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THE ENSTATIC AND ECSTATIC AS CATEGORIES IN ELIADE’S THOUGHT In two of his most famous works, Yoga: Immortality and Freedom and Shamanism : Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy, Mircea Eliade attempts to elucidate the distinctiveness of shamanic and yogic typologies of religious belief and practice. Through this process, Eliade notes at several points what he believes is a fundamental distinction between shamanic and yogic practice and experience that can be understood as the difference between enstasis and ecstasis, or enstasy and ecstasy, respectively, “standing within” and “standing without.” This distinction has become part of the foundation of scholarship in both the domains of the academic study of yoga and shamanism far beyond the sphere of Eliade’s own work. The controversial issue of determining the primary characteristics of shamanism is framed by the context of Eliade’s emphasis on ecstasy as the definitive component of shamanism as opposed to possession and other phenomena . In the study of meditation (dhya\na) in the Hindu and Buddhist contexts , the terms enstasy, enstasis, and enstatic have become an important part of the terminology of both Hindu and Buddhist studies. With its roots in the comparison of yoga and shamanism, Eliade’s enstasis-ecstasis distinction has found its way into the language of the phenomenological dimension of the study of religion and into the language of religious studies more broadly. The goal of this chapter is to provide a closer examination of these terms that may lead to a more sophisticated understanding of Eliade’s phenomenological theory and the question of its ongoing utility in the study of religion. In particular, this chapter will explore Eliade’s notion that the ultimate goal of shamanism is a type of visionary experience that involves the association of 53 3 Yoga, Shamanism, and Buddhism A New Phenomenology* mythical beings and their realities, in contrast to the more abstract goal of release from conditioned reality that is characteristic of Indian forms of yoga, most notably Classical Yoga. As well as reexamining Eliade’s theory in this regard, a number of other issues not found in Eliade’s work will be considered that may further illuminate this relationship and demonstrate other important possibilities for the yoga-shamanism comparison. These include examples of initiatory types of phenomena associated with Buddhist meditation, the junction of enstatic and ecstatic modalities in the development of meditation in Buddhist and Hindu yoga, and the possibility of viewing the yogic practitioner as a sort of “psychopomp ” akin to the shaman. It will be demonstrated that the enstatic and ecstatic modalities can be better seen as being dynamically related rather than mutually exclusive, and that Eliade’s distinction is useful but in need of further elaboration and specificity. Enstatic and ecstatic phenomena have an intimate relationship with what can be called numinous and cessative modalities or conceptions of religious practice and experience, demonstrating both continuity and distinction in the yoga-shamanism relationship. These dimensions have a deep connection in how they tie together the psychological and social realities in the lives of religious practitioners and relate both to questions of cosmology and divinity. It will be suggested that Eliade’s phenomenology may hold much promise when brought into dialogue with more recent sociological approaches to the study of shamanism and ecstatic religion more broadly. RELIGIOUS SPECIALIZATION IN COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS Eliade states that shamanism can be said to possess four primary elements. These include: an initiation in which the adept faces death, dismemberment, and possibly a descent into the underworld and an ascent into heaven; an ecstatic journey in which the shaman acts as healer or psychopomp; a “mastery of fire” in which the shaman proves himself or herself capable of withstanding some type of ordeal; and an ability to change form, to “become invisible ,” and to demonstrate other magical powers.1 The primary factor among these, according to Eliade, is ecstasy, the ability to leave the body in order to journey to otherworldly realms, and to master the world of spirits, ultimately qualifying the shaman as a “specialist in the sacred.” The essential and defining element of shamanism is ecstasy—the shaman is a specialist in the sacred, able to abandon his body and undertake cosmic journeys “in the spirit” (in trance).2 The idea of the shaman as a specialist leaves the door open for a broad range of comparisons for Eliade and presents the implicit idea of specialization as a 54 Sama\dhi [18.188.142.146] Project MUSE (2024-04-19 07:57 GMT...

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