Editing Yoga (section)

=== Scholarly definitions ===

Due to its complicated historical development, and the broad array of definitions and usage in Indian religions, scholars have warned that yoga is hard, if not impossible, to define exactly.{{sfn|White|2011}} David Gordon White notes that "'Yoga' has a wider range of meanings than nearly any other word in the entire Sanskrit lexicon."{{sfn|White|2011}}

In its broadest sense, yoga is a generic term for techniques aimed at controlling body and mind and attaining a soteriological goal as specified by a specific tradition:
* Richard King (1999): "Yoga in the more traditional sense of the term has been practised throughout South Asia and beyond and involves a multitude of techniques leading to spiritual and ethical purification. Hindu and Buddhist traditions alike place a great deal of emphasis upon the practice of yoga as a means of attaining liberation from the world of rebirth and yogic practices have been aligned with a variety of philosophical theories and metaphysical positions."{{sfn|King|1999|p=67}}
* John Bowker (2000): "The means or techniques for transforming consciousness and attaining liberation (mokṣa) from karma and rebirth (saṃsāra) in Indian religions."{{sfn|Bowker|2000 |p=entry "Yoga"}}
* Damien Keown (2004): "Any form of spiritual discipline aimed at gaining control over the mind with the ultimate aim of attaining liberation from rebirth."{{sfn|Keown|2004|p=entry "Yoga"}}
* W. J. Johnson (2009): "A generic term for a wide variety of religious practices [...] At its broadest, however, ‘yoga’ simply refers to a particular method or discipline for transforming the individual [...] A narrower reading makes the practice contingent on, or derived from, control of the body and the senses, as in haṭha-yoga, or control of the breath (prāṇāyāma) and through it the mind, as in Patañjali's rājayoga. At its most neutral, yoga is therefore simply a technique, or set of techniques, including what is usually termed ‘meditation’, for attaining whatever soteriological or soteriological-cum-physiological transformation a particular tradition specifies."{{sfn|Johnson|2009|p=entry "Yoga"}}

According to [[Knut A. Jacobsen]], yoga has five principal meanings:{{sfn|Jacobsen|2018|p=4}}

# A disciplined method for attaining a goal
# Techniques of controlling the body and mind
# A name of a school or system of philosophy (''{{IAST|darśana}}'')
# With prefixes such as "hatha-, mantra-, and laya-, traditions specialising in particular yoga techniques
# The goal of yoga practice{{sfn|Jacobsen|2011|p=4}}

[[David Gordon White]] writes that yoga's core principles were more or less in place in the 5th century CE, and variations of the principles developed over time:{{sfn|White|2011|p=6}}

# A meditative means of discovering dysfunctional perception and cognition, as well as overcoming it to release any suffering, find inner peace, and salvation. Illustration of this principle is found in Hindu texts such as the ''[[Bhagavad Gita]]'' and ''[[Yoga Sutras of Patanjali|Yogasutras]]'', in a number of Buddhist Mahāyāna works, as well as Jain texts.{{sfn|White|2011|pp=6–8}}
# The raising and expansion of consciousness from oneself to being coextensive with everyone and everything. These are discussed in sources such as in Hinduism Vedic literature and its epic ''[[Mahābhārata]]'', the Jain Praśamaratiprakarana, and Buddhist Nikaya texts.{{sfn|White|2011|pp=8–9}}
# A path to omniscience and enlightened consciousness enabling one to comprehend the impermanent (illusive, delusive) and permanent (true, transcendent) reality. Examples of this are found in Hinduism [[Nyaya]] and [[Vaisesika]] school texts as well as Buddhism Mādhyamaka texts, but in different ways.{{sfn|White|2011|pp=9–10}}
# A technique for entering into other bodies, generating multiple bodies, and the attainment of other supernatural accomplishments. These are, states White, described in [[Tantra|Tantric]] literature of Hinduism and Buddhism, as well as the Buddhist Sāmaññaphalasutta.{{sfn|White|2011|pp=10–12}}

According to White, the last principle relates to legendary goals of yoga practice; it differs from yoga's practical goals in South Asian thought and practice since the beginning of the Common Era in Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain philosophical schools.{{sfn|White|2011|p=11}} [[James Mallinson (author)|James Mallinson]] disagrees with the inclusion of supernatural accomplishments, and suggests that such fringe practices are far removed from the mainstream Yoga's goal as meditation-driven means to liberation in Indian religions.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Mallinson |first=James |author-link=James Mallinson (author) |title=The Yogīs' Latest Trick |journal=Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |volume=24 |issue=1 |year=2013 |pages=165–180 |doi=10.1017/s1356186313000734 | s2cid=161393103 |doi-access=free |issn = 0035-869X}}</ref>

A classic definition of yoga in Patanjali's Yoga Sutras 1.2 and 1.3,{{sfn|King|1999|p=67}}{{sfn|White|2011|p=3}}{{sfn|Feuerstein|1998|p=4-5}}{{sfn|Olsson|2023|p=2}} defines yoga as "the stilling of the movements of the mind," and recognises Purusha, the witness-consciousness, as different from Prakriti, mind and matter.{{sfn|White|2011|p=3}}{{sfn|Feuerstein|1998|p=4-5}}{{sfn|Olsson|2023|p=2}}{{efn|name="Samuel_White|Vivekananda"|{{harvtxt|Samuel|2010|p=221}}, referring to White (2006), ''"Open" and "Closed" Models of the Human Body in Indian Medical and Yogic Traditions''. Asian Medicine: Tradition and Modernity 2: 1-13, notes that, according to White, a "frequent modern interpretation of yoga" is largely based on "Vivekananda's selective reading of the ''Yogasutra'', as 'a meditative practice through which the absolute was to be found by turning the mind and senses inwards, away from the world'."}} According to Larson, in the context of the ''Yoga Sutras'', yoga has two meanings. The first meaning is yoga "as a general term to be translated as "disciplined meditation" that focuses on any of the many levels of ordinary awareness."{{sfn|Larson|2008|p=30}} In the second meaning yoga is "that specific system of thought (sāstra) that has for its focus the analysis, understanding and cultivation of those altered states of awareness that lead one to the experience of spiritual liberation."{{sfn|Larson|2008|p=30}}

Another classic understanding{{sfn|King|1999|p=67}}{{sfn|White|2011|p=3}}{{sfn|Feuerstein|1998|p=4-5}}{{sfn|Olsson|2023|p=2}} sees yoga as union or connection with the highest Self (''paramatman''), Brahman,{{sfn|Feuerstein|1998|p=4-5}} or God, a "union, a linking of the individual to the divine."{{sfn|Olsson|2023|p=2}} This definition is based on the devotionalism ([[bhakti]]) of the Bhagavad Gita, and the [[jnana yoga]] of [[Vedanta]].{{sfn|Olsson|2023|p=2}}{{sfn|Feuerstein|1998|p=4-5}}{{efn|name="Grimes"|See, for example, {{harvtxt|Grimes|1996|p=359}}, who states that yoga is a process (or discipline) leading to unity (''[[Aikyam]]'') with the divine (''[[Brahman]]'') or with one's self (''[[Ātman (Hinduism)|Ātman]]'').}}{{efn|name="union_AV"|This understanding of yoga as union with the divine is also informed by the mediaeval synthesis of Advaita Vedanta and yoga, with the Advaita Vedanta-tradition explicitly incorporating elements from the yogic tradition and texts like the ''[[Yoga Vasistha]]'' and the ''[[Bhagavata Purana]]'',{{sfn|Madaio|2017|pp=4–5}} culminating in [[Swami Vivekananda]]'s full embrace and propagation of Yogic samadhi as an Advaita means of knowledge of the identity of the individual self (''jivataman'') and the highest self (''Brahman''), leading to liberation.{{sfn|Rambachan|1994}}{{sfn|Nicholson|2010}}}}

While yoga is often conflated with the "classical yoga" of Patanjali's yoga sutras, Karen O'Brien-Kop notes that "classical yoga" is informed by, and includes, Buddhist yoga.{{sfn|O'Brien-Kop|2021|p=1}} Regarding Buddhist yoga, James Buswell in his ''Encyclopedia of Buddhism'' treats yoga in his entry on meditation, stating that the aim of meditation is to attain samadhi, which serves as the foundation for ''vipasyana'', "discerning the real from the unreal," liberating insight into true reality.{{sfn|Buswell|2004|p=520}} Buswell & Lopez state that "in Buddhism, [yoga is] a generic term for soteriological training or contemplative practice, including tantric practice."{{sfn|Buswell|Lopez|2014|p=entry "yoga"}}

O'Brien-Kop further notes that "classical yoga" is not an independent category, but "was informed by the European colonialist project."{{sfn|O'Brien-Kop|2021|p=1}}