10-20-2025, 11:30 AM
(This post was last modified: 10-21-2025, 08:51 AM by Paul Ferguson.)
The Amṛtasiddhi: Haṭhayoga’s Flash in the Alchemical Pan
By James Mallinson
"The Amṛtasiddhi is an eleventh-century Vajrayāna work written in Sanskrit, which is the first text to teach any of the practices and principles of what came to be classified in later texts as haṭhayoga, yoga in which physical texts predominate. Much of the text is couched in alchemical metaphors, and the names of the three primary techniques describing yogic processes such as breathing exercises and their effects on the body and the mind each have alchemical parallels. This chapter presents the various alchemical aspects of the text and analyses their reception—including their rejection or misinterpretation—in later works on yoga and provides insight into the spread of alchemical thought and methods into other Indic disciplines, and among different religious groups."
https://www.academia.edu/144515176/The_A...emical_Pan
By James Mallinson
"The Amṛtasiddhi is an eleventh-century Vajrayāna work written in Sanskrit, which is the first text to teach any of the practices and principles of what came to be classified in later texts as haṭhayoga, yoga in which physical texts predominate. Much of the text is couched in alchemical metaphors, and the names of the three primary techniques describing yogic processes such as breathing exercises and their effects on the body and the mind each have alchemical parallels. This chapter presents the various alchemical aspects of the text and analyses their reception—including their rejection or misinterpretation—in later works on yoga and provides insight into the spread of alchemical thought and methods into other Indic disciplines, and among different religious groups."
https://www.academia.edu/144515176/The_A...emical_Pan