by Searles O'Dubhain

The Hatha Yoga Pradipika teaches that the master of inner sound becomes the master of mind, life-breath, and ultimately Self. The Irish teaching of Imbas Forosnai — the "illumination of the palms" — describes the same inner opening by a different technology. In this January 2006 post to alt.religion.druid, Searles O'Dubhain brings these two traditions into a single frame, connecting Alain Danielou's translation of the Yoga text with Amergin's description of the Cauldron of Wisdom turning "by divine ecstasy." The synthesis is not merely comparative — O'Dubhain argues that attaining mastery of body, mind, and spirit is the very work of Druids, a universal technology that crosses traditions because it is drawn from universal human experience.

"The mind is the master of the senses, the life-breath is the master of the mind, the master of the life-breath is its mergence. The merging of the mind is achieved by [listening to] the inner sound."

(Hatha Yoga Pradipika 4, 29 / Yoga, The Method of Re-Integration, by Alain Danielou, p. 91)

Here in this short paragraph is given the steps to mastery and the way to knowledge. These steps are not limited to any religion or spiritual practice. They are universal. This is the way that humans can break the separation that exists between themselves as individuals and their self which is a part of all-that-is. The practices and experiences of imbas are based on these universal principles in Irish Druidic practice.

When one "becomes" a thing, as Amergin became at-one with all things, then identification is achieved in the yogic sense. This is the highest level of attainment in a series of steps that begins with dedication and devotion to the path. At the end of these practices, and through a mastery of the body, mind, and self, one achieves identification — or merging between self and Self. This is stated clearly by Danielou:

"Thus the mind of the adept unites to the principle of light ... and then merges into the supreme shape ... The sound [of the inner mantra] dies away and the mind unites with Self. Freed from all pain, the adept, united with the supreme light, knows incomparable bliss."

This state of being is what Amergin means when he says (from the Cauldron of Poesy materials):

"When the Cauldron of Wisdom is turned by divine ecstasy, rather than by human joy alone, its special grace is a gift that transforms a person, who becomes both sacred and knowledgeable, so that their works include miracles, prophecies, judgments and precedents. It is these people who establish the wisdom that guides our knowledge and regulates the forms of our speech. Though this knowledge comes from within a person, its truth and its power is from the Gods and originates from outside of a person."

Attaining this mastery of the self, of the body, mind, and spirit, is the work of Druids and the Wise of the People. How this is done is learned in the schools of the Wise, though it comes from the gods. It is a gift of the Inner Sound.

Colophon

Written by Searles O'Dubhain and posted to alt.religion.druid in January 2006. The Hatha Yoga Pradipika (fourteenth century CE) is a classical Sanskrit text of the Nath tradition; the translation is by Alain Danielou from Yoga: The Method of Re-Integration (Johnson Publications, 1949). The Cauldron of Poesy (Coire Sois) passage is from Erynn Rowan Laurie's translation of the Old Irish text attributed to Amergin.

Preserved from the Usenet archive for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.

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