Samkhya & Yoga

Samkhya and Yoga are paired Indian schools that separate pure consciousness (purusha) from matter (prakriti) and seek liberation through knowledge.

Samkhya is traditionally traced to the sage Kapila, and its classic text is the Samkhya Karika of Ishvarakrishna, from about the fourth or fifth century CE. Yoga, systematised in the Yoga Sutras attributed to Patanjali, shares Samkhya's metaphysics but adds a path of meditative discipline and admits a special self, Ishvara. Samkhya holds that an effect already exists in its material cause (satkaryavada), a view other Indian schools disputed. On this site it answers questions on causation (1.4.2), mind and the self.