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Dr Patrick Mahaffey presented the 74th Shiva Symposium on Sunday 18th August, as part of the Great Beings retreat. Patrick met Swamiji in 1975 at the Ann Arbor ashram and reconnected with him again in 2005 at the Three Gurus program, Los Angeles. Patrick is the Chair of Mythological Studies at the Pacific Graduate University, Santa Barbara and brought a wealth of philosophy and over 30 years of yogic practice to his talk ‘The Heart of Hindu Mythos: Yogic perspectives on Self-realisation’.
His presentation was a dazzling encapsulation of yogic schools and history that also had great practical relevance to the retreat participants. As he noted, there is a paradoxical nature to seeking in yoga, in which we both need the teachings but they can also intensify our suffering (at least in the short-term). After comparing the key elements of six paths in yoga (Upanishads/ Vedanta; Samkhya/Patanjali; Bhagavad Gita/ Tantra), Patrick finished with a brief discussion of the non-dual path of Kashmir Shaivism (the philosophy that underpins Shiva Yoga) and, in particular, the illumined teachings of Abhinavagupta who taught that the “absence of wonder is the absence of life”. The questions and answer session was a perfect opportunity for Patrick to express his obvious devotion to the path and the audience was delighted to be part o
f the discussion.
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