Welcome back fans of Latin roots as they relate to English vocabulary words! Recently I have been focusing this SAT English vocabulary blog on analyzing the Latin root words of titles of great English and world literature, and then discussing why those great works are indeed great. I have recently perused Patanjali's great work concerning yoga, the Yoga-Sutra, translated by Chip Hartranft. I have found the aphoristic style of the Yoga-Sutra not only engaging, but also deeply profound; in it, Patanjali discusses the considerable spiritual, mental, and physical rewards that one can derive from the practice of yoga, which is much, much more than the usually held western conception of yoga as just the asanas, or postures. During the next two years or so, I will devote myself to writing about each of Patanjanli's aphorisms, sequentially, contained in this remarkable 2nd-century BCE text, with a focus on analyzing the text in terms of its classical Greek and Latin roots of the fine English translation, and then providing an individual's exegesis of the text itself, based upon my own wonderful experience with yoga thus far. It has been said that memorizing the Sanskrit text of the Yoga-Sutra in and of itself can re-pattern the mind; I am most curious to see if this phenomenon is also metalinguistic, that is, can English and its roots bring effect the same transformation? Last week I focused on the Latin roots of Chapter 1: Integration and Aphorism 1: Now, the teachings of yoga. This week I move on to:

Chapter 1: Integration
Aphorism 2: Yoga is to still the patterning of consciousness.

The name of this chapter (itself derived from the Latin root caput, capitis: "head") comes from the Latin root integer: "whole, entire, untouched." Thus, this first chapter, the first of but four in the Yoga-Sutra, from an etymological point of view, will focus upon "the act of becoming whole, entire, or untouched."
The second aphorism includes two key English derivatives, both from Latin root words:

pattern: The word "pattern" comes from the Latin root pater, patris: father. Just as a "father" or pater contribues to children via his genetic pattern, so too are patterns progenitors of forms. Patterning in the conscious mind becomes the "father" of action or thought; early patterns that are formed in the mind lead to children of restricted thought. Many SAT-level English vocabulary words arise from the Latin root word pater, patris, including but not limited to: patriarch, paternity, expatriate, patron, patronize, patronizing, patronage, perpetrate, and patricide.

consciousness: The word "consciousness" arises via the Latin prefix "con" which comes from the Latin preposition "cum," which in this case acts as an intensive, meaning "thoroughly," and the Latin verb scio, scire, "to know." It is one's "consciousness" that allows one to "thoroughly know" the world around one, making one aware that one is not only alive, but that much, apparently, surrounds one in this world; a whirling vortex of samsara which leads to the kleshas, or afflictions. Other SAT-level derivatives that derive from the Latin verb scio, scire include: conscientious, omniscient, prescient, conscionable, unconscionable, nicety, and plebiscite.

Aphorism 2: Yoga is to still the patterning of consciousness.

Let's take a look at the aphorism in light of the etymology of "pattern" and "consciousness." Patterns formed in the consciousness early on in life lead to restricted ways of thought limited by those patterns, which give a skewed, awry, and false view of our awareness and knowing because our consciousness has been, as it were, biased. This yogic view of the apprehension (or not) of reality is remarkably similar to Kant's philosophical bent towards Metaphysical Agnosticism, in which Kant asseverates that our minds contain a priori filters with which we are saddled, or "patterned," at birth, and which color our view of reality for our entire lives; hence we must, by the limitations of our own ability to apprehend reality, remain metaphysical agnostics. Kant's filters are similar to viewing "reality" through rose-colored glasses at all times, or similar to an operating system of a computer that can only read programs based upon its own code. Although Nietzsche thought that Dionysiac carousing (which he termed Rausch) could ephemerally touch that transcendent reality, the beholder could not recall the experience once having returned to consciousness (probably because of the huge post-wine headache, if nothing else). The yogic view, however, is different; although our minds or consciousness are limited by their "patterning" which is formulated early on in life during our impressionistic childhoods, there is a way to break through the false view of reality to see reality as it is (Kant's ding-an-sich) via the multi-step approach of yoga. Thus, despite the undeniable greatness of Kant's 1781 Critique of Pure Reason and its ultimate limited conclusion, yogis provide an answer to not only experience reality, but also to relieve human suffering which is created by this invidious and insidious "patterning" of the "consciousness."
Next week I will focus on Aphorism III of Chapter 1: Then pure awareness can abide in its very nature.

Fascinated with English vocabulary words? Want to pick them apart into their constituent Greek and Latin roots? Want to know even more SAT and GRE words that come from the Latin root words pater, patris: father or scio, scire: "to know"? Studying hard for the SAT or GRE verbal section, and just can't get a handle on all of those vocabulary words, which are truly legion? Check out www.wordempire.com, where you will find the most comprehensive Greek and Latin roots dictionary available today, and also the most beautiful...it's in full color, and artistically designed. There's even a Greek and Latin roots poster available, which nicely illustrates the full power of what Greek and Latin root words can do for you.

Latin Root Words of the Yoga-Sutra

2009-10-25T08:40:00.000-07:00

Welcome back fans of Latin roots as they relate to English vocabulary words! Recently I have been focusing this SAT English vocabulary blog on analyzing the Latin root words of titles of great English and world literature, and then discussing why those great works are indeed great. I have recently perused Patanjali's great work concerning yoga, the Yoga-Sutra, translated by Chip Hartranft. I have found the aphoristic style of the Yoga-Sutra not only engaging, but also deeply profound; in it, Patanjali discusses the profound rewards that one can derive from the practice of yoga, which is much more than the usually held western conception of yoga as just the asanas, or postures. During the next two years or so, I will devote myself to writing about each of Patanjanli's aphorisms, sequentially, contained in this remarkable 2nd-century BCE text, with a focus on analyzing the text in terms of its classical Greek and Latin roots of the fine English translation, and then providing an individual's exegesis of the text itself, based upon my own wonderful experience with yoga thus far.

Chapter 1: Integration

Aphorism 1: Now, the teachings of yoga.

The name of this chapter (itself derived from the Latin root caput, capitis: "head") comes from the Latin root integer: "whole, entire, untouched." Thus, this first chapter, the first of but four in the Yoga-Sutra, from an etymological point of view, will focus upon "the act of becoming whole, entire, or untouched." Note that the mathematical term "integer," also comes via the Latin integer (an "integer" is any "whole" number that is not a fraction or "broken," hence an "untouched" number, including the positives from 1, 2, 3 onwards, the negatives, or -1, -2, -3 onwards, and 0). Other SAT-level words that derive from the Latin root word integer include: integral, integrity, integrate, disintegrate, disintegration, and entirety. Hence, Patanjali suggests very early on that the practioner new to yoga is in some sense "disintegrated," or has lost his or her spiritual "integrity," and must regain being "whole" or "entire."
Let's talk for a moment about the word "yoga." "Yoga" simply means a "yoking" back to one's origins by once again gaining "union" with our ultimate origin. The Sanskrit yogah, "union," from which English created "yoga," is that discipline by which the "yogini" tries to rejoin her spiritual origins via achieving a state of inner serenity by quieting the pestiferous sem, or "flea mind" (so called because our minds tend to jump around desultorily like ‘fleas,’ flittering about to the tune of about 60,000 random thoughts per day). Let us consider related Latin and Greek cognates of "yoga," and a few of the SAT and GRE vocabulary words that derive from them: Greek zygon, "yoke, pair:" zeugma, zygote, zygotic. Latin iungo, iungere, iunxi, iunctum: "to join:" adjunct, adjoin, juxtapose, joint, juncture, conjunction, maladjusted, conjoint, jostle, disjointed, subjunctive, subjunctive, joust, junto, junta, rejoinder, conjoin, conjunctive, disjunct, enjoin, etc. From the roots above and a discussion of the word "yoga," we can see that "yoga" has a deep relationship to "joining" its practitioners again with something profound, but with what? And how does one go about practicing this union? Stay tune for next week's entry which will discuss Aphorism 2: Yoga is to still the patterning of consciousness. In this entry, I will etymologically analyze the Latin root words of "pattern" (related to our word "father") and "consciousness," the latter an absolutely integral concept that is at the heart of what the yogini or yogi does. Fascinated with English vocabulary words? Want to pick them apart into their constituent Greek and Latin roots? Want to know even more SAT and GRE words that come from the Latin root words iungo, iungere: to join? Or the scientific, anatomical, and medical terminology that derives from the Greek root zygon: yoke, pair? Studying hard for the SAT or GRE verbal section, and just can't get a handle on all of those vocabulary words, which are truly legion? Check out www.wordempire.com, where you will find the most comprehensive Greek and Latin roots dictionary available today, and also the most beautiful...it's in full color, and artistically designed. There's even a Greek and Latin roots poster available, which nicely illustrates the full power of what Greek and Latin root words can do for you.

Nobel Peace Laureate--President Barack Obama

2009-10-11T08:14:00.000-07:00

Welcome back fans of Latin roots as they relate to English vocabulary words, and great talks about life-changing books, with a focus on great literature! In this series that I'm offering, I am expounding upon books that have made an impression upon myself and many other readers, and the Latin root words inherent in their English titles. Today I drift a bit because of the moliminous announcement of President Barack Obama's reception of the Nobel Peace Prize, although I do quote Guy de Maupassant at some length. What could be more profound than that? I will discuss etymology vis a vis "peace" and "president," and then will provide a layman's disquisition on why this was an unbelievably great announcement for this world at this time.

Peace:
The English word "peace" comes from the Latin word pax, pacis: "peace." You may remember in your history classes the Pax Romana, or the "Roman Peace" under the august leadership of Augustus Caesar, the first emperor of Rome. Pax vobiscum is a favorite Latin phrase, meaning "peace be with you." Other SAT-level English vocabulary words that come from pax, pacis include:
pay: OK, this is obviously not an SAT word, but what does the word "pay" have to do with "peace"? Try not "paying" your bills, and you will see that your life will not be particularly "peaceful." Indeed, to "pay" for an item or a service is to make "peace" with the merchant who provided you with it.
pacify: To "make peace." To "pacify" another is to make her angst towards you dissipate.
appease: To "appease" another is to provide "peace" for him, especially if he is upset about an injustice.
pacific: Generating "peace." Balboa was said to have discovered and so named the Pacific Ocean on a "peaceful" day, and named it accordingly.
pacifist: A "peacemaker." A "pacifist" refuses to engage in warmongering of any kind. Wise idea.
pact: A "pact" or "compact," which is related to the word "pax, pacis," comes through the Latin root word paciscor, which means "to make a bargain" or "to agree." If you make a "pact" with someone, you come to a "peaceful" agreement about terms which are mutually agreeable to both sides. Hence, both "pact" and "compact" are synonymous for "covenant" or "agreement."
The Warsaw Pact, the Munich Pact, and the Mayflower Compact are all famous historical agreements or "pacts."
These are but a few of the more interesting English vocabulary words that are derived from the Latin word pax, pacis; check out more at www.wordempire.com, the central site for finding out why Greek and Latin roots are the core of the global English language.

President: What, etymologically, is a "President"? The prefix "pre" comes from the Latin preposition prae, "in front of, before;" the stem "sid" comes from the Latin verb sedeo, sedere, "to sit," and the suffix "ent," which is the stem ending for the Latin present active participle (a present active participle is simply a verbal adjective that ends, in English, in "-ing;" e.g.: I saw the boy consuming 50 purple twinkies..."consuming" modifies "boy," and describes an action that is taking place in the present tense); hence, etymologically, the "President" is that leader who is "sitting before" us all, as leader of the nation. Since the United States is arguably the only world superpower at this time, its President is also the leader on a global basis as well. How huge is that?

Well, I would say that it is immeasurably huge, especially in terms of potential. And that fact hasn't gone over the heads of the committee who chooses Nobel prizes either. I believe that President Obama, although some people believe that he "hasn't done anything yet," has the incredible potential of doing so much that no other President before him has been able to do, primarily because of his vast charisma and his incredible, well, fan base. He already has been mending fences through acts of incredible and peaceful good will...my hope is that he will not only bring the wars that plague us all to an end...

OK...so you're a supporter of the wars. And you believe that our society advances because of them. Please read the ff., written well over 100 years ago by the great French short story writer Guy de Maupassant in his novella "Afloat," which, other than a few anachronisms, could very well apply to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan:

"Those little infantrymen who are scurrying around over there are as doomed to be killed as that flock of sheep being driven along the road by a butcher. They'll collapse on some plain with their skull cut open by a saber or with a bullet hole in their chest; and they're all young men who could be in their homes, working, producing, doing something useful. Their fathers are old and poor, their mothers have loved them, adored them, as mothers will, for twenty years; and now, in six months' or perhaps a year's time, they'll learn that his son, her child, that big boy whom she's brought up with so much care, at such expense, with so much love, has been flung into a hole like a dead dog after he's had his guts torn apart by a cannonball, trampled on, crushed, reduced to pulp by a cavalry charge. Why have they killed her child, her lovely boy, her only hope and pride, her whole life? She doesn't know...Why? Why? War! Fighting! Slitting throats! Massacring each other! And now, in our day, with our civilization, our great scientific knowledge and high level of philosophy which we think human genius has attained, we have schools where you can learn to kill, at very long range and with great accuracy, a very large number of people with a single blow, kill poor, innocent devils with family responsibilities, and not be charged with any crime."

Now we see why the highly charismatic President who has 7.5 years left in the White House has been given the clout and the cachet of this laud: the Nobel Peace Prize.

May he use it well. To find a peaceful solution to the madness that goes on, and has continued going on, through the centuries that humans have graced this planet. I am a big fan of Star Trek, and hope that, as happened in that series, that our world will have banished such insanity in the 21st century.

Fascinated with English vocabulary words? Want to pick them apart into their constituent Greek and Latin roots? Want to know even more SAT and GRE words that come from the Latin root words sedeo, sedere: to sit? Or the prefix "pre," "before"? Studying hard for the SAT or GRE verbal section, and just can't get a handle on all of those vocabulary words, which are truly legion? Check out www.wordempire.com, where you will find the most comprehensive Greek and Latin roots dictionary available today, and also the most beautiful...it's in full color, and artistically designed. There's even a Greek and Latin roots poster available, which nicely illustrates the full power of what Greek and Latin root words can do for you.

Latin Root Word Origins of The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote de la Manch: Post II

2009-09-13T17:14:00.000-07:00

Gentleman: Originally, if a boy was of gentle birth, he came from a good and wealthy ‘family;’ since he was therefore gentle, or a ‘gentleman,’ he treated others courteously, a meaning which later evolved into being ‘tender,’ which is a courteous way to treat others.

Genteel: A "genteel" person is of "gentle" birth, and thus is supposed to act in a chivalrous fashion, although this certainly was and is not always the case!

Jaunty: Someone from a good ‘family,’ i.e., one of ‘noble’ birth, often acted with a ‘confident air’ due to her or his high social status.

Ingenious: Ingenium—inherent talent, clever device Someone who is "ingenious" has an "inherent talent" in a certain aspect, or is able to "cleverly devise" "ingenious" solutions to thorny problems.

Ingenuous: don't confuse the word "ingenuous," which comes from the Latin Ingenuus—honest, generous, free-born, and "ingenious." One who is "ingenuous" is an "honest, open, candid, or frank" soul, who is completely lacking in guile.

Disingenuous: the opposite of "ingenuous." Especially don't trust the ingenious disingenuous ones...they can have you tied up in knots in no time at all. I would have to say that Iago, Judge Holden (of Blood Meridian) and Satan (of Paradise Lost) fit into this category...and my seventh-grade, green-haired, "you have to do extra credit even if you have a 100% in my class to get an A, because A students all do extra credit" 7th-grade "teacher." OK...I got a B+ in that class because I didn't do extra credit, but, for the record, I had a 100% average. So you can keep on reading my blogs with confidence.

Note that all the above words ultimately stem from the Latin Gigno, gignere, genui, genitum—to bring forth, give birth, produce. Can you see why???

Commentary on The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote de la Mancha

Don Quixote, as Harold Bloom says in Genius, “plays a deep game with reality.” I’m not really sure if he actually believes that the barber’s basin is really the Helm of Mambrino, or if the “peerless” Dulcinea is enchanted (throughout the entire 940 Grossman translated novel, DQ never sees Dulcinea except in her “enchanted” state as a rough peasant girl, and then I was unsure if this was even Aldonza), or if the magical potion to cure all ills really would work, or if the windmills are actually giants, or if the puppets in the play are actually real and must be vanquished because if they aren’t, then the dastardly Moors will seize the Christians. Has he been completely bamboozled by his books on knight errantry, so that he sees a different level of reality than everyone else does, or is he choosing to create his world, irrespective of what everyone else perceives, and thereby forcing them to adopt his world vision? In the Duke’s castle, do he and all his cronies trick him, or does he trick them into playing within the confines of his world? Is Altisidora fooling DQ, or is DQ inveigling her to play along in his world? Does Sancho Panza finally come around to the “sanity” of his master as he becomes governor, playing at that position until he no longer can stand it, simply because he is unable to convince others to play his game, as his master can so easily do? Is that why Sancho gets beat up so often, because DQ is so believable to the point that people are drawn into his madness so that they do indeed begin to see another reality? Or is the Duke and company simply having a lot of fun along the way? How can DQ be so lucid except with regards to knight errantry? Does he not create the last and the greatest knight of them all, living within his own book instead of simply passively writing one, as all other authors would do? And is not that much more effective? Just what kind of a game is he playing? This reminds me in a way of Quantum Mechanics, in the sense that the observer creates reality, and precedes the existence of that reality. If DQ “observes” Dulcinea as peerless, does she not indeed become peerless? If he performs strange acts for her in the mountains, such as doing handstands or cartwheels with no clothes on the lower half of his body, do those acts not justify her unquestionable beauty that is above all others? When Carrasco comes after him twice, has he not transformed him into both the Knight of the Mirrors and the Knight of the White Moon, as has he not become better the second time, as he defeats the greatest knight in the world? Does not the charisma of DQ indeed transmogrify reality, not only of his own vision, but of all others, especially, eventually, of Sancho Panza, who does get his governorship and his highly coveted insula, not to mention his ducados? What else, indeed, could be going on?

I have never laughed so hard as in the first part of this novel; I think that my family thought I was crazy as I was sitting on the porch, guffawing until the tears came, especially when SP is drinking the potion which is supposed to cure his cracked ribs, and only makes him violently throw up. Does SP go through so much and suffer the worst punishments because he doesn’t believe as much as his master does?

This novel is uninterpretable, and is the best that I have ever read in terms of just what Don Quixote is doing with his life. And that brings me to my own life. Can I, too, quixotically, create my own life, and influence those around me in a positive way? Absolutely! Belief is a strong, strong phenomenon, and that which one believes is one’s world, irregardless of “reality,” which, Platonically, is but a shadow, whereas how the mind perceives that reality, how it noetically shapes it, lies at the foundation of one’s world and how one views it; I, also, think that that consciousness can also transform it, but, like Sancho Panza, we will take many knocks along the way until we become the best knight errant of them all, the master of transforming this malleable because perceivable thing called reality…which is the stuff whereby we not only live, but can live happily or sadly. How about creating the former, and if the latter happens along the way, surely it can be interpreted positively, such as an evil enchanter who is hounding one that one cannot foil because they are legion? DQ does make it through all of his trials, never wavering from the code of the knight errant, and survives nicely intact, even though he goes through so many improbable and potentially fatal encounters. Why worry when one cannot control these evil enchanters? Live, try your hardest, don’t take anything personally, endure pain and suffering, and live true to oneself, and one’s reality will be transformed into something glorious.

I feel like I could continue writing about the Don forever, but alas! Evil enchanters pursue me…off to the fight!

Looking for a great edition of Don Quixote? Go no further than Edith Grossman. Her prose is as lucid and as faithful to the Old Spanish as I've seen to date.

Fascinated with English vocabulary words? Want to pick them apart into their constituent Greek and Latin roots? Want to know even more SAT and GRE words that come from the Latin root words Gigno, gignere—to bring forth, give birth, produce? Studying hard for the SAT or GRE verbal section, and just can't get a handle on all of those vocabulary words, which are truly legion? Check out www.wordempire.com, where you will find the most comprehensive Greek and Latin roots dictionary available today, and also the most beautiful...it's in full color, and artistically designed. There's even a Greek and Latin roots poster available, which nicely illustrates the full power of what Greek and Latin root words can do for you.

Latin roots of The Relic by Eca de Queiroz

2009-08-08T15:27:00.000-07:00

Linquo, linquere, liqui—to leave, abandon, forsake {lic, lict, liqu}

relic: A "relic" is something "left behind" as an artifact for other people to cherish. Saint's relics, for instance, were huge items in the Middle Ages...many of which were fakes, like pig's bones.

relinquish: To "leave back" for someone else. When you "relinquish" an item, you abandon it to another.

delinquent: If you are delinquent in paying your taxes, you have forsaken paying them on time.

derelict : A derelict ship is one that has been "left or abandoned" because it is not longer of service.

reliquary: A reliquary is often a highly-decorated vessel for holding sacred objects, such as relics, or things that have been "left behind" in the past that now have great intrinsic and usually religious value.

The Relic

Eca de Queiroz

The Relic was, in parts, hilarious and filled with wry, ironic humor, especially concerning the hypocrisy of Teodorico as he proclaims his religious fervor and abstinence in the presence of his rich Aunt Patrocinio, while he secretly is a debauchee, having numerous affairs with women, the sexual act of which his aunt abhors. Aunt Patrocinio reminded me of a dried, rancid leek, kind of like Chaucer’s reeve tripled. Aunt P was also highly hypocritical, as she cared very little for people or the message of Christ, of love and forgiveness, but rather only loved the specious worshiping of images of Christ. Eca and Teodorico cannot stand this, and so T goes about during the day concocting delicious fabrications of how holy he is, which are completely outrageous in their unctuous exaggeration, but Aunt P swallows them whole because she so wants to delude herself. Anyway, T is doing this simply because he wants Auntie to make her his heir, and thus must appear as chaste and fervent as possible while she is alive, all so that he can inherit all that money and move to the brothels of Paris which is where is really wants to live. He accedes to his Aunt’s wish to bring back a holy relic from Palestine, so off he goes, landing first on his travels to Alexandria, where he promptly has an affair with Maria, and before he leaves she gives him her red nightdress, which T keeps wrapped up in a package as a remembrance or relic from her. At this point, the novel turns into a phantasmagoria of sorts, as T witnesses Jesus’s interrogation, incarceration, and crucifixion (with even a mention of the crurifragio of the other two victims who had not died). This went on for some time, was quite interesting, but did not have the verve and ironic, humorous flair of the parts with T and his diabolical Auntie. During this time he finds and has fashioned for him a Crown of Thorns, which magically "becomes" The Crown of Thorns, the major relic which he is going to hand to his Aunt which will secure his rightful place as spotless heir (he needs to become like her conception of the Church, a walking, allegorical Church, as it were, because Auntie wants to give all of her money to that!). He also gets almost every other conceivable relic, including nails from Noah’s Ark, potsherds from the jug that Mary Magdalene carried, etc. etc. He cannot believe that his scholarly companion Topsius says that he can claim the Crown of Thorns to be the legitimate one, to which Topsius replies: “The value of Relics, Dom Raposo, lies not in their authenticity but in the faith that they inspire. You can tell your Auntie that it was the Crown of Thorns.” On the return home he wishes to deflower a certain nun he sees that he saw previously, whom he then sees again as her boat crosses his on the way back to Lisbon, but he declines, telling himself that it is silly for him to even think about it. He gives what he believes to be the dress to a poor woman, and then arrives trimphantly home, having had a rather blustery case of nikhedonia during the boat ride. Everyone lauds him, but when the unveiling of the Great Relic occurs, T and Auntie are both horrified to discover that it is not, after all, the Crown of Thorns, but Mary’s red nightdress! Completely befuddled and horrified by the dress of a prostitute, Auntie throws T out of the house. T ends up marrying fairly well, but never gains that vast richness that he could have had; he does get by by selling all of his paraphernalia from his journeys, and then simply concocts with materials at hand, at one point having sold 75 nails from the crucifixion. At the end of the novel, T laments that he did not have, upon the unveiling of the scarlet dress and Mary’s note, that he had not possessed the courage to lie, lacked the “shameless heroism to lie.” A couple interesting notes. T begins telling the truth after he has a visit, in the form of a ghostly Christ, of his Conscience, who tells him that he is the progenitor of all religious faiths; believing this, he ruthlessly does not lie again, even when he thinks that that act will not allow him to get what he wants (despite the fact that he does rue the fact at the very end of the novel that he had not had the courage to do the very thing that he refused to do now.). In his new telling of truth, he does end up being wealthy via Crispim, who appreciates his honesty. Then, after saying that he had not had the “shameless heroism to lie,” which “is responsible for creating all sciences and religions (cf. Joseph Knecht), he realizes that if he had said that the dress was the dress of Mary Magdalene, no one would have doubted him, and that religious scholars and scientists would have researched and culled legions of information from that dress, inferring all incorrect information that nevertheless would have been stamped with irrefutable authority (with the implication that much of what we believe today has undergone a similar process of ballooning from an outright but rationalized lie). Indeed, T knows that he would have been celebrated by the Universities and beloved by the Church, and would have been fabulously wealthy into the bargain. It is interesting to know that T is reformed, even though he does regret his lack of heroism, but that reformation seems to have no lesson and T never discusses why this is a good thing, it just seems to happen because he promised that it would, and that ironically if he had lied, then he would have been certain of his place in the Celestial City.

The Relic is hard to find. At this point in time it is not in print. Probably Eca's two best works, however, are Cousin Bazilio and The Maias. Find links to them below. These are both adult reads, as is The Relic.

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