Chapter One: What Is Yoga?

Yoga can be understood as a set of behaviors that develops a holistic experience of the body, heart, and mind. It is a process of fully inhabiting ourselves and our life in a radically engaging and inquisitive way. Through this training we develop a healthy capacity to literally take up residence in our bodies and minds, which can then lead us into simple presence. Presence is a quality of being that is open and aware. This body-mind presence serves as the ground for compassion and wisdom to emerge within us.

Although there are many branches of yoga, the philosophy can be defined as a joining or yoking (the translation of yoga) of the many seemingly opposing layers of our being—mind and body, inner with outer, activity with receptivity, subject with object—the result of which is a nondual or inclusive state of mind in which we are able to experience the challenging dualities of life without falling into dualism. Dualism is a state of mind in which we sever a piece of experience from the integral whole and subsequently see it as independent and separate.

The fruition of a committed yoga practice is the capacity to deeply relax the inner struggle with life’s paradoxes. Someone who is steeped in yoga is better able to tolerate the extremes of heat or cold, agility or immobility, sadness or joy, free from psychological confusion, resistance, or struggle. A yoga practitioner learns to question the assumption that we are separate from what we experience and must therefore strive to accumulate and hold on to that which is pleasant and comforting, while seeking to avoid and rid ourselves of that which is unpleasant, difficult, or threatening.

The path of yoga, although diverse, is a set of practices that moves us out of comfort zones in our bodies and minds, engendering the possibility of broadening our capacity for connection and inclusion. This process becomes possible by learning to dwell inside our bodies and minds with kind yet keen observance coupled with intimate participation. We learn to be fully engaged in feeling our bodies and mental states in various poses and contemplations, as well as to observe how we are responding to our moment-to-moment experience as it unfolds. A yoga practice is therefore an in-depth training in participatory observation and enhancement of the body, heart, and mind.

In body-centered yoga practices, we move our body into poses (asanas) that shape our bones and tissues into certain patterns. This helps properly move the inner animating force or energy body, aiding our natural vitality. The idea in yoga is that there is a whole universe of experience occurring in the unseen realm of existence, which is constantly influencing us. Because we cannot reach out and literally touch this aspect of life, we are often unaware of its existence, or our saturation in it. This energetic dimension, often called prana by the Indians or chi by the Chinese, animates all life.

The reason it is essential to learn about and direct this vital energy within us is because its quality and mobility through our bodies immediately impacts how we feel physically, emotionally, and mentally. Therefore, strengthening the energy body and enhancing its mobility enhances not only our health, but also our potential for deeper states of mind. For this to occur, we need to carve out regular times to practice yoga and meditation. In addition to going to classes, developing a home practice teaches us how to maintain our own interest in self-discovery. This private time spent going inward begins to ignite an attitude of inner investigation throughout our day. We start to see that yoga can be an inward journey of body-mind sensitivity during both our so-called practice time and our time spent everywhere else. It is at this point that yoga is no longer relegated to an activity we do while wearing certain clothes at the yoga center or gym, but instead becomes a living vehicle for embodied wholeness, a potent path of transformation.

Yoga as a Path of Self-Transformation
The classical term for “path” is margain Sanskrit. In Buddhist texts it refers to the way or path pointed out by the Buddha that leads to a life of awareness and an escape from the misery of a deluded existence. If we think of “home” as a state of mind free from a life wrought with despair and disconnection, then a “path” leads us home.

A path can be thought of in many ways. Buddhist scholar Stephen Batchelor often points out that it is both a noun and a verb, simultaneously meaning a clearing that allows free movement and that movement itself (as in to “path” along the clearing). As Tenzin Palmo relates in her teachings about Tibetan Buddhism, a path can also be thought of as the winding ascension up a steep mountain. As we first ascend, the climb feels steep and unforgiving; our naive enthusiasm easily wears thin and we often look for a reason to abandon our commitment altogether. We may feel unsure if we are even on the right road, wondering if we have what it takes to make the journey. And then, suddenly, we round a corner and get an unexpected glimpse of the summit. The goal is still far away, but we now know this road will lead us there.

As we “path” on our journey in search of true liberation, the clouds of forgetfulness may shroud our motivation. Still, we continue to persevere, moving along on the wings of faith that our brief glimpses of insight have given us. It is at this point that we move from an ordinary life with some yoga thrown in for health benefits to a sincere commitment to live an authentic life devoted to remaining inside awareness, whatever obstacles we may encounter. This can be thought of as a commitment to living our lives in a nonresistant flow with ourselves and the world around us. It is at this point that our “pathing” becomes yoga.

But we don’t always know where to start on the path. How do we move from taking a few yoga classes once in a while to living lives dedicated to awareness? In both Tibetan and Indian yoga we must engage in three levels of development in order to inhabit a true spiritual path. The first step engages the intellect. We must educate ourselves about self-exploration through the teachings of others, whether we hear these teachings directly (which is preferable), read about them, or both. The second step engages the mind and heart. We contemplate what we have learned, wrestling with the material by ruminating over it, continually reflecting on what makes sense to us and what provokes questions. We need to at least understand the basic tenets of a path and be intrigued by the questions it raises before we can go to the next phase. The third and final step requires a commitment of our whole being. We must sincerely take up the practices themselves, with clear understanding of their purpose, methods, and potential short- and long-term effects. An ancient yogic adage from the Upanishads sheds some light on this process: “Understanding without practice is better than practice without understanding. Understanding with practice is better than understanding without practice. Resting in our authentic nature is better than any understanding or practice.”

For all three levels to be navigated skillfully, we need to spend time with teachers. Books, while not substitutes for face-to-face experience, can be used as complementary reinforcement to help us stay on track. Finding an appropriate teacher whose language and methods are in sync with our constitution and level of development is a crucial initial stage on our path. Whether we find teachers through reading their books, hearing about them from friends, or shopping around at the local yoga and/or Buddhist center, we must eventually commit ourselves to thoroughly investigating what a particular teacher has to offer and be willing to apply his or her teachings in our own practice.

Teachers can act as invaluable guides to our own path by teaching us new ways of thinking, behaving, and being. They encourage honesty, integrity, and inquiry, while helping us deal skillfully with the obstacles we encounter, such as our inevitable physical limitations, negative emotional afflictions, and mental distortions. Teachers help us navigate stormy seas when we might easily drown on our own, and they encourage us to stay with our practice when we might otherwise give up or become distracted by and attached to accomplishments along the way. The teachers with whom we choose to spend time do not need to be fully enlightened; they just need to be a few steps ahead of us regarding the aspects of the path we are learning from them. Although we may need to abandon certain teachers and adopt others along our journey, our teachers will continue to act as our spiritual friends and mentors, helping us to deepen our capacity to listen to our own essential nature.

Yogic Cosmology
Both Indian and Chinese yogis suggest that all manifest reality stems from an unseen universal force of infinite expansiveness that is without beginning or end, a singular pulsation or unmoving center from which all action springs. It is thought of as the sum total of the universe and beyond, and it literally refers to the power behind all form. This primordial principle is referred to as Brahman by Hindus, the Tao by Taoists, and Sunyata by Buddhists. Each tradition describes this ineffable concept in unique ways, but all three agree (more or less) that the dimension of infinite energy is the genesis of creation itself and is often expressed as being seated in the human heart.

Yogic cosmology describes existence as a display of three “worlds” emanating out from the infinite expanse, or universal force. The coarsest and most obvious is the physical reality of form. It consists of everything we can know through our sense organs, including the earth and all its formations, as well as our body with its fluids and bones, tissues, organs, muscles, and skin. This manifold dimension’s underlying characteristic is change, as all things that come into being continually go through multiple metamorphoses and then ultimately dissolve. It is called the annamaya kosha(koshameans “sheath” or “layer”) and refers to our form body.

The second level of existence is our personal intermediary between the universal formless reality and our intimate experience on the physical level. This is the pranic body, which exists in a subtle, formless dimension but has a direct impact on form. It is experienced through subtle feeling (best described as an energetic, felt sense), intuition, imagination, and visualization. It is the realm of energy and cannot be understood through concrete methods of reasoning; it can only be known through direct experience. It is a kind of mental double of the physical world explored for thousands of years by inner seekers from all the wisdom traditions. This is the domain of the subtle body, sometimes called the psyche or soul, which is dependent on the physical system for the input of experience. It acts as a mediator between the physical world and the more formless abstract levels of our being. All manifest existence has this subtle double, but it is humans with our more advanced brains who can be aware of while simultaneously dwelling within this subtle body.

Developing an understanding of this energetic dimension frees us from being solely identified with the mercurial physical dimension. As we develop an awareness of the subtle body, we may start to loosen our fear-based attachment to our physical experience and begin to recognize our true estate, our essential, unbound nature. This subtle body sheath is described as having three refined layers called the pranamaya kosha (energy body), manomaya kosha (mind sheath) and vijnanamaya kosha (consciousness).

The third dimension is even more elusive than the subtle body. It is free of form, color, and gender, and it is called the anandamaya kosha, or causal body; it is a dimension of pure potential energy, the innermost source of our existence, often called the spirit. It is not quantifiable in any meaningful way but acts as a precursor to all subtle and physical form. It is a functional blueprint of all possibility. The healing modalities of Indian Ayurveda, Tibetan medicine, and Taoist Chinese medicine all stem from an understanding that  our human existence unfolds within these three dimensions.

Typically we are unaware when we begin a yoga practice that we have vast reservoirs of energy and aliveness lying dormant within us. We often assume our bodies should function well without much caring attention or proper fuel. Through a skillful yoga practice coupled with a healthy diet, we can become much healthier. Initially we will notice positive changes just by moving our body in ways we never used to, and eventually change occurs because we become more attuned to our breathing, energy rhythms, mind states, and innermost potential.

As we develop a yoga practice involving postures, breath work, and meditation, understanding some principles of Taoism and Chinese medicine can help deepen our relationship with ourselves in our daily practice. My personal experience on the yogic path became much more meaningful as I began to understand the intersection between yoga, Chinese medicine, and Buddhism.

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