Ethics in Religion Commons^™

Yoga And Brahmavihārā: Expanding The Concept Of Self To Include Others”, John Paul Gauer

Say Something Theological: The Student Journal of Theological Studies

Yoga is a method that practitioners use to expand their sense of self. According to Stuart Ray Sarbacker, yoga has been used to attempt two types of goals: the numinous which bestows special powers upon the practitioner, and the cessative which brings the process of saṃsāra, the endless cycle of rebirth, to an end. Both of these are goals that are focused on an individual self. In modern American yoga, a commodified practice has served to solidify the sense of individualized self by focusing solely on the body-based practices such as āsana. But yoga has a history of …