An Introduction to Yoga Philosophy: The “Spiritual” Principles of Yoga Philosophy

This is an introduction to yoga philosophy for beginners.

 

Indian philosophy is generally taught as being comprised of six schools or darśana-s. Darśana means “view”. To view something is always to view it from somewhere. We cannot ever take up a view from everywhere, or a view from nowhere. The systems of Indian philosophy take up different stances on (and thus represent different views of) the experience that you are always having. Yoga is the study of experience itself. Yoga is not the study of some other world/time/place that is outside of the experience you are always already having. Yoga is the study of the experience that you are having right now, which is the basis for all of your thinking, feeling, acting, perceiving—and your identity, your knowledge, your will. The one, single experience that is always happening is the horizon of your experience, and any changes you experience will be changes within this singular experience—the one thing that is going on. Experience is the thing in which (or as which) you exist. Understanding the object of the philosophy of yoga (experience itself, which we could—depending on context—also call awareness/consciousness) an important first step in attempting to understand the spirit of yoga (i.e., living yoga philosophy). This is a core principle of the philosophy of yoga.

 

The experience you are having right now tends towards “suffering” of various forms, the most foundational of which is produced by a sense of being incomplete, never “enough” on our own. Instead of investigating this sense of inner lack, we run from it, seeking to secure our identities in the world via attention/security—more money, more fame, more status, more love, etc.. We are trapped, running from (or trying to destroy) a sense of inner lack, trying to secure our independent existence in the world. Yogic philosophy is the result of trying to understand this inescapable dimension of our experience, the most foundational of our suffering.  

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Based on each philosophical system’s stance they adopt while exploring and describing experience, they each make different recommendations about how to achieve freedom from this suffering. Generally speaking, they all include some form of being able to sit with yourself so you can develop the kind of inner stability required to clearly see the truth/solution. We discuss what this means in our article on a “spiritual” approach to yoga practice(s)—which also contains content on practices commonly associated with yoga. We also discuss what this means for personal growth and development. In this section on the philosophy of yoga, we also tackle Collectively, this content forms our guide to yoga and spirituality, in which we introduce spiritual yoga in a three-part series that begins by exploring the purpose of yoga: what problem does yoga solve? 

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Introductory videos on yoga and the philosophy of yoga and articles exploring the principles of yoga philosophy and other yoga teachings/topics can be found below. This is the section of our guide to spiritual yoga for beginners in which we explore the philosophical foundations of yoga for beginners. Our guide to spiritual yoga for beginners also includes sections on the practice(s) of yoga and how to use the wisdom of yoga to live a more fulfilling and “successful” life (where we consider aspects of our lives related to happiness, such as relationships, career, emotional health, time freedom, meaningful living, etc.). We do not have any material on systems that were more recently “formalized”, including hatha yoga, kriya yoga, ashtanga yoga, etc., and will be adding material on topics relevant to “classical” yoga, such as bhakti yoga, the sankhya karika, and the yoga sutras.