Exploring The Yoga Sutras

accessible guide to the complex philosophical ideas on which the ancient practice of Yoga is based, illuminating the meaning of Patañjali’s seminal Yoga treatise and the manner in which it seeks to integrate Yoga into life as a whole. The Yoga Sutras, composed by Patañjali nearly two millenia ago, is foundational to the Yoga systems, and widely regarded as a seminal text for students and practitioners of Yoga alike. While Patañjali’s work is centrally concerned with the exposition of a practice aimed at self-realisation, it is as much interested in the philosophical ideas that underpin the forms of practice it advocates. In Exploring the Yoga Sutras, Nicholas Sutton offers a new translation of the text accompanied by a systematic examination of its ideas, with reference to some of the principal traditional commentaries. Unpacking the layers of meaning embedded in the text, Sutton demonstrates how the Yoga Sutras weaves the philosophy and practice of Yoga together in a subtle blend that provides a framework for understanding the position of the embodied living being within this world and the means by which the world may be transcended. Discussing each sutra, both individually and in the context of different passages, Exploring the Yoga Sutras strives to make the complex ideas of this Yoga classic accessible to the modern reader who may not have a prior grounding in the study of Indian philosophy.