Mind and Self: Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra and Modern Science

by Subhash Kak

The idea that the mind is only an instrument and not the true self sets yoga apart from western psychology. Yoga takes up the question of what lies beyond the mind in addition to speaking of its nature, whereas western psychology aims only to describe the many ways the mind works. It turns out that the way to undo the subjective projections of the mind is to master it and in this process we can dissociate from its workings our personal learnt and unconscious biases.