SoundofStillness, Strictly speaking Purusha, for Patanjali, is not an observer but rather is a witness (sakshin) to the activities of consciousness (chitta). The concept "observer" is a relational term defining the function of self-reflexivity by the chitta. Self-reflectivity means the active functioning of the ahamkara (the foundational idea 'I, I') that seeds cognitive activity and along with our various forms of self-identity. If you ask TM teachers, you get recollections about MMY's descriptions of wakefulness "inside" during meditation and its carry-over into ordinary waking, dreaming, sleeping (resulting from gradual purification). Perhaps you have never examined the way Patanjali used the word "Purusha" in the Yoga Sutras. This concept has a significant history in the history of Vedic texts. The various ideas described by the term "Purusha" and its correlates are detailed in Georg Feuerstein's book, The Philosophy of Classical Yoga, Chapter II The Self, starting on page 15. (You can view this chapter on Google Scholar). Particularly interesting is his diagram of the various metaphors that Patañjali used for the term “purusha” in the Yoga Sutras: Metaphor of Otherness: para Metaphor of Seeing: drashtri, drg-shakti, drishi, drishi-mâtra Metaphor of Owning: svâmin, prabhu, grahîtri Metaphor of Cognizing: chiti, chiti-shakti He continues: “Nowhere in the Yoga-Sutra is there a full-fledged definition of the concept of purusha, and the most probable reason for this is that by the time of the composition of Patañjali’s vade mecum (guidebook) its precise meaning was perfectly evident. The opposite must have been true of the concept of išvara which Patañjali carefully demarcates from its popular usage in the sense of ‘creator’. From the few references in the Yoga-Sutra it is clear beyond doubt that the concept of puruša is remarkably akin to certain conceptions delineated in the epic (mahabharata) and other pre-classical Sanskrit works. It expresses the notion of man’s ‘transcendental identity’, here rendered with ‘Self’ or ‘transintelligible subject’, as distinct from the world-ground (prakrti) both in its noumenal form as pradhâna and in its manifest forms as the objective universe (drshya). The Self is an aspatial and atemporal reality which stands in no conceivable relation to the composite world of phenomena nor to their transcendental source. It is sheer awareness as opposed to consciousness-of and in this respect is the exact antithesis of the world-ground which is by definition insentient. This Self is considered the authentic being of man.” (pg. 19) Consider giving it a look so you can compare.
Re: [FairfieldLife] Do Purusha(s) Have Agency (the capacity to "act")
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