The Hindu school, associated with the school of Samkhya as the practical method for achieving the understanding of the self. Yoga is the discipline or yoke necessary for the pure subject to recognize itself, and separate itself from the empirical reality with which it is confused. Various kinds of involvement with the ego and desires and aversions are responsible for ‘fluctuations of the mind-stuff’ that can only be overcome by training. Yoga includes moral restraints, and spiritual imperatives, as well as the familiar exercises (asanas ) designed to withdraw consciousness from the senses, focus the mind, and ultimately achieve meditation in which the self is completely and transparently understood (samadhi ).
Philosophy dictionary. Academic. 2011.