Yoga in Budhism

Going by the history and evolution of Buddhism over the years, as well as the spread of Yoga through the religion, it would be safe to say that the first teachings of Yoga in Buddhism were provided by Lord Buddha himself. In sermons to his disciples, Lord Buddha stressed on the intense meditative aspect of Yoga. In fact, the followers of Buddhism took care to assimilate the teachings of pranayam in their lives. But even while yogic teachings became almost imperative in this religion, one almost never comes across the term ‘Yoga’ anywhere in its history, except perhaps for the tantric Buddhism that was born later, in Tibet.

One of the reasons for this conspicuous lack of absence of the term ‘Yoga’ in Budhism could be that the followers of Buddhism, and Lord Buddha himself did not quite concur with many of its other teachings. For instance, unlike in Yoga where the aim is to attain the ultimate meditative state, Buddhism differs by saying that the ‘even the ultimate meditative state is not liberating’. According to them, the pinnacle of meditative state is reached only when a mental recognition of some manner follows it.

Similarly, Buddhists believed that a practitioner of Yoga reached liberation or attained salvation not at his death, but instead this state of salvation should come during his lifetime. Yogic beliefs, on the other hand, say that a yogi is ‘free’ when he reaches death while in his meditative state.

One branch of Buddhism that Yoga seems to have influenced the most is Yogacara Buddhism. ‘Yogacara’ is a Sanskrit term meaning ‘one whose practice is Yoga’. Part of the Mahayana school of Buddhism, Yogacara Buddhism functions on the principle that everything that humans experience is, in reality, meditated by the mind. This form of Buddhism took roots in India between the 4-5th centuries. It believes in practicing Yoga in order to break free from the material world.

As per the tenets of Yogacara Buddhism, human beings perceive the world in three different ways, namely, Parikalpita or imaginary nature. In this case, human beings make erroneous perceptions, based on their attachments. The second is Paratantra or Dependent Nature. Here, human beings have a correct perception of everything that has developed dependently. The third is Parinispanna or absolute nature, where men perceive objects of this world as they truly are.

Yet another form of Buddhism is Zen or Ch’an Buddhism, as it is referred to in Chinese. This school of Buddhism is also known to be heavily influenced by Yoga. In fact, in terms of meditative states, Zen and Yoga are at times, considered parallel.

The Indo-Tibetan form of Buddhism also attaches great importance to yogic teachings. Several branches of this form of Buddhism take inspiration from Yoga. These include the Nyingma tradition of Indo-Tibetan Buddhism that divides meditative Yoga into nine insightful paths. Apart from this, other forms of this branch of Buddhism practice about 108 yogic postures.