Way of the Yogi

The Way of the Yogi and the Way of the Bodhisattva

"And now as long as space endures, As long as there are beings found, May I continue likewise to remain to drive away the sorrows of the world." (The Way of The Bodhisattva, v. 10.55, Shantideva) Bodhi means “awake.” It is the state that Siddhārtha Gautama realized when he sat under the Bodhi Tree in a small village near the kingdom he ran away from in India and it is also the state of being which Jesus attained when he was persecuted by Pontius Pilate and the Roman Empire. It is the state of being that yogis and sadhus have attained for thousands of years in quiet contemplation in mountain caves and lean-tos by the Ganges River. The Way of the Bodhisattva and the Way of the Yogi are synonymous, as are any of the ways of great beings throughout history who have disentangled themselves from the delusions that have plagued human existence.

The Buddha followed the life of an ascetic for a while, but then developed the Middle Way after having spent a period living the life of a renunciate and finding that it brought him enlightenment no faster than when he was a privileged prince in his kingdom. He turned from the extremes of self-indulgence and self-mortification, teaching us that there are three fundamental rules about existence: First, nothing is ever lost in this Universe or any other. Matter turns to energy and vice versa. An old solar system regenerates into a new one; a pile of excrement nourishes the soil to become a future plant. Just as Jesus preached, “Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.” From a scientific perspective, we are made of the very same elements which formed our sun. This is where the Buddhist perspective of “do no harm developed.” If you destroy or kill something, you are also killing yourself, because, on the deepest level, we are all one and the same.

Secondly, all things are impermanent. In other words, everything is constantly changing. The person you are right now and the person you are after you take your next breath is different. A river flows forever onward, but the water contained within it always finds a slightly different path to the ocean. We cannot ever believe that we have everything figured out or that we are through growing. We will constantly evolve, and change, as this is the nature of the Universe. Dinosaurs once roamed the planet; plants were once large enough to swallow a human being whole. New diversity in life is found by the thousands in our rainforests every year we resist destroying them. Galileo was once executed for heresy for stating that the world wasn’t flat. Slavery was once considered a moral right. Women were once seen as lesser beings than men. Mountains crumble and turn to a field of rubble, and then are built up again. There is no stopping change.

Thirdly, is the law of karma, or cause and effect. It is very similar to Newton’s third law of physics, “for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.” The Dhammapada, a collection of versus from the Pāli Tipitaka containing 423 verses of the Buddha's essential teachings tells us, “The kind of seed sown will produce that kind of fruit. Those who do good will reap good results. Those who do evil will reap evil results. If you carefully plant a good seed, you will joyfully gather good fruit.” One can never plant apples and expect to get oranges. We will always and forever get exactly what we deserve. This is not a proclamation of punishment and reward. The Universal law of karma is neutral. An orange is not worse than an apple. But we do get exactly what we need to grow. We learn through our past karma and actions in order to become closer to the highest version of ourselves.

These same ideas are echoed in Patanjali’s yoga sutras. In sutras six through thirteen, Patanjali teaches us a similar way to reach our highest level of being, through 'focusing' (dharana), 'meditation' (dhyana) and 'absorption' (samadhi). These are some of the same tools that the Buddha used to reach his own higher awareness. Jesus also taught us in Luke 17:20 that “The Kingdom of God cometh not with observation; neither shall they say, Lo here or, lo there! for behold, the Kingdom of God is within you.” These wisdom traditions all teach the same basic truths. They point to a reality beyond the one we experience through the five senses – the ephemeral world. As a bodhisattva, as a follower of the teachings of Jesus or as a yogi, we aim to lesson the negative karma of others, but in so doing, we lessen our own. We ride the river of change that the material world forever will be and do not resist it. We realize that no action goes unnoticed in the law of the Universe just as no “thing” is wasted. Patanjali, Buddha, Jesus, and others – they are the way-showers, but we must act, finding our own way to the same truths they realized through the filters of their own culture, time and experience.

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YOGA HALE

Yoga: Sanskrit Word Meaning, to Yoke Oneself to God Hale: Hawaiian Word for House