Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, Book III · 37 of 55 · tr. Charles Johnston
Sutra 37
These powers stand in contradistinction to the highest spiritual vision. In manifestation they are called magical powers. The divine man is destined to supersede the spiritual man, as the spiritual man supersedes the natural man. Then the disciple becomes a Master. The opened powers of tile spiritual man, spiritual vision, hearing, and touch, stand, therefore, in contradistinction to the higher divine power above them, and must in no wise be regarded as the end of the way, for the path has no end, but rises ever to higher and higher glories; the soul's growth and splendour have no limit. So that, if the spiritual powers we have been considering are regarded as in any sense final, they are a hindrance, a barrier to the far higher powers of the divine man. But viewed from below, from the standpoint of normal physical experience, they are powers truly magical; as the powers natural to a four-dimensional being will appear magical to a three-dimensional being.
§ Ask Guru about this passage →Themes
Pneumatic Electsoteriology
A spiritual elite who possess the divine spark and are predestined for salvation, contrasted with psychic (faithful) and hylic (material) persons.
The tripartite classification of persons as natural man, spiritual man, and divine man closely mirrors the Gnostic tripartite division of hylic, psychic, and pneumatic persons, with the highest class possessing a divine nature.
All passages →Relative Truththeology
The doctrine that reality has two registers — an Absolute truth as the divine or ultimate mind knows it, and a Relative truth as finite human reason perceives and must act on — with both held as legitimate on their own plane rather than the second being simply an error to correct. Distinct from apophatic_theology (a claim about how the divine may be described, by negation) and unity_of_being (a claim that being is ultimately one) in being a claim about two coexisting registers of truth-claim itself.
The passage explicitly argues that the same powers are 'truly magical' when viewed from the standpoint of normal physical experience but are natural to a higher-dimensional being, holding both registers as legitimate on their own plane.
All passages →Spiritual Ascentpraxis
A staged journey of the soul upward through heavenly realms or levels of being toward the divine source.
The passage explicitly describes the path rising ever to higher and higher glories without end.
All passages →Theosis Deificationsoteriology
The doctrine — central to Eastern Orthodox and Maximian theology — that the human person is progressively transformed into a partaker of the divine nature by grace, not merely justified or united in passing ecstasy.
The passage explicitly describes the progressive transformation of a person from natural man to spiritual man to divine man, which is a clear articulation of the soul's progressive deification through stages.
All passages →Tripartite Soulanthropology
Division of the human being into three principles: spirit (pneuma), soul (psyche), and body/matter (hyle or soma).
The text distinguishes between the natural man, the spiritual man, and the divine man as distinct levels of being.
All passages →Related passages · 15 parallels
theosophy|The Secret Doctrine|Page 56 (part 3)
“2, Page]] 113 THE SECRET WORK OF CHIRAM.
active emanations from the three higher principles in man, namely, "Spirit, Soul, and Mind," or Atma, Buddhi, and Manas.
It is the spiritual and also the material human basis.
Rudimentary man, hav…”
Shared concept: Tripartite Soul — Division of the human being into three principles: spirit (pneuma), soul (psyche), and body/matter (hyle or soma). (derived)
western_esoteric|The Kybalion (Three Initiates)|Chapter VI (part 2)
“We recognize this even in our ordinary view, for we speak of the world as "a fleeting show" that comes and goes, is born and dies--for the element of impermanence and change, finiteness and unsubstantiality, must ever be connected with the…”
Shared concept: Relative Truth — The doctrine that reality has two registers — an Absolute truth as the divine or ultimate mind knows it, and a Relative truth as finite human reason perceives and must act on — with both held as legitimate on their own plane rather than the second being simply an error to correct. (derived)
christian_mysticism|The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme|Chapter 6 (part 8)
“They are fire-flames, illumined by the light of God, but we attain the great fountain of meekness and love which is welling up within the holy essentiality of God." 1 ( Menschwerdung , i.
5.) Man comprises all three principles: the princip…”
Shared concept: Tripartite Soul — Division of the human being into three principles: spirit (pneuma), soul (psyche), and body/matter (hyle or soma). (derived)
christian_mysticism|Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names|Chapter 2, Section 1c
“But if he taketh Scriptural Truth as his Standard, this is the very Rule and Light by which we will (so far as in us lies) proceed straight to our defence, and will declare that the Sacred Science sometimes employs a method of Undifference…”
Shared concept: Relative Truth — The doctrine that reality has two registers — an Absolute truth as the divine or ultimate mind knows it, and a Relative truth as finite human reason perceives and must act on — with both held as legitimate on their own plane rather than the second being simply an error to correct. (derived)
christian_mysticism|Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names|Chapter 2, Section 1n
“200 Redemption is a work performed by the whole Trinity through the Second Person.
(So, too, is Creation.
Cf.
p.
65, n.
2).
201 i.
e.
We strive to distinguish the two planes of Being in God.
Cf.
Athan.
Creed: “Neither confounding…”
Shared concept: Theosis Deification — The doctrine — central to Eastern Orthodox and Maximian theology — that the human person is progressively transformed into a partaker of the divine nature by grace, not merely justified or united in passing ecstasy. (derived)
christian_mysticism|The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme|Chapter 11 (part 7)
“48.) "The soul and the Word are not one or one being.
The soul is born from the centre of nature, from the essences, and belongs to the body, for she issues from the essences of the body, and attracts to herself the body; but the Word is f…”
Shared concept: Theosis Deification — The doctrine — central to Eastern Orthodox and Maximian theology — that the human person is progressively transformed into a partaker of the divine nature by grace, not merely justified or united in passing ecstasy. (derived)
neoplatonism|Select Works of Plotinus|Select Works, Section 407
“Section 7 7. The Kind, then, with which we are dealing is twofold, the Intellectual against the sensible: better for the soul to dwell in the Intellectual, but, given its proper nature, it is under compulsion to participate in the sense-rea…”
Shared concept: Spiritual Ascent — A staged journey of the soul upward through heavenly realms or levels of being toward the divine source. (derived)
renaissance_hermeticism|The Heroic Enthusiasts, Part II (Gli Eroici Furori)|First Dialogue-m
“Thus everything has an impetus towards its beginning retrogressively, and progressively towards its end and perfection, as Empedocles well said, and from which sentence I think may be inferred that which the Nolan said in this octave: The s…”
Shared concept: Spiritual Ascent — A staged journey of the soul upward through heavenly realms or levels of being toward the divine source. (derived)
hermeticism|Corpus Hermeticum 10: The Sermon on the Mount|Section 1a
“The Key <This longer tractate presents itself explicitly as a summary or abridgement of the General Sermons (CH II-IX), and discusses the Hermetic view of knowledge and its role in the lives and afterlives of human beings.
The attentive re…”
Shared concept: Pneumatic Elect — A spiritual elite who possess the divine spark and are predestined for salvation, contrasted with psychic (faithful) and hylic (material) persons. (derived)
neoplatonism|Iamblichus: On the Mysteries|Chapter VIII-r
“But there are a certain few who by employing a certain supernatural power of intellect, are removed from nature , &c.
The class to which these few belong is beautifully unfolded, as follows, by Plotinus, in the beginning of his Treatise on…”
Shared concept: Pneumatic Elect — A spiritual elite who possess the divine spark and are predestined for salvation, contrasted with psychic (faithful) and hylic (material) persons. (derived)
western_esoteric|The Secret Teachings of All Ages (Manly P. Hall)|The Zodiac and Its Signs-h
“While the ignorant multitudes worshiped the house of the sun's reflection, which in the case described would be the Bull, the wise revered the house of the sun's actual dwelling, which would be the Scorpion, or the Serpent, the symbol of th…”
Shared concept: Pneumatic Elect — A spiritual elite who possess the divine spark and are predestined for salvation, contrasted with psychic (faithful) and hylic (material) persons. (derived)
western_esoteric|The Secret Teachings of All Ages (Manly P. Hall)|Freemasonic Symbolism-j
“And he left behind him the manner of using exorcisms, by which they drive away demons, so that they never return; and this method of cure is of great force unto this day." The mediæval alchemists were convinced that King Solomon understood…”
Shared concept: Pneumatic Elect — A spiritual elite who possess the divine spark and are predestined for salvation, contrasted with psychic (faithful) and hylic (material) persons. (derived)
western_esoteric|Transcendental Magic II: The Ritual (Éliphas Lévi)|9. The Ceremonial Of Initiates-a
“THE science is preserved by silence and perpetuated by initiation.
The law of silence is not therefore absolute and inviolable, except relatively to the uninitiated multitude.
Such knowledge can be only transmitted by speech.
The sages t…”
Shared concept: Pneumatic Elect — A spiritual elite who possess the divine spark and are predestined for salvation, contrasted with psychic (faithful) and hylic (material) persons. (derived)
western_esoteric|Transcendental Magic II: The Ritual (Éliphas Lévi)|9. The Ceremonial Of Initiates-c
“Life is a warfare in which we must give proofs if we would advance; power does not surrender of itself; it must be seized.
Initiation by contest and ordeal is therefore indispensable for the attainment of the practical science of Magic.
W…”
Shared concept: Pneumatic Elect — A spiritual elite who possess the divine spark and are predestined for salvation, contrasted with psychic (faithful) and hylic (material) persons. (derived)
western_esoteric|Transcendental Magic II: The Ritual (Éliphas Lévi)|22. The Book Of Hermes-p
“Magnetism enables us to understand today the miracles of old Magic; the facts of second sight, aspirations, sudden cures, thought-reading, are now admitted and familiar things, even for our children.
But the tradition of the ancients has b…”
Shared concept: Pneumatic Elect — A spiritual elite who possess the divine spark and are predestined for salvation, contrasted with psychic (faithful) and hylic (material) persons. (derived)