Yoga, Karma, and Rebirth: A Brief History and Philosophy

by Stephen H. Phillips

For serious yoga practitioners curious to know the ancient origins of the art, Stephen Phillips, a professional philosopher and sanskritist with a long-standing personal practice, lays out the philosophies of action, knowledge, and devotion as well as the processes of meditation, reasoning, and self-analysis that formed the basis of yoga in ancient and classical India and continue to shape it today.

In discussing yoga's fundamental commitments, Phillips explores traditional teachings of hatha yoga, karma yoga, bhakti yoga, and tantra, and shows how such core concepts as self-monitoring consciousness, karma, nonharmfulness ( ahimsa ), reincarnation, and the powers of consciousness relate to modern practice. He outlines values implicit in bhakti yoga and the tantric yoga of beauty and art and explains the occult psychologies of koshas , skandhas , and chakras . His book incorporates original translations from the early Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita , the Yoga Sutra (the entire text), the Hatha Yoga Pradipika , and seminal tantric writings of the tenth-century Kashmiri Shaivite, Abhinava Gupta. A glossary defining more than three hundred technical terms and an extensive bibliography offer further help to nonscholars. A remarkable exploration of yoga's conceptual legacy, Yoga, Karma, and Rebirth crystallizes ideas about self and reality that unite the many incarnations of yoga.

Genres: Religion, Philosophy, Nonfiction

368 pages, Paperback

First published May 15, 2009

Reviews

[William Dury · Rating 3 out of 5]

Um, this is embarrassing. I do yoga, but I don’t believe in karma or rebirth. I don’t know what I thought the book was going to be about, that’s why it’s so embarrassing. Professor Phillips (among other posts visiting professor at my old alma mater, The University of Hawaii. Go Rainbow Warriors!) does believe in karma and rebirth and discusses both in some detail. Astonishing detail, really. He is taking part in a discussion that’s been going on what, three or four thousand years? It would be a mistake of the first order to assume the people taking part in that discussion are foolish. Professor Phillips is engaging and earnest and writes as clearly as one can about the metaphysical. I found the appendices, short selections from the Early Upanishads, The Bhagavadgītā Gita, The Yoga Sutra and (Tantric) Kashmiri Shaivite texts to be my favorite sections of the book. Some of the Yogic Passages in the Bhagavad Gita are downright Epictetian. (Sorry). Anyway, a good read, but I remain a boring, stagnant secularist. What I’d give for the vision of a dancing, pale blue, flaming, eight armed, elephant headed god. Or to spend an evening knocking down shots with a purple monkey head god. Oh well.