Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, Book II · 2 of 55 · tr. Charles Johnston
Sutra 2
Their aim is, to bring soul-vision, and to wear away hindrances. The aim of fervour, spiritual reading and obedience to the Master, is, to bring soul-vision, and to wear away hindrances. Or, to use the phrase we have already adopted, the aim of these practices is, to help the spiritual man to open his eyes; to help him also to throw aside the veils and disguises, the enmeshing psychic nets which surround him, tying his hands, as it were, and bandaging his eyes. And this, as all teachers testify, is a long and arduous task, a steady up-hill fight, demanding fine courage and persistent toil. Fervour, the fire of the spiritual will, is, as we said, two-fold: it illumines, and so helps the spiritual man to see; and it also burns up the nets and meshes which ensnare the spiritual man. So with the other means, spiritual reading and obedience. Each, in its action, is two-fold, wearing away the psychical, and upbuilding the spiritual man.
§ Ask Guru about this passage →Themes
Inner Lightanthropology
The divine spark or luminous quality residing within the human person, potentially recognisable through introspection.
The passage explicitly mentions 'soul-vision' and opening one's eyes as an aim of spiritual practice.
All passages →Ritual Firepraxis
Fire as medium of divine presence.
Fervour is described as a fire that burns up nets and helps the spiritual man see.
All passages →Self Knowledgesoteriology
The recognition of one's own true divine nature as the primary path to liberation; 'know thyself' as soteriology.
The passage defines the aim of practices as bringing 'soul-vision' and helping the man to open his eyes through inner realization.
All passages →Related passages · 5 parallels
neoplatonism|Iamblichus: On the Mysteries|Chapter VIII-av
“It is well observed by Ficinus, in lib.
i.
Eunead.
ii.
Plotin.
“that the fire which is enkindled by us is more similar to the heavens than other terrestrial substances.
Hence it participates of light, which is something incorporeal, i…”
Shared concept: Ritual Fire — Fire as medium of divine presence. (derived)
neoplatonism|Iamblichus: On the Mysteries|Chapter VI
“That, however, which is the greatest thing is this, that he who [appears to] draw down a certain divinity, sees a spirit descending and entering into some one, recognizes its magnitude and quality, and is also mystically persuaded and gover…”
Shared concept: Ritual Fire — Fire as medium of divine presence. (derived)
christian_mysticism|The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme|Chapter 1 (part 4)
“Let them, therefore, again go out with their will from their wilful ignorance or malignity and enter again into the will of God." ( Menschwerdung , 3, 5.) All this goes to show that it is useless and vain to seek for divine wisdom, meaning…”
Shared concept: Self Knowledge — The recognition of one's own true divine nature as the primary path to liberation; 'know thyself' as soteriology. (derived)
western_esoteric|The Book of Ceremonial Magic (A.E. Waite)|Page 5 (part 2)
“The anonymous Cloud of Unknowing belongs, I believe, to the early part of the fifteenth century, and it is to be classed among the most signal presentations of the conditions and mode of the Union which I have met with in Christian literatu…”
Shared concept: Self Knowledge — The recognition of one's own true divine nature as the primary path to liberation; 'know thyself' as soteriology. (derived)
christian_mysticism|The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme|Chapter 10 (part 3)
“It was she in whom the voice of God promised again to introduce the living, holy substance from heaven, and to generate anew and in divine power the faded image of God that was contained therein." 1 ( Grace , vii.
18.) This, however, did n…”
Shared concept: Inner Light — The divine spark or luminous quality residing within the human person, potentially recognisable through introspection. (derived)