Metaphysics as Therapy: List-Making and Renunciation in Gnostic Yogas

Description

This book examines the significance of metaphysical list-making as a determining feature of ‘spiritual exercises’ in South Asian gnostic yogas. It examines how these ancient traditions sought spiritual transformation through the dialectical practice of taxonomy. It highlights the gnostic thread that intersects ‘spiritual exercises’ and ‘ways of life’ in Hindu, Buddhist, and Jaina circles. It fills a gap in yoga studies by proposing a new understanding of jñāna-yoga (yoga of knowledge). Departing from mainstream Anglophone philosophical traditions, it articulates an original meta-theory of philosophical practice, explaining how philosophy can be 'therapeutic' in concrete terms. The book theorizes yogic Gnosticism, as a South Asian religious undercurrent and as a distinctive form of philosophical practice and ascetic way of life internalizing a sacrificial worldview. Finally, the book analyzes four literary case studies, presenting therapeutic methods in competing gnostic traditions, namely, the Verses on Sāṃkhya of Īśvarakṛṣṇa; the Advaita Instructions on the Doctrine of Gauḍapāda; the Buddhist Heart Sūtra; and the Twelve Contemplations of the Jaina Kundakunda. The groundbreaking multidisciplinary and trans-sectarian book offers a must-read for scholars across the fields of world philosophy and religious studies. Preface Acknowledgments Contents About the Author Abbreviations Part I List Making: From Universal to Spiritual Exercise 1 Why This Book? Ubiquitous Lists References 2 What Are Lists? Representations of Sequences, Categories, and Taxonomies 2.1 The Origins of Written Lists: Mesopotamia and the Listenwissenschaft 2.2 Taxonomy and Culture 2.3 Analogical List Making: A Mnemotechnic, Explanatory, and Predictive Practice 2.4 The Omnipresence of Lists in South Asian Philosophical Literature 2.5 Toward a Definition of Lists 2.5.1 Sequences 2.5.2 Categories 2.5.3 Taxonomies 2.6 Taxonomy, Cognition, and Gnostic Theories of Mental Activity 2.6.1 Prapañca—Linguistic and Conceptual Proliferations 2.6.2 Saṃskāra—Mental Constructs and Habitual Tendencies References 3 What Is Not a List? The Determinate Negation of the Absolute References Part II Gnostic Yoga as Philosophical Practice 4 What Is Yogic Gnosticism? The Spiritual Exercise of Inner Sacrifice 4.1 Demarcating an Elite Ritual Identity 4.2 Chronological Development of Yogic Gnosticism References 5 What Is the Gnostic Inner Sacrifice? Renouncing Representation 5.1 Gnostic Renunciation as a Philosophical Way of Life 5.1.1 The Shared Ethos of Renunciation in South Asian Philosophy 5.1.2 Renouncing Views 5.1.3 Renouncing Yoga 5.2 Sustaining Renunciation with Metaphysics 5.3 Gnostic Philosophical Practice as Rite de Passage References 6 What Is Gnostic Philosophy? The Therapeutic Production, Transmission, and Internalization of Knowledge 6.1 Mythological and Ritual Discourses qua Philosophy 6.1.1 Fire Rituals 6.1.2 Shared Rituals 6.1.3 Inner Rituals 6.1.4 Philosophy as Higher Ritual 6.2 List Forms from Sacrificial Speculation to Gnostic Philosophy References Part III Case Studies in South Asian Gnostic Spiritual Exercises 7 A Taxonomological Framing of the Therapeutic Method Articulated in Gnostic Literature References 8 The Sāṃkhyakārikā of Īśvarakṛṣṇa: The Gnostic Sacrificial Dancer 8.1 Introduction to the Text and Its Tradition 8.2 Two Truths in Sāṃkhya Philosophy? 8.3 Sacrificial Progression of the Sāṃkhyakārikā 8.3.1 The First Altar: The Desire to Know How to Remove Existential Distress 8.3.2 The Second Altar: The Knowledge of Macrocosmic Behavioral Representations 8.3.3 The Third Altar: The Knowledge of Microcosmic Psychological Representations 8.3.4 The Sacrificial Pole: Release from Bondage 8.3.5 Summative Remarks References 9 Gauḍapāda’s Oṃkāraprakaraṇam in the Āgamaśāstra: The Gnostic Mantra 9.1 Introduction to the Text and Its Tradition 9.2 The Oṃkāraprakaraṇam (Chapter on the Oṃ Syllable) of the Āgamaśāstra 9.2.1 What is to Be Known? 9.2.2 How is It Known? 9.2.3 How is It Cultivated? References 10 BhagavatīPrajñāpāramitāhṛdayasūtra: The Gnostic Heart of Lady Prajñāpāramitā 10.1 Introduction to the Text and Its Tradition 10.2 The Sūtra of the Heart of the Noble Lady of Perfect Wisdom 10.2.1 What is to Be Known? 10.2.2 How is It Cultivated? References 11 Kundakunda’s Bārasa Aṇuvekkhā. Twelve Gnostic Contemplations 11.1 Introduction to the Text and Its Tradition 11.1.1 Kundakunda the Gnostic 11.1.2 Taxonomy and Determinate Negation in the Twelve Gnostic Contemplations 11.2 The Twelve Contemplations (Bārasa Aṇuvekkhā) 11.2.1 Renunciation (Pratyākhyāna, 3-20) 11.2.2 Repentance (Pratikramaṇa, 21-42) 11.2.3 Confession (Ālocanā, 43-65) 11.2.4 Absorption (Samādhi, 66-86) 11.2.5 Closing verses (87-91) References 12 Conclusion References Annex 1 The Daśaślokī (Ten Verses) of Śaṅkara Annex 2 Textual Evidence for the Usage of the Term Jñāna-Yoga and the Development of Its Meaning Index