ABSTRACT
This chapter is intended to provide a general outline of the eight-fold path and to explain the important concepts that are in the Yoga Sūtras but not carried over from Sāṁkhya. As can be expected, the outline is no different from what is commonly found in numerous widely available sources, except that there are occasional interpretations of traditional concepts in the language of modern psychology and some modern parallels are indicated. For example, there is a section where the difficulties over introspection (pratyāhāra) noted in the Yoga literature are compared with similar difficulties encountered in introspectionist studies in modern psychology. Toward the end of this chapter Patañjali’s thesis that suffering exceeds happiness is interpreted in the light of parallels in the writings of William James, Carl Rogers, and the concept of relative deprivation.
