Center for the Study of Hindu Traditions

The Center for the Study of Hindu Traditions (CHiTra) at the University of Florida
presents a talk
by Dr. Christopher Chapple
Doshi Professor of Indic and Comparative Theology, Loyola Marymount University

Jaina Yoga / Hindu Yoga: Creative Reciprocity

Jainism offered early and explicit theories of karma as well as well delineated instructions on ethics that were incorporated into Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra (ca. 200 to 400 C.E.). Nonviolence, adherence to truth, honesty, restraint of the senses, and non-possessiveness were first articulated in the Acaranga Sutra and then incorporated into classical Yoga. Later, the Jaina philosophers Haribhadra, Hemacandra, and Yashovijaya reframed Jaina practice into the eightfold Yoga taught by Patanjali. Additionally, Jaina Tantra, as found in the writings of Subhacandra, reflects the emphasis on liberation and freedom from karma also found in the Yogavasistha. In the 20th century, Acarya Mahaprajna updated these practices in light of modern scientific research on meditation, originating Preksha Dhyana, now taught worldwide. This talk will explore Jaina theories of body, breath, and spirit in light of Yoga traditions past and present.

Christopher Key Chapple is Doshi Professor of Indic and Comparative Theology and Director of the Master of Arts in Yoga Studies at Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles. He has published twenty books, including Karma and Creativity (1986), Nonviolence to Animals, Earth and Self (!993), Reconciling Yogas (including a translation of Haribhadras’s Array of Views on Yoga, 2003), and Yoga and the Luminous (2008). He has published several edited volumes on religion and ecology, including Hinduism and Ecology (2000), Jainism and Ecology (2002), and Yoga and Ecology (2009). His latest books include a photo-illustrated Yoga Sutra (Sacred Thread, 2015), and two edited volumes: Engaged Emancipation: Mind, Morals, and Make-Believe in the Mokshopaya/Yogavasistha (with Arindam Chakrabarti) and Yoga in Jainism. He also edits the Brill journal Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology and serves on the advisory boards for the International Summer School for Jain Studies (Delhi), the Jaina Centre at the University of London, the Ahimsa Center (Pomona), and the Forum on Religion and Ecology (Yale).