YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED: F.A.Q. 13

YOGA AND BUDDHISM

QUESTION: What is the relation between Yoga and Buddhism? I am asking this because although Buddhism is usually promoted as a distinct system, it evidently has much in common with Yoga. Also, you are saying that the Buddha himself belonged to the Yoga Tradition.

ANSWER: As often happens with truth, the truth about the nature and origins of Buddhism has been much obscured by clouds of ignorance and propaganda. Some enquirers are even convinced that Buddhism is a Chinese, Japanese or Tibetan tradition!

To begin with its country of origin. There is no doubt that Buddhism has been adopted (often as the state religion) by many Eastern nations, and that down the centuries forms of Buddhism have evolved which may be described as Chinese, Japanese or Tibetan. However, even a superficial knowledge of history will show that its roots are to be found in India, where it came into being as an offshoot of the Yoga Tradition.

According to scriptural and other historical evidence, Lord Buddha was born Siddharta Gautama, in the year 563 BC, in North India. He subsequently became known by the various titles of Shramana Shakyaputra (The Ascetic of the Shakya Clan), Tathagata (He Who Has Thus Arrived), Sugata (He Who Has Passed On To Happiness), Bhagavan (The Blessed One), and finally, the Buddha (The Awakened or Wise One). As far as Buddhism itself is concerned, it has been said by some that this tradition is somehow different from that of Yoga.

In particular, it has been claimed that the Buddha taught the non-existence of the Soul or Self. In our view, this is a gross misrepresentation of facts. Even in those times, there were some who believed in the Self and others who rejected its existence. As it often happens with great teachers, both groups attempted to use the Buddha's teachings to support their own views. As the Buddhist Scriptures were not written by the Buddha himself but by his supposed followers who lived centuries after his time, not all material that has come down to us can be accepted as the Buddha's exact words. In our search for truth we must, above all, avoid such elements of Scripture that appear to be incoherent, contradictory and elaborate, and concentrate on what is clear, simple and easy to understand.

What is certain is that the Buddha himself was not a man given to philosophical debate. When one of his disciples was asked about his Master's opinion, he replied, "My Master holds no opinion". As the eminent historian of religion Professor Mircea Eliade, has pertinently observed, the Buddha did not deny the existence of the Self but the possibility of knowing the Self through thought and discussion. Not that thinking about or discussing the nature of the Self were in and of itself something to be shunned, but it must not be indulged in - as some are inclined to do - at the expense of more direct means of knowledge such as meditation and intuition. Indeed, the Buddha's teachings on this subject may be summed up as follows: It is wrong to say that the Self is, and it is wrong to say that the Self is not; what is right is to practise diligently; for it is through practice that man becomes an Awakened One (Buddha). (It is in full agreement with the Yoga Tradition to answer complex questions either with silence or by stating that something is neither this nor that - "neti, neti" - that is to say, the object under discussion must be found in the domain of direct experience that lies beyond mental concepts and verbal articulation.)

Becoming Awakened is the key message of Buddhism and this presupposes the existence of a higher truth within ourselves (otherwise, who is to awaken to what?). The fact is that one of the Buddha's most striking statements was "Be yourself your own guiding lamp" which clearly implies the existence of at least two Selves, one that is to be guided and one that functions as a guide. Another one of his central teachings was that, upon Enlightenment, "the Self becomes one with the Supreme" (Anguttara-Nikaya, 2, 206). In other words, the Self (or Soul), far from being considered illusory, denied or rejected, is to become One with the Highest Reality and thereby become eminently Real.

Let us briefly investigate the nature and function of the Self. On strict logic, since human experience is momentary, that is, sense perceptions, emotions, thoughts and our awareness thereof arise and subside all the time, there must be a permanent, changeless principle within us, by referring to which we register change in other things (such as sense perceptions, emotions, etc.).  This principle must possess consciousness and intelligence to be aware of experiences as well as to refer these to each other and to itself. The same principle or entity must also hold within itself, and recall, the impressions of past experiences thereby providing everyday life with continuity, coherence and meaning. Even the Buddha could not have denied the logical necessity of such a permanent, changeless principle or entity.

The confusion regarding the existence or otherwise of the Self stems from the fact that the Self has various aspects. First, there is the Unborn, Self-Existing Universal Self who is, by definition, Eternal. Second, there is the individual Self (or Soul) who is permanent in the sense that it continues to exist from life to life until it merges into and becomes One with, the Universal Self. And third, what is ordinarily regarded as self, that is, the stream of experience consisting of ever-rising, ever-subsiding perceptions, emotions and thoughts, which man erroneously identifies with in everyday life. It is this mind-created, everyday self that on closer investigation proves to be impermanent and therefore "non-existent", from a higher perspective. Yet even this self, immaterial and transient though it may be, must be admitted to exist as a temporary experience even if not as a permanent reality.

The reason why the Buddha sometimes asserted that the Self did not exist was simply because he was referring to the impermanent, quasi-illusory self described above, and because he wished to force the enquirer to seek, and take refuge in, a Higher Reality: the Unborn, the Unmade, Self-Existing Supreme Truth of the Enlightened Condition (Nirvana). What is beyond doubt is that the Buddha did admit the existence of an Immortal Principle (Amarta Dhatu) which he referred to as the "Unbecome, Unborn, Unmade, Unformed", whereby in his own words, "there is escape from that which is become, born, made, and formed". Far from implying nothingness, this suggests the existence of a Transcendental Reality that lies beyond the reach of the human mind. And if such a Reality exists, then there must also be an Intelligence there to experience it.

The Dhammapada, a traditional collection of Buddha's sayings, declares: "The Sun shines by day, the Moon shines by night, the Warrior shines in his armour, the Religious Man shines in his meditation, but the Awakened One shines at all times by his (own) radiance" (387). Since a thing that does not exist can hardly be said to be Awakened, or to shine at any time or in any way, it becomes evident that an Enlightened (or Awakened) being shines by virtue of his own Conscious Self, and that the existence of this Self is implicitly admitted by the Buddha whose words the just given quotation is said by his followers to represent.

In contrast to the conventional, everyday self, the Self of Enlightenment, of Buddhahood, of Nirvana, must be Eternal as otherwise there would be no escape from the ever-changing experience of worldly existence. Now, one of the definitions of Yoga (as given in the Yoga Sutra 1:2) is "the arrest of mental fluctuations". This is precisely the definition of Buddhist Salvation: Non-Moving (Nirvana), Non-Agitation (Akshobha). Furthermore, in the days of the Buddha, Yoga was already an ancient Spiritual path and (in the Samyatta-Nikaya, 2, 106) the Buddha says, "I have seen the Ancient Way and followed it". Indeed, according to the Buddhist tradition, prior to his Enlightenment the Buddha spent six years practising with Yogis in the forest.

It is clear therefore that Yoga - the main teaching of which is the existence of an Eternal Supreme Self - is the path followed by the Buddha, and his followers were well aware of the fact that the relation between the Buddhist and Yoga tradition was one of identity in both theory and practice. So much so, that the Buddhist work Samanta-Padasika (Vin. A. pp. 145-6), for example, defines Meditation (Dhyana or Jhana, later known as Ch'an or Zen outside India) which is central to both Yoga and Buddhism, as "that by which Yogis think (or contemplate reality)". Indeed, Buddhist Scriptures frequently refer to a person who practises Meditation as "Yogi" or "Yogavachara" (One Who Practises Yoga or Walks In The Way of Yoga). Moreover, the followers of an influential Buddhist movement originated in the first centuries of the current era, called themselves "Yogachara" that is, "Followers Of The Yoga Path". This would have been unthinkable, had Yoga and Buddhism been two different and conflicting traditions.

Finally, in the Dhammapada (The Path of Righteousness), the Buddha himself says: "Through Yoga Wisdom arises; without Yoga Wisdom is lost" (282). This in itself is sufficient to establish our position. The only objection that may be raised here is that the word Yoga in Buddhist terminology may simply mean meditation. However, since meditation is the central practice of Yoga whereby, moreover, the Buddha himself attained the state of Enlightenment, any distinction between Yoga as meditation and Yoga as Spiritual Practice must be admitted to be conceptual rather than actual. As the Supreme Lord Himself declares: "Yoga is the concentration of the mind upon Me (the Supreme Reality)" (See the Shiva Purana, Vayaviya Samhita II, 10:33). In consequence, on the basis of the evidence at hand, we must regard it as an established fact that the teachings of the Buddha are essentially identical with the teachings of Yoga and that original Buddhism was not different from, but clearly belonged to, the timeless Yoga Tradition itself.

By extension, the same applies to Hinduism and related traditions (Jainism, Sikhism, etc.). It is important to remember that Yoga is a Way of Life that is inspired by the desire to live in Unity with Truth. As such, Yoga is the essence of all religious, scientific and Spiritual effort and the very foundation of all faiths. Yoga, therefore, must be admitted to be the True Religion. All other faiths are true to the extent to which they agree with Yoga and false to the extent that they disagree. Agreement or otherwise with Yoga, therefore, is the best criterion for determining the truthfulness of any faith. Since both Hinduism and Buddhism agree with Yoga, indeed, regard Yoga as the means of attaining to Truth, they must be admitted to be true. It is not mere coincidence that Yoga, Hinduism and Buddhism traditionally refer to themselves as Dharma, that is, the World-Supporting Divine Law and True Religion of which all other faiths are mere variations or digressions.

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