Detachment and Sākṣī (the Observer): Meister Eckhart’s Mysticism and Sāṁkhya Darśana

Abstract

This article offers a comparison of two metaphysical and soteriological strategies: the “Detachment” of Christian mystic Meister Eckhart and sākṣī (observer, con­templator, witness) in the Indian darśanas of Sāṁkhya and Ashtanga Yoga. We analyse the ideas of consciousness and psyche in Western and Indian tradi­tions, as well as of higher consciousness. We understand that Christian and In­dian traditions have different anthropologies, different cognitive and soteriolo­gical purposes, and different ontological foundations. Ideas about the psyche in Western (grounded in Christianity) and Indian traditions are also different (in turn, they are rather different in post-Vedic darśanas). Nevertheless, the cor­relation of the Western “soul/psyche – Spirit” dichotomy and the idea of incom­parability of everyday psychic experience and the experience of higher (transper­sonal) states of consciousness in Sāṃkhya and Yoga darśanas, in our opinion, provide grounds for a comparative study of the strategies of detached contempla­tion. Along with differences, similarities of mystical experience can be found in both traditions: detachment from the world of images and forms as the highest blessing; non-association of oneself with corporality, feelings, and reason; interi­orizing the intentionality of consciousness, and termination of its representative function. Sākṣī of the Sāṁkhya and Yoga darśanas is a pure knowledge taken beyond time, space, shape, beyond all objects and processes. The apophatic doc­trine of Christian neo-platonic mystics about comprehension of God by means of detachment from the created world and one’s own ego offers the opportunity for such comparative analysis.