Spirituality has nothing to do with politics. Nonetheless, there is a functional relationship between them. Although spirituality supposes a disposition against boundaries – of experience and consciousness – and politics appears to involve the definition of limits insofar as they enable political action and meaning, these two distinct dimensions of human existence are not in opposition to each other. Politics here can be characterized as a kind of vectorization: the inscription of a gesture – as a force with magnitude and direction – into an intelligible (political) matrix. When we talk about politicization, we are concerned with the investigation of political meaning: how is it that it something makes sense – or becomes meaningful – from a political perspective and within the political domain. In other words, for the political to arise, it must be forcibly cast: made to mean politically. A spiritual sensibility – oriented towards an expansive, inclusive consciousness which is necessarily apolitical – brings to bear on the political on account of its experiential effects. Yoga, in all its politically multivalent character, is approached as a science of experiential transformation: ultimately a technology of self-annihilation. The concern is to elaborate on a multidimensional perspective which casts yoga’s radical political potential by politicizing boundlessness.
","abstract_html":"<p>Spirituality has nothing to do with politics. Nonetheless, there is a functional relationship between them. Although spirituality supposes a disposition against boundaries – of experience and consciousness – and politics appears to involve the definition of limits insofar as they enable political action and meaning, these two distinct dimensions of human existence are not in opposition to each other. Politics here can be characterized as a kind of vectorization: the inscription of a gesture – as a force with magnitude and direction – into an intelligible (political) matrix. When we talk about politicization, we are concerned with the investigation of political meaning: how is it that it something makes sense – or becomes meaningful – from a political perspective and within the political domain. In other words, for the political to arise, it must be forcibly cast: made to <em>mean</em> politically. A spiritual sensibility – oriented towards an expansive, inclusive consciousness which is necessarily apolitical – brings to bear on the political on account of its experiential effects. Yoga, in all its politically multivalent character, is approached as a science of experiential transformation: ultimately a technology of self-annihilation. The concern is to elaborate on a multidimensional perspective which casts yoga’s radical political potential by politicizing boundlessness.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Orellana, Fernando"],"institution":"The Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York","degree_name":"Master of Arts","degree_level":"Master","degree_discipline":"Political Science","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":["John Wallach"],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2019,"date_issued":"2019-05-01T07:00:00Z","date_published":"2019-05-01T07:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T01:58:22Z","subjects":["Political Theory","spirituality","politics","yoga","communism","neoliberalism","boundlessness"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/3270","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor.advisor","label":"Advisor","values":["John Wallach"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Orellana, Fernando"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2019-04-29T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Political Science"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Master"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master of Arts"]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["The Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Political Theory","spirituality","politics","yoga","communism","neoliberalism","boundlessness"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/3270"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Spirituality has nothing to do with politics. Nonetheless, there is a functional relationship between them. Although spirituality supposes a disposition against boundaries – of experience and consciousness – and politics appears to involve the definition of limits insofar as they enable political action and meaning, these two distinct dimensions of human existence are not in opposition to each other. Politics here can be characterized as a kind of vectorization: the inscription of a gesture – as a force with magnitude and direction – into an intelligible (political) matrix. When we talk about politicization, we are concerned with the investigation of political meaning: how is it that it something makes sense – or becomes meaningful – from a political perspective and within the political domain. In other words, for the political to arise, it must be forcibly cast: made to mean politically. A spiritual sensibility – oriented towards an expansive, inclusive consciousness which is necessarily apolitical – brings to bear on the political on account of its experiential effects. Yoga, in all its politically multivalent character, is approached as a science of experiential transformation: ultimately a technology of self-annihilation. The concern is to elaborate on a multidimensional perspective which casts yoga’s radical political potential by politicizing boundlessness.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["A Politics of Boundlessness"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor.advisor":["John Wallach"],"dc:creator":["Orellana, Fernando"],"dc:date.available":["2019-04-29T07:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["Spirituality has nothing to do with politics. Nonetheless, there is a functional relationship between them. Although spirituality supposes a disposition against boundaries – of experience and consciousness – and politics appears to involve the definition of limits insofar as they enable political action and meaning, these two distinct dimensions of human existence are not in opposition to each other. Politics here can be characterized as a kind of vectorization: the inscription of a gesture – as a force with magnitude and direction – into an intelligible (political) matrix. When we talk about politicization, we are concerned with the investigation of political meaning: how is it that it something makes sense – or becomes meaningful – from a political perspective and within the political domain. In other words, for the political to arise, it must be forcibly cast: made to mean politically. A spiritual sensibility – oriented towards an expansive, inclusive consciousness which is necessarily apolitical – brings to bear on the political on account of its experiential effects. Yoga, in all its politically multivalent character, is approached as a science of experiential transformation: ultimately a technology of self-annihilation. The concern is to elaborate on a multidimensional perspective which casts yoga’s radical political potential by politicizing boundlessness.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/3270"],"dc:subject":["Political Theory","spirituality","politics","yoga","communism","neoliberalism","boundlessness"],"dc:title":["A Politics of Boundlessness"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Political Science"],"thesis:degree_level":["Master"],"thesis:degree_name":["Master of Arts"],"thesis:institution_name":["The Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T01:58:22Z"}