And another
May. 17th, 2018 04:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dfr1973 As forecast, the weather has us indoors most of the day due to storms, so I've had plenty of time to listen to another Atkinson book, this one written under the pseudonym Yogi Ramacharaka, entitled A Series of Lessons in Raja Yoga. Well, from what little I've read up on yoga, this isn't it. What it is, is Atkinson's western occult philosophy dressed up in costume. I had been listening for one of Atkinson's pet phrases, "There is no royal road to ___ (fill in the blank)!" and sure enough, it was there. Why is this significant? Raja yoga roughly translates to "royal path." A couple more fun little Sanskrit words: a yogi is a student. The reason most yoga instructors use the title yogi is the idea that you can't say you've truly learned something until you can competently teach it to another. The Sanskrit word for master/expert teacher is guru ... and that is the word that is (so far, to the beginning of the 9th out of 12 lessons) missing from the text.
Okay, so this is NOT yoga in any real meaning of the idea. You may still want to read it, as it seems to roll up quite a bit of Atkinson's mental philosophy teachings into one spot, and as I commented over at Ecosophia this week, some of what he wrote is definitely worth reading. I also mentioned the jarring phrases of the time, like "savages," "barbarians," and "primitives races" to refer to non-European non-whites. Of course, he also takes quite the swipe at the lower classes of white Americans (in particular, although he mentions at least once the problem is in Europe as well) ... BUT he does not target educated white women as group, just the lower classes with inferior educations, if any. A little reading into the broader New Thought history shows not only quite a few educated and influential women leaders, but quite a bit of activity with the women's suffrage movement of the time. Racial bigotry and class bigotry abound, but not chauvinism or misogynism. Atkinson would certainly be crucified by the current politically correct crowd today, so don't look to any kind of revival of his work as is.
Okay, so this is NOT yoga in any real meaning of the idea. You may still want to read it, as it seems to roll up quite a bit of Atkinson's mental philosophy teachings into one spot, and as I commented over at Ecosophia this week, some of what he wrote is definitely worth reading. I also mentioned the jarring phrases of the time, like "savages," "barbarians," and "primitives races" to refer to non-European non-whites. Of course, he also takes quite the swipe at the lower classes of white Americans (in particular, although he mentions at least once the problem is in Europe as well) ... BUT he does not target educated white women as group, just the lower classes with inferior educations, if any. A little reading into the broader New Thought history shows not only quite a few educated and influential women leaders, but quite a bit of activity with the women's suffrage movement of the time. Racial bigotry and class bigotry abound, but not chauvinism or misogynism. Atkinson would certainly be crucified by the current politically correct crowd today, so don't look to any kind of revival of his work as is.