Namaste,

I did a brief search on this site a found little on Gorak Natha MahaYogi and the Nath Tradition. I found this book recently while on retreat at a Buddhist Monestary in England Amaravati. It was here and in this book that I found some important threads between the yoga traditions and Buddhism.

I hope this is the right place to post this information which highlights some crucial Truths. I will add the link to the book with some quotes.

http://ocoy.org/wp-content/uploads/P...rakshanath.pdf


A WAR OF THEORIES
The history of the philosophical quest of the Absolute Truth in the
human race shows that there have been thousands and thousands of theories
or intellectual conceptions about the nature of the Ultimate Reality, and
there has not been a single one which could satisfy the intellect of all. The
philosophical literature has been developing from the earliest times, and it
is still progressing. No philosophical view has been found to be logically
unassailable. The history of philosophy has become a history of a continuous
warfare on the intellectual plane among the greatest and wisest rational
truth-seekers of the world. A sincere and earnest Philosopher, even to
satisfy himself that his conception truly represents the character of the
Absolute Reality, has not only to be convinced that his theory is free from
all possible logical fallacies and is capable of offering an adequate rational
explanation for the world-order, but has also to be convinced that no other
rival theory is or can possibly be so free from defects and can furnish such
a satisfactory explanation. He therefore feels impelled to put to test not only
his own conception, but also the conceptions arrived at by other philosophers.
This leads him to seek and find defects in the arguments and conclusions
of all other truth-seekers who differ from him and thereby to
demonstrate the exclusive validity of the conception which he himself
adopts. As Philosophers differ from one another in their modes of approach
and the conclusions they intellectually arrive at, every system of philosophy
becomes an object of attack from all sides, from the exponents of all other
systems of philosophy. This intellectual warfare amongst the Philosophers,
age after age, has been tremendously enriching the philosophical literature.
But no philosopher can have the inner assurance and satisfaction that he
has found out the Truth, that he has been blessed with the true knowledge
of the Absolute Reality. Every Philosopher is afraid, unless he becomes
dogmatic and arrogant, that the idea which he cherishes about the Supreme
Object of his life-long search may not be the correct one and that it may be
proved to be false by other philosophers. In fact, it is the fate of every
philosophical theory that it is supported with logical arguments by philosophers
of one school and refuted with counter- arguments by philosophers of
many other schools.
The Absolute Truth has been conceived by illustrious philosophers in
amazingly various ways, such as, Pure Void (Sunya), or Non-Being or NonExistence
(Asat), Pure Being or Existence (Sat). Pure Transcendent
Consciousness (Cit-matra), Pure Unconscious Matter (Acit Prakriti), Pure
Primordial Energy or Power (Maha-sakti)] Pure Consciousness with Power
(Saktimatcaitanya), Creative Will, Absolute Idea, Absolute Spirit, Supreme
Personality (Parama Purusha) with infinite Power and Wisdom, Morally and
Aesthetically Perfect Personality (possessing not only infinite power and
wisdom and bliss, but also the most lovable and adorable excellences),
Satya-Siva-Sundara PurushottamaPremdnandaghana Parameswara, and so
on and so forth. The world of phenomenal diversities is conceived by some
as an illusory appearance, by others as self-manifestation of the Ultimate
Reality, by others again as created by the Ultimate Reality, by others again
as the Sole Reality having no noumenal Reality behind it, and so on. The
finite spirits are conceived by some as uncreated and eternal and by others
as created and destructible, by some as atomic in nature, and by others as
all-pervading, by some as different from the Ultimate Reality and by some
as essentially non-different from the Ultimate Reality, by some as essentially
pure and free and incorruptible and by others as subject to degradation
and development, by some as essentially different from and independent of
the physical bodies and by others as evolved out of them, and so on. The
Ultimate Ideal of human life is also variously conceived by various philosophers.
There seems to be no end of differences among the views of philosophers,
(Nasau munlr yasya matam na bhinnam). Each view is splendidly
supported by its exponents with strong and elaborate logical arguments,
which carry conviction to certain classes of truth -seekers.
Every strongly supported view has given birth to a patricular school
of philosophy. But it seems that every strong logical argument has its weak
points. Critics discover these weak points in the arguments of a philosophical
school and lay special emphasis upon them to repudiate the whole system
propounded by it. Thus every system of philosophy is ably supported by its
advocates and most cruelly refuted by its opponents. If a particular view is
found to be satisfactory to one class of truth- seekers, it is proved to be
unacceptable by many classes of truth-seekers. Every apparently wellreasoned
theory about the Ultimate Truth is thus reduced merely into
a particular view-point from which the Truth is sought to be approached,
and no theory can evidently reach It. The intellectual path adopted by a
Philosopher fails to lead him to the realisation of the Absolute Truth, for which he feels within himself a persistent demand.