“When we say ‘naljor’, which is the Tibetan
word for yoga, we are referring to a path that opens up the ‘wealth of being
natural’. In India or in Tibet, we
call practitioners or meditators yogis, meaning individuals, who have this
wealth or richness of being natural.”
-DZONGSAR JAMYANG KHYENTSE
Buddhist
yoga is an integral part of the Buddhist path, along which according to
tradition, the Buddha makes available 84,000 ways, or in other words as many
ways as there are beings in this limitless universe, to relieve all these
beings from suffering— and not only from one type of suffering, but all kinds
and types of suffering. This is
thus also the main purpose of Buddhist yoga: to relieve all kinds and types of
suffering—not only for the benefit of the individual practitioner, but rather
working through the individual practitioner, for the benefit of all beings.
What
makes beings like us suffer, either overtly or in hidden ways? What is the cause for our fundamental
suffering of birth, sickness, old age and death that all living beings share? Of dissatisfaction, depression,
fatigue, unfortunately common to most humans? The Buddha names ignorance as the root or our fundamental
lack of understanding of what is real and what is not.
May
be we could say that we suffer because we try to fit the vastness of this
ever-present, yet ever shifting luminous blissful space of all that ever
manifests, as well as all that remains non-manifest, into the tiny room of our
preconceived ideas, concepts and beliefs.
We make our worlds, our scope of exploration and experience, our minds
much smaller than they are. It is
as if we were to try and compress countless galaxies with innumerable solar
systems, plus the vast spaces between them, into a small bathroom bucket—in
order to practically handle and manipulate them according to our short-lived
whims, which also constantly change.
Of course, such approach will never work. The bucket is way too small, and its walls are too
inflexible. And since our whims
change, whatever we put together in the confines of the bucket starts falling
apart in the moment of putting it together, already. Everything eventually feels cramped. Nothing can fully satisfy. Any moment of satisfaction quickly
turns into dissatisfaction.
By
practicing Buddhist yoga we open the walls of the bucket. We return to the universe, in a manner
of speaking. We relax, and in the
process of ever deepening relaxation eventually are able to directly see that
there is no such bucket, that there aren’t any walls that restrict awareness,
to begin with. In and through
awareness, what actually is spontaneously recognizes itself, thus liberating
itself. We recognize who and what
we are truly are, and what in fact is the authentic state of all that is always
accessible, in every moment. The
outside conditions in the way we experience our everyday world eventually may
change, too. But what is mostly fine-tuned
and actualized, is our view, our way of seeing. Everything else happens from there.
This
process from rigidity and artificial restriction through relaxation to
awareness is inferred by the Tibetan word ‘naljor’
for the Sanskrit word ‘yoga’, reaching
far beyond a narrow literal translation.
Yoga simply means ‘union’.
‘Naljor’, the Tibetan
rendering, on the other hand, also points to what kind or quality of union is
achieved through this yoga.
According to the Tibetan master Namkhai Norbu, the syllable ‘nal’ refers to the original state,
whereas ‘jor’ means to discover or
possess this condition. “Accordingly, the true meaning of the word
‘naljor’ is to discover our real condition.”[1]
Therefore,
Buddhist yoga is not predominantly about health and fitness but about exploring
what is happening, what is unfolding before us and inside. What is the mind and what does it
project? Who is projecting? This approach will turn out to be far
more liberating than anything we have experienced so far. Health and fitness are welcomed as
secondary benefits.
Dzongsar
Jamyang Khyentse as already quoted in the lead in paragraph to the chapter,
stresses a different aspect of the same process: its inherent richness. According to his interpretation, “‘nal’ means ‘being natural’, and ‘jor’
points to the wealth and richness inherent in and expressing through that state
of totally acting and being natural.”[2]
The
ordinary human mentality resembles that of a beggar. Very few feel inherently rich and blessed, no matter how
much or how little money, or other possessions they have. Even a billionaire most likely will act
and behave like a beggar, because there is never enough. There might be enough money all right,
but then a deplorable lack of full spectrum control is diagnosed. However, the nagging question arises,
if I don’t exercise complete control, I might lose what I have. It then becomes only logical that
I have to increase my tools and levels of control. This shows that a billionaire’s mindset is indeed also that
of a beggar, nothing lofty or elevated.
The sense
of palpable richness rests in simplicity. All true yogis are simple people at heart. If they appear complex and hard to
understand from the outside, then only because they mirror back the student’s
inner perplexities and complexities.
Genuine mediators are genuinely relaxed. That is the kind of richness that we would want to
experience, and easily can experience.
We can feel rich living in a palace. We can feel equally rich living in a mountain cave. We can have oodles of money, and let it
all go. And we can have little
money, and let more come according to the dictate of the situation. Whatever comes never adds to our sense
of status. It is to enhance our
ability to act skillfully and wisely.
Whatever leaves does not diminish us, or our sense of status.
As one
Tibetan yogi whom I had the privilege to meet many times used to repeat like a
mantra when explaining how to handle outer wealth, “Ram jao, Ram ao”, he said. In English, “God comes [as He wishes] and God leaves [as He
wishes]." Don’t cling, don’t
interfere, and don’t get sticky.
Whatever comes let it come!
Whatever goes let it go! This way, wealth is enjoyable, as everything is
enjoyable because we act naturally. According to Namkahi Norbu’s reading of the word ‘naljor’ or yoga, this is a sign that “we
trust our real condition”.
Thus
by focusing on the aspect of our real condition, Namkhai Norbu stresses the link
that exists between the practice of Buddhist yoga and its scriptural
foundation. Especially the Ati
Yoga teachings are focused on the true state of affairs and make accessing it
practically possible. Dzongsar
Jamyang Khyentse on the other hand tries to point to how practicing this yoga
might actually feel like to the practitioner. Practicing yoga and meditation makes us feel rich and
blessed because we can feel natural, unburdened. When embodying and operating through direct, spontaneous,
and irrepressible knowingness, we can rightfully call ourselves yogi or
yogini. When still trapped into
the phantasmagoria of ‘separate self’ versus ‘world outside’, plus all the
thoughts and emotions ensuing from such view, we are not really yoga
practitioners but only aspire to be.
When we hold back and don’t explore into the fundamental reality of
mind-body-world interconnectedness, opening ourselves to and into its
primordial basic openness, we are actually selling ourselves short. The fundamental openness of mind,
reflected in the openness of our living and acting in the world, is where unconditioned
bliss awaits. This is why Dzongsar
Jamyang Khyentse speaks of ‘richness & wealth’.
[1] Chogyal Namkhai Norbu, Yantra Yoga – The Tibetan Yoga of Movement,
Ithaka, New York, 2008, p 11
[2] Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse, from
a FB posting based on an unspecified teaching transcript
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