Contemplate Cosmic Manifestation
How can understanding the philosophies of Samkhya and Yoga help bring us a more profound sense of meaning and focus for our spiritual practices? Our guest Acharya Sundari Jensen, an esteemed Kriya Yoga teacher, shares how this map of the human experience shows us the way from pain and suffering to peace and bliss.
Knowing that what we think, what we intend, and what we believe is the basis for our experience, wise people change their lives by changing their consciousness.
Yogacharya Ellen Grace O’Brian
Acharya Sundari Jensen has been offering classes and retreats in yoga philosophy and meditation for over 20 years, including her recent online, On-Demand course: Change Your Mind, Change Your Life: An Introduction to Samkhya Philosophy, which which is the basis of this discussion. It’s a course that we can take at any time and at our own pace. Acharya Sundari is a Senior Kriya Yoga Teacher at Center for Spiritual Enlightenment in San Jose, CA, where she met her guru, Yogacharya Ellen Grace O’Brian, in 1992. She is a certified Hatha Yoga teacher, Vedic Counselor, and is a certified Yoga therapist with the International Association of Yoga Therapists.
THE YOGA HOUR TEAM COMMENTS: This program is very supportive for those of us who are studying and practicing on the Yoga path. I have briefly studied Samkhya as it has been introduced in several classes over the years. Acharya Sundari's deeper dive into this philosophy has helped me understand how studying Samkhya can really enhance and deepen my practice. Acharya Sundari discussed how learning about the 25 components of manifestation shows us how to experience the manifest world, helps us understand how the senses and sense organs inform our mind and subsequently our experience of God. I appreciated that Acharya Sundari shared how Purusha (unmanifest consciousness) and Prakriti (nature that is not conscious) come together. She gave the analogy of a magnet—Purusha is a great magnet and Prakriti is made up of metal filings. When the two come close together the filings are activated. Purusha activates and illumines and activates Prakriti and the rest of creation unfolds.