I grabbed a pillow and went into the little room with walls painted green. There were several others there: two older gentlemen (I'd estimate that both are in their 70s), a man in his late 20s or 30s, and a gal in her 30s with long black hair and bangs. She seemed to be running the show. My two friends and I arranged our pillows on the floor, joining the circle, and then sat down. I didn't really know what to expect; Emili invited us to this Meetup she had stumbled upon, and I came mostly to be sociable.
The Meetup was called "Yoga Sutra Cafe." Simply put, a "sutra" is an aphorism. Literally, it means "a thread that holds things together" (think "sew" or "suture"). So, although sutras are short sentences that seem to be able to stand alone, they are meant to be understood in the context of a body of sutras. The yoga sutras were compiled and ordered by a guy named Patanjali during the second century B.C., and they serve as the scripture of yoga. So yes...I basically went to a yoga Bible study.
We began with some chanting in Sanskrit, a first for me. Dara, our leader, told us that the meanings of the words were unimportant, but rather the sounds and vibrations themselves were the point of the chanting. I tried to pay close attention to the sounds, and they were very beautiful, but I felt a bit cheated when I found out the meaning of the words. I had not wanted to say that I bowed to Patanjali, but I'm comforted knowing that with my pronunciation, I probably didn't actually say it.
After the chanting, Dara gave a review of the first 11 sutras (there are 196) for us newbies, and that took up the rest of the time.
The more I learn about yoga (and consequently, Buddhism), the more I'm amazed at how much truth it has to offer. A year ago I was wondering whether or not I should pursue yoga more deeply, fearing for my spiritual welfare. I did some research, and although I concluded that yogic philosophy is not spiritually neutral, as it claims to be, I felt comfortable taking a teacher training. During my teacher training, much of the mystery and weirdness of yogic tradition was cleared, and I actually found value in much of it. I discovered that Buddhism was not crazy (I didn't really believe it was before, I just didn't have the knowledge to know that it wasn't). In fact, most of its teachings are identical to the teachings of the Bible, and the concepts that are not identical are similar.
The difference between Buddhism and Christianity that makes all the difference in the world is the belief about the fundamental state of man. Buddhists believe that the world is not broken, but only appears broken. There is only goodness and light and everything is as it should be, but our personal badness or the badness of the world is the result of our lack of knowledge or misunderstanding of the knowledge we have. It's like we're looking into a shattered mirror and believe that the brokenness we see is the reality, when in fact we're not broken, but are completely whole.
Christians believe that there is no mirror, and the brokenness we see is the reality. To say that something is broken implies that it used to be whole, and that is the way it was intended to be. In a broken world, everything, including every person, is infected with a brokenness that we call sin. The goodness we see in people and the world is the remnant of the way things used to be, the way things are supposed to be.
For me, yoga is one of those things that is not completely correct, it's a bit broken, just like the rest of the world, but I see so many shards of goodness and truth shining through it. I'm not sure where I'm going with this...all I know is that knowledge is power (and conversely, ignorance is the root of fear). The more I learn, the freer and more confident I feel that I can be a Christian and practice yoga.
4 comments:
thank you for this, rachel.
nice conclusions.
I agree that the question of whether man (and the world in general) is basically good or basically evil is a fundamental one. However, I would argue that that is not the only crucial difference between Bhuddism and Christianity. Each worldview would answer the following questions very differently: "Who is God?", "Who is Jesus?", "What is the purpose of man?", and "What happens to people after they die, and how is that decided?"
I agree, Elisabeth, the state of man and the world (as good or evil) is not the only crucial difference. I do, though, think that so much of Christianity and Buddhism stem from the answer to this question. So many people begin considering the big questions of human existence because they see brokenness in the world and they want to know why. I also think that longing for purpose and knowing what happens when people die drive people to consider big questions.
It is difficult to compare the two religions when it comes to God and Jesus. Clearly, Buddhists are not terribly interested in Jesus. But neither are they so concerned as we with the supreme power that we know as God and they know as the Universe. I think a better question would be "what is the relationship between people and the supreme power?"
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