Sectarian Developments: Saivism, Saktism and Tantra
A Student's Guide to the History and Philosophy of Yoga - Revised edition - Peter Connolly
Peter Connolly [+ ]
The Open University
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Peter Connolly (PhD) was, for many years, senior lecturer in Religious Studies at the University of Chichester, England, where he taught courses on Ethics, Indian Religion and Psychology of Religion. He has also worked as an associate lecturer in both Psychology and Religious Studies with the Open University and has delivered many courses on the history and philosophy of yoga for a number of yoga training institutions. He is fascinated by all forms of altered states of consciousness, has trained in Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) and hypnosis, and experimented with psychedelic chemicals and a variety of meditation techniques, including Divine Light, Lam Rim, Sant Mat, Transcendental Meditation and Buddhist Vipassana, all of which offer interesting perspectives on the psychology of religious experience.
Description
The development of yoga philosophy continued outside of Vedānta and Vaisnavism in the various schools of Śaivism and Śāktism, both of which have a more ambivalent relation to brāhmanical orthodoxy than does Vaisnavism. These three traditions and their respective deities dominate, medieval and modern Hinduism.