Yoga & Buddhism

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acorn484
Posts: 9
Joined: Mon Aug 31, 2009 8:05 am
Location: Eugene, Oregon

Yoga & Buddhism

Post by acorn484 »

Hi Bernie,

I know that it is becoming quite common for western practitioners to practice hatha yoga techniques as well as having a meditation practice in a Buddhist tradition. I myself practice meditation in the Theravada Buddhist tradition as well as doing hatha yoga. I have two questions regarding this combination of traditions.

1) Do you think that yogic and Buddhist meditation practices are complementary to each other or is it better to pick one or the other? Is it advisable to do both Vipassana and Chakra meditation for instance?

2) Maybe a bigger question; would you say that the philosophies and goals of yoga and Buddhism are compatible? For example, one of the main, if not the main, "goals" in Buddhist practice is to fully realize anatta (not-self) whereas in yoga there is a soul that is getting liberated (as I understand it, correct me if I'm wrong). Do you think that these are two ways of describing the same thing (liberation) or are they distinctly different things?

Underlying all of this is the decision of whether to combine teachings from the different wisdom traditions or not. I've heard many arguments against combining multiple traditions saying that to really make spiritual progress you need to pick one vehicle and stick with it. I definitely understand this point of view, but I also think that some people limit themselves with this belief and end up getting attached to one specific tradition or path. I'm curious to hear your thoughts on this since you cover many of the main traditions in YinSights.

Thanks, Vincent
Bernie
Posts: 1293
Joined: Sat Sep 23, 2006 2:25 am
Location: Vancouver

Buddhism vs Yoga?

Post by Bernie »

Hi Vincent

Good questions, and yes – there can be confusion over this because over the thousands of years of yoga history, there has been many different kinds of yoga. You ask specifically about Hatha Yoga, but Hatha Yoga is quite different than its predecessors like Tantra Yoga (which includes “chakra yoga”) and Classical Yoga (the yoga described by Patanjali in the Yoga Sutra). Even earlier than Classical Yoga (which flourished around 200 C.E., although it is still practiced in small numbers in India even today), was a pre-Classical Yoga, as practiced by the Buddha himself, circa ~450 B.C.E.

You probably know the story about how Siddhatta (the Buddha to be) left his family and first studied yoga with two different gurus, found them both not the answer to suffering, and then tried it on his own for 5 years with a few friends, and found that too not the answer. He decided to just sit in meditation at the base of a tree and finally came to his realization. But was it just his final meditation that helped him “awaken” or all the years of yoga practice beforehand? Or perhaps his life up to the time he embarked on the homeless path also created the fertile soil which allowed his ultimate awakening to germinate? (We know virtually nothing, historically, about Siddhata prior to his leaving his family.)

Hatha Yoga is often considered the “ladder” to higher forms of practice. Like prayer, which is used in all spiritual traditions, Hatha Yoga is a tool, not a complete practice on its own. The Buddha was a yogi: by all accounts a superstar yogi too! He mastered the highest levels of samadhi that his gurus could teach him, but found that after he came out of samadhi, there was still suffering. So he looked further. He used his yogic ability to concentrate, to meditate, to help him realize his ultimate understanding. So – yes! Yoga can definitely be useful in your spiritual journey.

The question is: which Yoga? Tantra yoga is thought by many scholars to have arisen first in the Buddhist world, and was later adopted by the Hindu yogis. But Tantra is a complete practice in its own right: whereas Hatha Yoga, which evolved out of Tantra, is a ladder to wherever you want to go. It is in Tantra that the subtle body (nadis, chakras, etc) was really investigated. To a lesser degree these concepts, and some of the practices of manipulating energy, were retained by the Hatha yogis, but not to the same degrees as the tantrikas. Tantra, also, has its own theism: everything is Shakti/Shiva in various manifestations. Hatha has no such theistic view, leaving it wide open for you to add your own.

If you consider your yoga practice as a tool, much like prayer or contemplation (as the European Christian mystics practiced), then there is no problem combining yoga with your Buddhist practice. If you adopt the goals of the various yogas, like Tantra or Classical Yoga, then there is a challenge trying to meet that goal along with your Buddhist intention. The goal of Tantra is to realize Shakti/Shiva by awakening the kundalini energy. The goal of Classical yoga is videha mukti: liberation at the moment of death while in a state of nirvikalpa samadhi; to get out of the body and never have to come back to one.

But let me turn this around: Buddhist practice, especially the earliest forms such as Theravada, can also be a tool to assist one in his own chosen spiritual practice. There are many Buddhist Jews and Christians in the world! So, you could use your Buddhist practice to help you achieve the goal of Tantra Yoga, etc. If your Buddhist practice is of a later form, such as Mahayana Buddhism or Tibetan Buddhism, this becomes trickier.

The concepts of liberation, awakening, enlightenment, etc, are often used synonymously, but they are not. I like the way Stephen Batchelor puts it: if someone is awakened, ask, “Awakened to what?” If someone is liberated, ask, “Liberated from what?” If someone is enlightened, ask, “Enlightened about what?” We are all liberated from something, enlightened about something, awake to something. And no one is awake to everything, enlightened about everything or liberated from everything, not even the Buddha.

The Buddha, when asked what he was here for, said, “I teach one thing only: the ending of suffering.” To teach this, he went to great lengths to describe the causes of suffering and how to end these causes. Anatta is just one of his “realizations”. I would not say it was the main goal, as you have stated, but rather he said Anatta is one of the three marks of existence: everything shares these three characteristics: Anatta (no independent self), Anicca (impermanence) and Dukkha (unsatisfactoriness or unreliableness.) To describe these three characteristics of all life, of all existence would take more than I can write right now.

To answer your ultimate, and final question: it is okay to combine tools from different wisdom traditions as long as you clearly have the destination in mind. But we can’t head in two directions at the same time: pick one and go. (But don’t be afraid to change directions if the one chosen is not working out! Remember, “while it is nice to have an end to the journey, it is the journey that is important in the end.”)

Hope this helps,
Cheers
Bernie
Lorien
Posts: 28
Joined: Wed Mar 05, 2008 10:06 am
Location: San Jose, CA

Post by Lorien »

Wow.

This is a beautifully written response, Bernie. I would love to see you expand on it even more... maybe an article? Tools, yes, that is exactly what we are teaching and what people get stuck on (including me). Thank you.
faerrleah
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Joined: Wed Jul 07, 2010 1:47 pm

Post by faerrleah »

Yoga and Buddhism are intertwined traditions which evolved and changed through the centuries in ancient India. Buddhism and yoga, in my experience, are natural companions. These traditions bring mind, body, soul and heart into play seamlessly. I practice one as an extension of the other. Their paths are woven together of the same strands.
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