Yoga and the Dharma
Posted Apr 5, 2009 by PaulYoga is in many ways a sister tradition of Dharma. They share similar roots in the Indian tradition of liberation and exploration of body, mind and our relationship to the world.
Both traditions have also had to endure an axing of indispensable limbs. Contemporary hatha yoga has tended to become cut off from the depths and expanse of the wider yoga tradition. The same criticism can be applied to insight meditation (vipassana) with its emphasis on sitting meditation or sitting/walking meditation as being at the heart of the dharma teachings and practices. There is not only a neglect of samatha or deep absorption (jhana) meditations but also of inquiry into the way of life of the dedicated dharma practitioner and uncovering of ultimate truth. The narrow focus on hatha yoga or vipassana meditation reveals a significant blind spot that needs to be addressed. This article explores the depth and expanse of inquiry found in the Yoga tradition and its relationship with Dharma.
This occurs as all effort relaxes and coalescence arises revealing that the body and the infinite universe are indivisible.
Then one is no longer disturbed by the play of opposites.” Yoga-Sutra of Patanjali. Chapter 2. Verses 46-48 (translated by C. Hartranft)
Patanjali acknowledged the value of hatha yoga but clearly did not give the asanas (yogic postures) a central place. In fact asana traditionally meant the seat, mat or cushion used for meditation. The yogi sits cross-legged in a state of utter stillness with the posture firm and upright enabling her or him to experience oneness and subtle bodily sensations. Hatha yoga is an excellent training for stillness in the sitting meditation posture. However, we live in an age where this preparatory training has become reified at the expense of the rich tradition of yoga with its ultimate aim to free us from our limitations. We have neglected the richness of both yoga and vipassana traditions through the inflation of the significance of mere features of exploration. Lovers of both traditions deserve more than what is on offer. The contemporary practice of yoga and insight meditation are both in need of revolutionary change and can inform each other in doing so.
To put it bluntly, yoga is far more than stretching. Yoga needs to expand its depth of exploration from its current restricted view excluding reflection and inquiry and mostly concentrating on posture and relaxed awareness at the exclusion of much else. Where will this change come from? Yoga classes are found in most towns and cities in the West but where are the yogis? For yoga teachers to expand their remit rather than confine yoga to hatha yoga would require them to look deeply into the full practice of yoga and to make full use of the teachings of Patanjali.
Even if yoga teachers may be ready to embark on such a dialogue they may wonder if their students are ready to listen, to question, to explore and become yogis 24/7. I have the opportunity to meet with dedicated practitioners of yoga and insight meditation and I do meet many who are ready to make the leap into a yogi way of life with its quiet, sustained disciplines and round the clock commitment to inquiry into every area of their life.
In his Yoga-Sutra (Chapter 3. Verses 24), Patanjali borrows from the Buddha’s teaching, listing the Four Divine Abidings (Brahma Viharas) of love, compassion, appreciative joy and equanimity to remind yogis that their practice includes a real engagement with the world.
The same principle applies to practitioners of insight meditation. Indeed Dharma teachers, including myself, often refer to the practitioners on retreats as ‘yogis’ – a useful and appropriate label during the time of the retreat. The yogis stay in a small room either alone or with others, with only a handful of clothes that they brought with them. Food is generally simple, e.g. porridge for breakfast, a vegetarian lunch, and bread, condiments and tea in the evening, including herbal tea (pronounced horrible tea in Hindi!). There is formal meditation practice from around 5.30 am to 22.00 in the four postures, an hour after breakfast for karma yoga (a work period for service to the retreat centre) and observation of the disciplines and austerities of the day such as silence, stillness and maintaining sustained presence free from desire. Thus the practitioner has the experience for a weekend, weeklong or longer of living as a dhyana yogi, a yogi of meditation. Ideally, the same basic lifestyle applies to residential yoga retreats.
Some Buddhist centres and Yoga centres, however, have upgraded the quality of their centres to a level not far removed from 4-star hotels with a daily rate to reflect these upmarket facilities. To pay for these, and for the salaries of those who manage them (who may or may not be interested in practice), ensures that only the better off can afford such retreats unless one goes cap in hand for a scholarship. In such places, it might be better to describe the yogis as hotel guests. When people (as sometimes happens) send to a centre in advance a list of their personal requirements, demand their own room, and bring their laptop, i-Pod, Blackberry and lavish meditation equipment, then the commitment to the fullness of the yoga/dharma tradition has surely faded into the past.
Most retreats have a closing talk encouraging yoga or meditation practice in daily life. Many yogis leave retreats trying to apply such valuable practices, morning and evening, in daily life. Some are blessed with such a discipline but others find their practice simply falls apart and fades away soon after returning home. It is a constant concern of practitioners, but reflects the over-emphasis on formal practice. The yoga of daily life and the dharma of daily life embraces every single feature of our existence, while yoga and meditation teachers too often give the impression to the practitioners that yoga is asanas and dharma is meditation. Neither the Buddha nor Patanjali subscribed to this narrow and limited view.
Benefits of Hatha Yoga
There is a vast network of yoga practitioners attending evening classes, weekend workshops, yoga retreats and embarking on yoga training courses. Yoga offers enormous health benefits contributing to the release of flows of healing energy, muscle co-ordination, poise, presence, deep relaxation, purification and a real sense of well being. Through the range of asanas, the mind grounds itself in the body enabling a genuine integration of being to take place. Practitioners of yoga can expand their pain horizons by allowing themselves to settle into a posture for extended moments to stretch out the cells, and to relax into the posture before mindfully and slowly moving out of it. Hatha yoga contributes to harmony of body and mind – yoga means to “join together” and is related to the English word “yoke” – that which joins the ox to the plough. This is the great strength of hatha yoga. Pranayama (prana – energy, yama – discipline) exercises, primarily in the form of application of breathing techniques, bring oxygen deep into cellular life to suffuse physical existence with the air element offering revitalisation and renewal to the whole being.
It is common, and appropriately so, for those who practice hatha yoga also to adopt a vegetarian diet, with a total absence of animals, birds and fish. Meat is superfluous to a balanced diet and is probably more harmful that beneficial for both health and humanitarian considerations. Animals sent to the abattoirs for execution experience high levels of stress and the diet and injections given to cows, sheep, pigs, chickens bear little relationship to their natural diet. Seas and rivers are polluted penetrating the cells of fish. Human beings then eat the harmful consequences. Fish stock in the ocean is desperately low. People may choose to be vegetarian for health reasons, out of compassion for animals, to make a contribution for a sustainable world, or with all three intentions.
The combination of regular hatha yoga, pranayama exercises and a vegetarian diet (with low sugar, low salt and low chemical input) contributes significantly to the welfare of adults and children and makes us far less likely to contract the three scourges of Western life – cancer, heart disease and diabetes, especially if we have no genetic predisposition towards these diseases. The discipline of yoga has a fine track record in safeguarding practitioners from illness triggered by lack of exercise and a poor diet. Yoga also enables prana to flow freely and effortlessly for enduring health. In an intelligent society, yoga, pranayama , meditation and wholefood vegetarian diet [you can get veg food in schools & offices but may be high in fat and not very healthy] would be available in every classroom, school, university, factory and office leading to a dramatic saving in health care costs for young and old alike. Yet governments, medical science and the pharmaceutical industry, as well as the strict adherents to the three Middle Eastern religions, generally dismiss yoga and meditation, despite the health and cost benefits.
The Buddhist world also needs to sit up and take notice of the tradition of hatha yoga and a vegetarian diet. There is a woeful absence and ongoing neglect of physical exercise in most of contemporary Buddhism, East and West. In the long standing past, the followers of the Buddha lived a homeless, nomadic way of life for nine months a year making long walks (yatras) up and down hills, through the jungle and in the flat regions, rarely spending more than a few days in each place. Yatras kept the wanderers fit and lean. As time went by, these free and independent spirits gradually faded in numbers. Spiritual seekers took on a uniform (formal robes) and began to settle permanently in the communal homes (monasteries) that householders had built for them for the rainy season. They secured their own hut (a kind of rent free bedsit), abandoned yatras or other exercises, and ate meat, since by offering this most expensive food item to monks, householders believed they made more merit. Not surprisingly, today far too many monks have health problems through a sedentary way of life and suffer from a real lack of knowledge and practice around posture, diet and energy. Only a few Buddhist monks between the various traditions are vegetarian.
Although the Buddha took a tolerant view towards meat eating, it is extremely unlikely that as a wandering ascetic himself, dependent on alms food, he or his practitioners ate any meat since householders throughout India assumed, and still do, that all mendicants would be vegetarian. He also protested about the Brahmin Puritanism around diet. He certainly made little reference to exercise other than to extol the value of sitting, walking, standing and reclining. (The very slow, meditative walking up and down is an aspect of formal meditation practice).
The Buddha expounded on the Noble Eightfold Path of Right (meaning Complete, Fulfilling) View, Right Intention, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, Right Concentration. We need to explore every link for clarity, comprehension and insight, but there is in the Buddhist tradition a grossly exaggerated emphasis on the last two links of the path and associated meditation practices. You could be forgiven for thinking that the Buddha taught a one-fold path or two-fold path.
Yoga practitioners with their wise approach to the body through hatha yoga, formal breathing exercises and diet should not however extol themselves in comparison to narrow Buddhist practices. Yoga teachers and practitioners can learn from the Buddha, who also placed much emphasis on our direct experience of the body and our relationship to it, though he adopted a different approach than hatha yoga. In the celebrated Satipatthana Sutta (Applications of Mindfulness), he endorsed a direct and sustained meditation on the body in six areas.
1. Breathing
2. Four postures
3. Bodily movements and functions
4. Parts of the Body
5. Four elements
6. The Corpse
The Buddha pointed to a direct way to see the body as body rather than as “I,” “me” or “mine” and thus revealed the way to immediate liberation from grasping onto the body as “self.”
Speaking to a group of men, devoted to his teachings, who were living a nomadic way of life, he said: “In this way, he abides contemplating the body as a body, internally or he abides contemplating the body as a body externally or both internally and externally. He contemplates the nature of arising or the nature of passing or the nature of both arising and passing. Or else mindfulness that “there is a body” is simply established to the extent necessary for bare knowing and prolonged mindfulness. And he abides independent (anussito – literally not leaning upon) anything in the world. (see Christopher’s Dharma blog for Pali/English translation of this important refrain).
The Buddha gave tremendous encouragement to turn full attention to the bare characteristics of bodily life so as to realise clearly and comprehensively the body as simply phenomena arising and passing until we are free from all attachments and clinging to the body. This does not imply any neglect of the body. A wise relationship to the body includes postures, diet, and care for the body as an expression of organic life and as our vehicle for practice, understanding and liberation.
All six ways listed above confirm the body as not me, not myself, not who I am. Bodily movement and functions include eating, drinking, defacating, urinating, waking up, talking and keeping silent. Parts of the body include hair of the head, hair of the body, bones, kidneys, contents of stomach, faeces, blood, sweat, snot and urine. This aspect for the practitioner serves as a reminder to meditate on asubha (literally – not beautiful) parts of the body. Such a yogic practice dissolves the obsession and infatuation with physical beauty and its presence or absence in oneself or another. The practitioner also turns his or attention to the four elements – earth, air, heat and water that constitute the physical make up of the whole body. Earth is the material element or the sensation of hardness. Air is found in the breath and in wind. Heat is found in temperature – feeling hot, cold or warm. Water is found in blood, sweat and tears. Finally, there is meditation on the corpse in different levels of disintegration such as the bloated corpse, the corpse devoured by birds, the skeleton and a body that has become a handful of bones. “This body too is of the same nature. It will be like that. It is not exempt from that fate,” commented the Buddha. The practice of the yogi, whether in the tradition of yoga or of dharma, is to know and see this clearly.
“Knowing” the body in a clear and comprehensive way puts an end to the projections, obsessions and suffering associated with the body and its appearance whether of oneself or another. In the Kayagata Discourse, the Buddha gave a simile of the mindfulness necessary. He said it is like a man carrying a bowl full of oil on top of his head who sees a beautiful woman singing and dancing surrounded by a crowd. Walking behind him is another man with a sword ready to cut off his head if he spills a drop of oil while watching the beautiful woman. Beauty can be appreciated but it is not worth gushing over.
Both Yoga teachers and insight meditation teachers need to bring these straightforward practices into the teachings far more clearly. There is much self delusion about the body, including immersion in sexual fantasies and habits that distort clarity and corrupt love. We fall into the trap of spending enormous sums of money on the body to feel good about ourselves and to impress others through clothes, perfume, jewellery, cosmetics and other accessories, as well as the fad of tattoos. Are we simply becoming slaves to the clothes/cosmetic industry or are we moderate, if not frugal, with appearance, decoration and expenditure? Are we a consumer or a yogi?
A tormented ruler, King Ajattsatu of Maghada (in the region of Bodh Gaya) had murdered his father to gain access to the throne. On meeting with the Buddha, the king wanted to know what the point was in adopting a wandering yogi (samana in Pali language) way of life. Never one for watering down the dharma teachings, the Buddha spelt out his outlook to King Ajattasatu. He told the king of the “contentment” of those who intentionally live a simple lifestyle. “Just as a winged bird flies wherever it needs to fly with its wings, as its only burden, in exactly the same way, wherever he needs to go, an ascetic can just go taking these basic items. It is in this way that such a person is content.”
When yoga and meditation becomes an activity to feel good and look good, it becomes far removed from the original spirit of either tradition, a very pale shadow of its liberating significance. In the most celebrated of all yoga discourses, Patanjali points to the eight limbs of yoga as the way of life of the yogi.
1. Yama - Outer restraint through non-violence, non stealing, acting in a divine way (Brahmacharya) and non-attachment. (note that the name of the Lord of Death is Lord Yama, so restraint here points to the death of the unhealthy ego.
2. Niyama – inner restraint that contributes to purity of heart, contentment, austerity, study of the self and letting go.
3. Asana – hatha yoga.
4. Pranayama – breath exercises
5. Pratyahara – capacity to keep the mind from running to the senses and subsequent self indulgence
6. Dharama - concentration on what matters
7. Dhyana – meditation
8. Samadhi - total unification and experience of Oneness.
As with the living body, each limb gives support to the other limbs as inter-connected activities. In the West, far too many yoga teachers have severed some limbs of yoga and retained only the asanas, pranayama and perhaps a little meditation. The first two llmbs have often been quietly marginalised so that far too many yoga teachers cater for those with little or no interest in the yama, niyama, and the dissipation of the desires that lead to abuse of the senses. . We have become beggars at the sense doors. Beggars, rich and poor, can never stop their wanting from the world. We have becomes slaves to the demands of the mind. Yoga, yoga, everywhere – but where are the yogis?
Again there is a certain parallel with the Buddhist tradition. In the sutta on all the taints (Middle Length Discourses, 2nd sutta) the Buddha told the dedicated practitioners that seclusion, dispassion and relinquishment support all the limbs of awakening, namely mindfulness dharma inquiry, happiness, joy, calmess, concentration, energy and equanimity. He added that vexation and fever arise in those who do not develop the limbs of awakening.
Ethics, virtue, love, letting go and appreciation of seclusion from the blind pursuit of pleasure all contribute to access to the seven limbs. The Buddha said running after pleasure to get gratification is behaving like a wild, crazy animal running in one direction after another instead of being firmly established in a centred mindfulness. Sadly, the neglect of total commitment to awakening and what supports the limbs means that realisation of liberation and the emptiness of self become inaccessible. Mindfulness/meditation and yoga then share something in common. Although they are practised at home, in workshops or retreats, the practitioners have failed to apply themselves fully to the other limbs as pointed out by the Buddha or Patanjali.
During my earliest period as a Buddhist monk, I received training in yoga from Sri. Suryragama in Thailand in the early 1970s. He gave me a thorough training to be a yoga teacher and wanted me to start teaching yoga in the Thai monasteries to give support to the practice of the monks and nuns. I eventually approached my Abbot about teaching yoga to help the monks with posture, uprightness and poise. The Abbot dismissed my proposal with the words: “Hinduism.” I continued my yoga practice in my hut. Some years later when I became a dharma teacher, I taught a yoga class to the meditators for the first hour of the new day as part of their daily practice of harmony of body and mind.
We can’t lay all the responsibility for the decline in the number of real yogis on yoga teachers since they have often developed their skills (and the limits of them) from teachers trained in the East or whose teachers trained in the East. Fortunately, however, there are many true yoga teachers who live the life of the yogi – with restraint, quiet discipline, very modest charges or donations, and selfless service to others. I know many yoga teachers whose way of life is dedicated to yoga and abide undemanding on the world. Such teachers are genuine yogis who keep to the spirit and letter of the yoga/dharma tradition. There is a liberating wisdom in the yogi way of life that is inspirational and insightful.
True yogis, including teachers and students of yoga/dharma, have no interest at all in an opulent lifestyle or to make a career out of yoga for personal status or a significant income. They may live alone or with others, live a celibate life or be in a relationship, be a parent or childless, live in the middle of a huge city or in a remote rural environment. They may or may not find it difficult to make ends meet but there is the strong spirit of the yogi about them. The modestly of such a way of life can remain hidden from others. They remain dedicated to the yogi way of life. They are the unsung heroes of the yoga tradition. It is a privilege to know such yoga teachers who stay true to the eight limbs of Patanjali,
Some of these teachers tell me they hesitate to introduce the eight limbs of the Yoga tradition or other prominent features of yoga in direct and practical ways into their classes. For example, there is a fear that yoga practitioners might object to any inquiry into the yamas and niyamas that would require them to examine every area of their lifestyle. Some yoga practitioners may be ready to explore all eight limbs of the Patanjali Sutra or an equivalent inquiry into liberation; it is a great pity not to offer them this opportunity.
In the Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 6:16-18), Krishna stresses the importance of Yoga. “Yoga is not for those who eat too much or too little. But for those who are moderate in eating, sleeping, wakefulness, recreation, and moderate in all their actions. Yoga will bring an end to all sorrow. Those who have learned to discipline their mind and remain calmly established, free from attachment to all desires will attain to (the final) Yoga.”
There are Five Primary Yogas for exploration constituting a yogi way of life with the ongoing interest in awakening of the whole being to liberation.
1. Bhakti Yoga
2. Dhyana Yoga
3. Karma Yoga
4. Jnana Yoga
5. Tantric Yoga
The teachings of Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita offer many profound verses on the application of yoga to daily life. Patanjali’s Yoga-Sutra and the Gita need to be on every yogi’s bookshelf just as every Dharma practitioner should have a copy of Middle Length Discourses on his or her shelf.
1. Bhakti Yoga – the Yoga of Devotion. The ordinary mind that worships God, seeks God’s help – for forgiveness, for prayers to be answered, for events to work out well, for a better life, The yogi of devotion experiences a different relationship to the ‘Supreme.’ He or she desires to offer up their life for the Supreme - meaning That which is greater than themselves. To find the Supreme requires a letting go of the finite, the measurable and the limited in whatever way it manifests, inwardly or outwardly. The strength and intensity of devotion can help dissolve the anguish, pain and regrets of a foolish and blameworthy past. There is no easy escape route from the harmful behaviour of the past. The bhakti yogi does not require a belief in a personal God. When our whole being remains steadfastly focussed on the Supreme then the bhakti yogi finds a rightful balance in working with and accommodating the world of change, of impermanence and relativity. Some find comfort in the God language, especially when we strip the word God of its bizarre religious beliefs and wisely sense God as immensity. Others remain totally devoted to the Dharma, the teachings and practices for liberation. Others express devotion through mindfulness, meditation, care and sensitivity to themselves and others. Others have great devotion to the now and trust in presence and others remain devoted to a vision of a free way of life.
2. Dhyana Yoga - the Yoga of Meditation. Meditation falls into two primary categories: first to be clear and wise about the appearances of the constructible and destructible, whether sentient or insentient, and second, to be clear and wise about the reality of the Unconstructible and the Indestructible that has no colour, sounds, smell, taste, touch or inner formation yet is knowable – as colour is known to a person with good eyesight or the effortless knowing that the hand is connected to the arm. Meditation includes the formal posture, application of mindfulness and reflection on circumstances to see clearly into events. “The thoughts of the undecided, the irresolute and the wavering are many branched and endless” warns Krishna (Bhavagad Gita Chapter 2. Verse 41). The meditative yogi knows that happiness and contentment are found within, dispels loneliness and finds inner peace. Kundalini Yoga (the Yoga of Coiled Power) refers to the energy that lies dormant at the base of the spine that releases in some forms of meditation to enable significant levels of energy and bliss to emerge. Dhyana yoga engages in the resources of silence and stillness so that the heart/mind enters into a state of natural samadhi (deep unification). The dhyana yogi lives in a harmonious and integrated way, free from stress, the pressure of longing and has the capacity, to treat alike pleasure and pain, gain and loss, victory and defeat. Peace of mind allows for natural joy overcoming abuse of the senses.
3. Karma Yoga – the Yoga of Action. This essentially means the employment of wise and compassionate action in the world contributing the transformation of the inner and outer life. Service to others, to animals and the environment clearly denote expressions of karma yoga. Karma yoga reveals itself as a sacrifice, a renunciation of areas of self interest out of consideration for others. The karma yogi does not feel bound to action while recognising the potential for realisation through direct action. Such a yogi expresses his or her freedom through not being dependent on the results of action, whether foreseen or unforeseen. The karma yogi believes in action without harbouring desire for personal reward whether name and fame, power or personal wealth. Those who set standards for karma yoga inspire others to follow in their footsteps. It is not surprising that men and women we revere over the centuries have engaged in the yoga of action, regardless of the personal cost to themselves. The karma yogi who lives in a state of self delusion believes that “I am the doer.” In such a belief, the doer becomes identified with the doing and the results of what is done. This often leads to inflation of the ego, disappointment, despair and collapse of a vision. An authentic yogi sees the emptiness of the claim “I am a doer.” Others may attribute the karma yogi with engaging in great actions, in worthwhile deeds, but the yogi declines to grasp onto himself as an agent nor get caught up in the effects of action, whether intended or unintended consequences. There is simply the yoga of action.
4. Jnana Yoga. (Yoga of Knowledge). There is a body of unfolding knowledge handed down through the sages and the sacred texts for countless generations that serve to transform consciousness rather than inform the mind. Yoga of knowledge is not a new form of knowledge, such as science might claim before superseding it with another new form of knowledge. Sages, past, present and future, expound a knowledge to liberate human beings from the poisons of the mind, such as greed, hostility and fear, and awaken us to truth and a steadfast reality. Knowledge becomes true knowledge when it makes a real difference to our lives. Prior to then, the jnana yogi treats knowledge as information. Intuitive perceptions, insights, fruit bearing reflections, the emergence of understanding and the range of realisations, as well as knowing the depths of conventional and spiritual experiences, constitute the abiding interest of the jnana yogi. The true jnani has accomplished everything. There is nothing more than needs to be done. He or she knows non-action in action and action in non-action. He or she has let go of action and equally let go of inaction. Echoing the words of the Buddha, Krishna said in the Gita that the jnana yogi knows contentment since such a yogi lives without dependency. “He (she) does nothing though ever engaged in action.”
5. Tantra Yoga (Yoga of Tantra). Tantric Yoga belongs to a long standing Indian tradition with records dating back to the third or fourth century CE or earlier. Tantra embraces mystery, the esoteric, the arts, poetry, dance, theatre, creativity, sexuality, sensuality, religious rituals, discourses and a range of esoteric teachings. Tantra derives from a Sanskrit word “tan” – to expand or to weave (among its meanings]. The Tantric yogi explores the wise application of creative passion and intimacy serving as the material for awakening and liberation. Women and men have an equal engagement in Tantra. Tantra encourages exploration of consciousness outside of the box of the usual restrictive religious institutions, There is an orthodoxy found in much of Hatha Yoga and Mahayana or Theravada Buddhism that Tantric yogis have moved away from. The Tantric guru can play a prominent role in Tantra for the yogi whose heart wishes to open itself up to the mysterium tremendum. (Unfortunately the warped-minded purveyors of Tantric sex exploit a profound tradition for their own narcissistic ends, in what is perhaps the most crude of all examples of the tearing off one limb of a tradition at the expense of the other limbs of Tantra yoga.) True Tantric yogis endeavour to bring together the wealth and diversity of human experience, the heavens and the hells. All such experiences are transformed into the realm of Dharma. The adept practices of the Tantric yogi harness the energies of his or her subtle body so they enter into the fullness of participation and union with what is revealed near and far. Tantra transforms ordinary mortals into Gods and Goddesses. It is said of the authentic Tantric yogi: “The yogi goes about his own life while the world looks upon him laughing, reproaching and with contempt. The yogi wanders in different guises – acting sometimes like dignified person, like a vargrant or like a demon.” (Kularnava Tantric text).
Whether primarily a dharma practitioner or yoga practitioner, we establish ourselves as genuinely embodied yogis through the daily application of the Eight limbs of Patanjali or the Buddha’s Noble Eightfold Path and/or the Five Primary Yogas. We need to establish in the West a much greater network of dedicated yogis fully committed to total liberation, the dissolution of materialism and utter indifference to the pursuit of personal status. The yogi values simplicity over complexity, sustainability over fashion, austerity over consumption, discipline over desire, love over lust and compassion over pity. The life of the yogi reveals a conscious liberation from the superficiality, neurotic values and violence of Western society. The yogi lives a noble way of life. There is no real substitute.
May all beings explore the disciplines and exploration of the tradition of the Yogi
May all beings explore the disciplines and exploration of the tradition of Dharma
May all being live a free and liberated life.
Extracted from a talk by Christopher Titmuss
