Pātañjala yoga, yogācāra and dharmamegha (the cloud of dharma)

Dr Karen O'Brien-Kop

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The Pātañjalayogaśāstra concludes with a description of the pinnacle of yoga practice: a state of samādhi called dharmamegha , cloud of dharma. Yet despite the structural importance of dharmamegha in the soteriology of Pātañjala yoga, the śāstra itself does not say much about this term. Where we do find dharmamegha discussed at some length, however, is in Buddhist yogācāra, and more broadly in early Mahāyāna soteriology, where it represents the apex of attainment and the superlative statehood of a bodhisattva (one whose aim is to become a buddha). This talk will trace the early development of dharmamegha in Indian religions and the ways in which Patañjali adapts and revises it from existing contexts.

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Speaker Biography

Karen O'Brien-Kop is a Lecturer in Asian Religions and Ethics at Roehampton University, UK. She researches classical South Asian Sanskrit texts and culture on meditation and yoga, in particular exploring the interconnections of Hinduism and Buddhism. More broadly, her research interests are Indian religion and philosophy, philosophy of mind, theory and method in the study of religion, global philosophies, and literary criticism and theory.

She previously worked as a Senior Teaching Fellow at SOAS University of London, where she also completed her doctoral research. Karen has authored articles in the Journal of Indian Philosophy and Religions of South Asia , and is co-editor of the Routledge Handbook of Yoga and Meditation Studie s. In the American Academy of Religion she is on the committee for the Yoga in Theory and Practice unit and is Co-Chair of the Indian and Chinese Religions Compared unit.