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

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

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

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

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 6. This week I move on to:

Aphorism 7: Right perception arises from direct observation, inference, or the words of others.

You will recall that aphorism 7 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 four of the following words in aphorism 7:

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.

Direct: Via the latin root word:

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!