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Book Review："A Reappraisal of Patanjali's Yoga-Sutras ", by S. N. Tandon |
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| 著者 |
Burley, Mikel
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| 出版年月日 | 1998 |
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| ページ | 142 |
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| 出版者 | YREC=Yoga Research and Education Center |
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| 出版サイト |
http://www.yrec.org
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| 出版地 | Manton, CA, US |
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| 資料の種類 | 書評=Book Review |
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| 言語 | 英文=English |
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| キーワード | 瑜伽經=Yoga-Sutra;瑜伽行派=Yogacara school;印度佛教=Indian Buddhism; |
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| 抄録 | This is a concise and well-researched book written by the director of the Vipassana Research Institute at Igatpuri，this being one of a large number of institutes now existing worldwide to promote the form of Theravada Buddhism taught by S.N. Goenka. Though Tandon succeeds in demonstrating that a comparison with the Buddhist Pali scriptures can help to shed light on some important concepts of Patanjala Yoga, the book does suffer somewhat from the author’s eagerness to assert the superiority of the Buddha’s teachings over those presented in the Yoga-Sutra. For this reason I hope the reader will forgive me if I use this review not only to outline Tandon’s main points but also to argue against what I consider to be erroneous claims made in the book.
Tandon mentions in his preface，without criticism，the traditional Indian view that the author of the Yoga-Sutrais the same as the Patanjali who composed the Mahabhashya commentary on Panini’s grammatical sutras. This would place the composition of the Yoga-Sutra around the second century B.C.，a period when Buddhist beliefs were highly prevalent in India. It is Tandon’s view that，against this historical background，it is hardly surprising that the Yoga-Sutra exhibits "considerable influence of the Buddha’s teaching"(p.vi). He further asserts that Patanjali’s work can be better understood by examining it in relation to the Buddhist Pali canon than by accepting the interpretations of later commentators (such as Vyasa and Vacaspati Mishra)，who were，submits Tandon，largely ignorant of Buddhism (p.vii).
The conceptual and terminological parallels to be found in the respective teachings of the Buddha and Patanjali are both numerous and significant，and Tandon’s analysis helps to bring them into sharp focus. But the presence of such parallels does not in itself prove the direction of influence. Though most scholars agree that the Yoga-Sutra is a post-Buddhist work，it is equally apparent that Patanjali draws heavily upon the philosophical tradition of Sankhya, early versions of which pre-date the Buddha by hundreds of years (cf. Larson and Bhattacharya 1987，pp.3ff.). While discerning in the Yoga-Sutra " some influence of the Sankhya tenets" as well as certain "innovations made by the author himself"(p.vi)，Tandon clearly holds Buddhism to be the major influence; he does not allow for the possibility that the Buddha and Patanjali were drawing upon，and modifying to a greater or lesser extent，soteriological teachings that preceded them both.
Structurally，the book is divided into five short sections, plus an annexure on the Pali term sampajanna. The Sanskrit text of the Yoga-Sutra is included as an appendix in devanagari and Roman script. There is no index，but this is not problematic for such a relatively short work.
Section 1 is titled "Matters Consistent with the Buddha’s Teaching" and includes a number of illuminating insights which, to my mind，conclusively demonstrate an extensive conformity between the two systems concerned. Among the numerous points of interest in this section is Tandon’s claim that the expression viveka-khyati as employed by Patanjali (YS 2.26) is a virtual synonym of vipassana as it is used in the Buddhist Pali scriptures, both terms denoting perception based on discrimination (p.44). The acute discrimination for which viveka-khyati stands is required in Patanjala-Yoga (see Yoga-Sutra 2.17) to dissolve the apparent conjunction (samyoga) between the perceiver (drashtri) and the perceivable (drishya) and to bring about "the isolation of Pure Consciousness, " which is how Tandon translates the expression drisheh kaivalyam (Yoga-Sutra 2.25，Tandon pp.41-42). This approach, asserts Tandon，is equivalent to the Buddha’s method of vipassana meditation (pp.42-45). Tandon’s view on this matter seems to me to be of tremendous significance since it would appear to open a door to a reconciliation between，on the one hand，the so-called atma-vada (theory of an essenti |
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| ヒット数 | 631 |
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| 作成日 | 2003.11.28
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