Article with Audio

Psychological Approach to Knowledge by Larry - 6/10/07

Presentation by Larry Seidlitz for the UHU seminar on the Psychological Approach to Learning on 6 Nov 2007

Excerpt from the presentation:

"I want to say something about what I feel that the subject of traditional psychology is, and what its limitations are compared to integral psychology. It’s really the science of human behavior. It examines the determinants of our behavior from a variety of angles. The basic levels are the biological determinants, the micro and macro social determinants of behavior – culture, media, family, physical environment. It examines the cognitive and emotional processes that determine our behavior, and that are also connected to our biology and social environment. It examines personality structure, our personality traits and how these develop and change. And finally the determinants of psychological disturbances and dysfunctions and how these can be alleviated. It covers a vast area and the discipline is highly specialized, and each area is represented by hundreds of theories. It gives us important perspectives, but it lacks a unifying perspective on life as a whole. It doesn’t give us much of a direction for life or any deeper significance or meaning to our life, as I perceived it.

This is where integral yoga psychology can complement traditional psychology. It provides a way to go forward. SA’s integral yoga can be examined and presented from a number of different points of view. And I would like to give an outline of that, to give a broader perspective of what might guide us in a future educational program. From the most abstract level we can examine its theoretical foundations: the principles of knowledge discussed earlier, the Brahman, Satchidananda, Supermind, Self, Psychic Being, perhaps the Triple Transformation – the idea of the main stages of Integral Yoga. At the next level down we can consider the basic principles of the practice of Integral Yoga: Grace and personal effort, Aspiration, Rejection, and Surrender, Equality and Perseverance, and the main branches of yoga - karma yoga, jnana yoga, bhakti yoga, the yoga of self perfection – purification of the layers of consciousness. There’s a range of more specific elements of yoga psychology we can examine: yogic approaches to life… And various practices such as meditation, concentration, mantra, japa, prayer, devotion, living within, satsang…the utilization of music, poetry and art. All the principles and practices help us to go in a particular direction. …the meaning of existence, the answer to our deepest fundamental questions." - Larry Seidlitz

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