Concept
Sādhanā
Overview
Sādhanā (Sanskrit: साधना; Tibetan: སྒྲུབ་ཐབས་, THL: druptap; Chinese: 修行; pinyin: xiūxíng) is an ego-transcending spiritual practice in Indian religions. It includes a variety of disciplines in Hindu, Buddhist and Jain traditions that are followed in order to achieve various spiritual or ritual objectives.
Sadhana is done for attaining detachment from worldly things, which can be a goal of a sadhu. Karma yoga, bhakti yoga and jnana yoga can also be described as sadhana; constant efforts to achieve maximum level of perfection in all streams of day-to-day life can be described as Sadhana.
Sādhanā can also refer to a tantric liturgy or liturgical manual, that is, the instructions to carry out a certain practice.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
Found by search and not yet checked by a person; they may only mention the idea in passing.
Other methods of deliverance from evil are in the excessive acts of penance performed by the Indians, to which a retreat within themselves is added. Now when the Indian thus internally collects himself, and retreats within his own thoughts, the moment of such pure concentration is called Brahma, the one and the clearly supersensuous state, which the understanding calls the highest possible existence. When this is so…
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Hegel's Lectures on the History of Philosophy
States what Sādhanā is.
But by sacred things one must not understand simply those personal beings which are called gods or spirits; a rock, a tree, a spring, a pebble, a piece of wood, a house, in a word, anything can be sacred. A rite can have this character; in fact, the rite does not exist which does not have it to a certain degree.
Émile Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life
States what Sādhanā is.
Again, after a period, the whole thing is disturbed, projected outward, again it slowly comes out in the form of waves; for all motion in this universe is in the form of waves, successive rise and fall.
Swami Vivekananda, Jnâna Yoga, Part II
States what Sādhanā is.
Related ideas
- Ritual
- Ishvara
- Hinduism
- Indian religions
- Jainism
- Guru
- Chaitanya Mahaprabhu
- Saṃsāra
- Bhakti
- Moksha
- Mantra
- Nalanda mahavihara
- Meditation
- Bhagavad Gita
- Guhyasamāja Tantra
- Spirituality
- Tantra
- Buddhism
- Bhakti yoga
- Enlightenment in Buddhism
- Vajrayana
- Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
- Vaishnavism
- Yogi
Opposing perspectives
Place in the tradition
Part of Mysticism.