Yoga dictionary. Vivec

And from the absolute point of view, these concepts are very conditional. What in one situation is poison to one person is medicine to another, and Vice versa. And the concepts of good and evil, right and wrong often turn into dogmas that cause no less harm than the absence of any principles and rules at all. In his philosophical treatise on yoga, Patanjali described such a phenomenon as “Viveka”. And this is the key to understanding how to distinguish black from white. Moreover, it is the key to understanding that life is not a black-and-white film and in addition to these two colors there is a whole range of colors.

In Sanskrit, Viveka means ‘discrimination’. This concept is revealed in Sutra 24, Chapter 4. One of the most curious translations of this Sutra is that of falkow, and His version of the Sutra reads as follows:”for one who has attained mastery of discernment, the contradictions of the nature of the soul are mitigated.” The point is that all contradictions exist only at the level of the mind. Continue reading →