Discussions

A year or so ago when I set up my local meetup group for Buddhists, I was invited to participate in a weekly meeting organized by my first live teacher. I hadn't known he had returned to teaching but that was because he wasn't advertising it -- he was just sitting weekly with a few friends, two of whom owned the yoga building where we met -- American converts to Hinduism.

We had many profitable discussions of their views on things as compared to Buddhist views, and I found them very similar except that they had a tendency to see something large and lasting and shining in humans that was part of something even larger, more lasting, and shining (if you will). I found they quite often had an even better way of expressing something I thought of as a Buddhist concept than either my teacher or I did -- but it came framed in an approach I wouldn't, myself, take.

For example when doing a prayer for someone in my teacher's family who was ill, they would make a wish for that person to find whatever it was they needed in that time of stress. Unlike my Christian friends who, in that situation, would pray for a particular outcome, they would instead pray for something very non-specific. Not even praying for someone to feel better or get better or be better able to deal with the situation but "to get whatever they most need out of the situation" which I thought was interesting, because it seems to me one of the things Buddhist practice is trying to get us to do is to let go of having set expectations about what outcomes are "good", and just be open to what happens.

On the other hand they seemed to have some sense that there were flows of energy they could tap into by doing various practices -- something I perceive as feeding the mind expectations that it will try to fulfill with whatever the seeker needs to feel they're on the right track -- so I didn't see them as following quite the same path as I do (though it parallels some parts of traditional Buddhist paths with meditative techniques providing experiences that get interpreted as indicating rebirth is real).

As for the mythology, they seemed to enjoy that on the same sort of level my Tibetan teacher does -- as a way of accessing various human emotions and looking at situations people get into. In the tantric kinds of practices, the deities are almost a mask one puts on to try out those emotions without having them "be you or yours" and it seems a helpful practice for some, as long as one isn't thinking one is literally becoming the god (because that would then, instead of putting some distance between the emotion and "self" be taking that emotion on as "self").

Don't know if that's any help to you Candol. Hopefully others will come along who know more about Hinduism than I do.

I think that what often happens is that people absorb some of these doctrines in their yoga classes. Because our culture has embraced yoga, practitioners tend to accept what their yoga teachers tell them. I have a friend who comes by her meditation practice (and her Ganesha statuette) through yoga, and often assumes that because I meditate I must also believe in karma, rebirth, and the existance of various Indian deities. When I tell her she's becoming a Hindu, however, she denies it, even as she went off to Bhakti Fest to practice kirtan in a stadium full of devotees.

Candol, yes jhanas actually are not "Buddhist", because that practice was around for a long time before Buddha came along. The Jaines were big on jhana practices, meditating for days at a time without stopping.

I agree with Mark that very likely people go into Hinduism from the Yoga angle. Yoga, the exercise, is super popular here in California. And if you start getting books on yoga, you also start learning the philosophy behind it, which is very Buddhist. They even have an 8 fold path, but it has slightly different wording.

When I read about the yoga teachings, I realized that Buddha had probably been really familiar with it and incorporated yoga philosophy in with his own understanding.

So, I think from yoga they then stumble into Hinduism. I also suspect part of the attraction is that it is so different from Christianity. It "felt" kinder, more compassionate to me, than the judgmental form of Christianity I was brought up in. For people who cling to the idea of persisting beyond death, reincarnation can sound very compelling, even more so thinking you've lived past lives. Plus, they have many gods, so pick one you like and now you have a friend for eternity!

Since a new yoga studio opened up near me earlier this year, I've been a semi-regular yoga practitioner (having also been one roughly twenty years ago). This is the first time that I've practiced yoga with some Buddhism under my belt and it so happens that the owner/instructor is a "true believer" in the Hindu/prana stuff, which can be philosophically challenging for a skeptic like myself (e.g. if one pays too much attention to the meaning of the kirtans recited at the beginning & end of each class).

Just a quick note on the history of yoga: According to <i>The Science of Yoga</i> by William Broad (which I highly recommend), the asanas (poses) are not nearly as old as many claim - more like centuries, or (depending on the style and pose) even decades or years, rather than millenia, in age - and if you scan through the Wikipedia entry on Yoga* with special attention to the Buddhist references, you'll find that yoga is more intertwined and continuous with Buddhism than one might guess from attending a Hinduism-laced class like mine.

* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga

There is a huge tradition in Buddhism of Formalized Yoga. It is usually referred to as Chi Kung and is to be found within Chinese Buddhism.

Oh gosh i've just had a couple of goes at chi kung with some others. I didn't know it was a type of yoga or a buddhist form. I don't find it a very interesting form of exercise although i must say the first workout in this form i did, it was pretty demanding on my shoulders. My favourite and preferred form of yoga exercise is iyengar. I really love being in a Iyengar class. Though i prefer it when they focus only on the exercise and not on any spiritual aspect.

PS: It also leads me to worry that all that prana-woo is crowding out the instructor's knowledge of physiology, which could lead to injuries.