Mentioned in this Article:
The Inner Tradition of Yoga: A Guide to Yoga Philosophy for the Contemporary Practitioner
by Michael Stone
Shambhala, 2008
Introduction to Emptiness: As Taught in Tsong-Kha-Pa’s Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path
by Guy Newland
Snow Lion, 2009 (Revised Edition)
Buddhism and yoga share goals of freedom. Buddhism has the goal of nirvana which is similar to Rāja Yoga’s goal of nirodha—both of which find expression in the concept of śūnyatā (emptiness). How we balance discipline in practice and application of theory through the perspective of emptiness is key to success.
After briefly exploring the notion of the “Absolute” in Abrahamic religions, Patañjali and Buddhism, Michael Stone notes in his book, The Inner Tradition of Yoga, that one of yoga’s strengths is its relative freedom from systematization:
Yoga seems to move within all these traditions quite comfortably since Patañjali, as an example, and also texts such as the Yoga Vāsişţa and Hatha Yoga Pradīpika, use language purposely borrowed from other traditions in a way that asks the practitioner to move beyond the doctrine of systems in order to see what those traditions are pointing toward. The yogi does not look toward her practices as metaphors of consolation, and in this sense we would call Patañjali’s approach toward reality an agnostic one. Standing on the threshold of imagination but firmly planted in present experience, the yogi is concerned with freeing the mind and responding to present circumstances without self-created entrapments. In an increasingly interconnected world, we come to see that yoga is everywhere and everything and that the human being is compassion. (Stone, 167-168)
Stone recognizes, however, that this outlook isn’t without its problems and possible complications:
The shadow of such a viewpoint is that there is no systematized approach to teaching, and many people simply turn yoga into whatever they want, leading to a self-styled practice that does not avoid the ego’s tricks and games. (Stone, 168)
Naturally, a kind of wisdom needs to be present in order to bridge the “flexibility” of yoga’s outlook with the discipline of systematic practice. Stone points to the term śūnyatā (emptiness) as the common tool that both Buddhism and yoga can use to bridge this divide:
We use the form of the posture to experience śūnyatā, boundlessness. Śūnyatā is freedom beyond the reach of karma, a body beyond the reach of preference, movement without self-image. Isn’t the experience of being alive in a body at all the the most mysterious and ineffable experience we can know? (Stone, 182)
Stone’s description of emptiness is in accord with Buddhist descriptions such as that found in Guy Newland’s Introduction to Emptiness:
It [emptiness] is the lack of the exaggerated and distorted kind of existence that we have projected onto things and onto ourselves [. . .] We can think of emptiness as like the clear, blue sky—a transparent space that is wide open. In that way, our empty natures mean there is no limit to what we can become. We are not blocked, obstructed or tied down. (Newland, 7)
Postural yoga’s śūnyatā is the opening up of the physical body to wider expression in the world, but śūnyatā is also a tool in to recursively avoid reification of ourselves into the “I.” When we begin to fixate on our concepts and labels—whether it is “me”, “Brahman”, or even “Buddhism” or “Yoga”—we can we can recursively and repeatedly apply the Upanisadic emptiness filter expressed as neti, neti (not this, not that). In this way, we avoid identification with things that hinder our development and broader expression.
Stone, like other yoga practitioners and Buddhists, sees practice in both postural yoga and meditation as critical to freedom. But Stone also sees theory—such as that presented by Patañjali and in Buddhist teachings—as a key complement to the goal of waking up.
When practice and theory go together seamlessly and our insights are continually tested out in real life, our waking up is practical and ongoing. This is called prajñā (wisdom). (Stone, 171)
The challenge, then, is for yogins—yogis and Buddhists—to find the balance of theory, postural yoga and meditation to attain freedom. At the same time the challenge is to find discipline in practice while avoiding self-styled approaches that may lead to egoic entrapment. We must help each other find the best tools to achieve freedom and awakening, while also realizing that any systems we employ may require modification and change in order to remain relevant to different times and situations. Emptiness teaches us that the ultimate Dharma, after all, is No-Dharma.
© 2010 Yoga Buddhist.