Bidyut K. Bose, PhD
There is a growing perception in the West that yoga is “not secular enough”. This perception that yoga is somehow separate from the practice of mindfulness directly impacts our ability to pervasively disseminate these transformative practices where they are needed most: in our communities and schools, in the healthcare system, for violence prevention, for addiction recovery, and beyond.
Mindfulness is the practice of paying attention to what we are doing and experiencing, moment by moment. It is a nonreactive and open monitoring of the content of ongoing experience. Mindfulness practices are essentially a repeated call to bring awareness to the present moment. Common analogies for this concentrative state are an unflickering candle flame, or the pouring of oil from one container into another in an unbroken stream. Patanjali defines yoga as the cessation of the waves (vritti) of the mind (chitta), establishing Raja Yoga as the science of meditation and codifying the practice in eight secular steps: an ethical foundation including secular practices such as nonviolence and truthfulness; yoga poses and breathing techniques (asana and pranayama); an inward journey progressing through the secular practices of introspection, concentration, and meditation (pratyahara, dharana, and dhyana); all leading us to a clearer understanding of our real nature, self-realization (samadhi).
And so yoga is indeed mindfulness, meditation, and a lot more. Yoga poses are a dynamic transformative practice anchored in mindfulness, connecting with breath, and emerging in movement. Religion involves institutional teachings and traditions associated with specific teachers and books at best, and creed, cult, dogma, and fanaticism at worst. Spirituality, on the other hand, involves universal secular questions of the human spirit: Who am I, who are you, and what is the relationship between us? Philosophers sometimes refer to these questions as the universal secret impulse, questions that arise from the depths of our beings, especially when things seem to be falling apart around us.
It is high time that purveyors of mindfulness, meditation, and yoga stop competing for greater secularism, or fragmenting ourselves over differences in approach or practice. Instead, we must collaborate and integrate, realizing the inherent interconnectedness between these traditions and practices. We need to proceed with a united front under the banner of transformative practices, which includes and transcends yoga, mindfulness, and meditation. Such an integrated approach can be a game-changer in healthcare, education, public safety, and more. Let us work together to generate awareness of the benefits of yoga, meditation, and mindfulness, and influence public policy to unleash the power and potential of these practices, helping to correct the current imbalance between our efforts on our external environments and our efforts on our internal environments, so that we can “be the change we wish to see in the world.”
Bidyut Bose is the Founder and Executive Director of Niroga Institute (www.niroga.org). He is also on the Board of Directors of IAYT
This article was published in the Souvenir of Yoga Bharati's Yoga Sangam, the International Conference 2012.
There is a growing perception in the West that yoga is “not secular enough”. This perception that yoga is somehow separate from the practice of mindfulness directly impacts our ability to pervasively disseminate these transformative practices where they are needed most: in our communities and schools, in the healthcare system, for violence prevention, for addiction recovery, and beyond.