Embodied Consciousness in Tantric Yoga and the Phenomenology of Merleau-Ponty

Abstract

Yoga, the ancient inter-religious thread running through all Indian Spirituality, shares a remarkable congruence with twentieth-century phenomenology. But this conjuncture is not based on a common aspiration of "transcendence from the world," as argued by previous comparisons. Instead, by applying the more advanced Existential Phenomenology of Maurice Merleau-Ponty to the more indigenous Tantric stream of yoga, it will be shown that this congruence occurs in just the opposite direction of immersion into the very "flesh of the world"-the lived human body as homology of the cosmos. Yoga may offer phenomenology a much-needed somatic contemplative praxis, as much as phenomenology may offer yoga the basis for an appropriate theoretical articulation.

Organic food as a healthy lifestyle: A phenomenological psychological analysis

“…The participants would state that they would, for example, crave a certain nutrient (e.g., protein). This is quite like the adoption of words from the physical sciences (e.g., “energy”) as used in meditative activities such as yoga, in which the experience of a closer connection to one's lived body also becomes possible (see, e.g., Morley, 2008, p. 158). In other words, one can suggest that a closer connection to our lived body becomes possible through a choice of organic food as a healthy lifestyle, similar to what occurs when we meditate.…”

Body Pedagogics: Embodiment, Cognition and Cultural Transmission

“…Young, 1998;Kupers, 2005;Morley, 2008;Hockey and Allen-Collinson, 2009;Allen-Collinson and Hockey, 2011). They represent something of an exception to the general neglect of this area, identifying MerleauPonty's writings as especially useful in focusing on the essential structures of embodied being, and the perceptual nature of all consciousness.…”

“…Finally, a growing number of authors have utilized Merleau-Ponty’s existential phenomenology in exploring how embodied consciousness is manifest, learnt and at times re-learnt within occupational, sporting and other settings (e.g. Allen-Collinson and Hockey, 2011; Hockey and Allen-Collinson, 2009; Kupers, 2005; Morley, 2008; Young, 1998). They represent something of an exception to the general neglect of this area, identifying Merleau-Ponty’s writings as especially useful in focusing on the essential structures of embodied being, and the perceptual nature of all consciousness.…”

Following Contemplative Education Students’ Transformation Through Their “Ground-of-Being” Experiences

“…In the theoretical it engaged contemplative and transformative educational theory and the theoretical correlate described above. Phenomenology and Yoga philosophy were linked, as they are both “experiential ontologies” (Morley, 2008, p. 160) that affirm the “domain of subjectively lived experience and promote a meditation method that maintains neutrality towards belief systems” 5 (Morley, 2008, p. 147). The phenomenological orientation in the theory led to a similar approach in the fieldwork, through Clark Moustakas’s (1994) Transcendental Phenomenological method, which is founded on a number of Husserl’s phenomenological principals.…”

“…This article aims to outline some of these methods, while illustrating the scope of contemplation as a pedagogical resource. It also seeks to support the calls from contemplative and transformative education pedagogs to include the ''interior'' or subjective site of contemplation in education (e.g., Dirkx, 1997;Ferrer, Romero, & Albareda, 2005;Hart, 2008;Miller, 2010;Morley, 2008;Zajonc, 2010).…”