Buddhist Yoga_ A Comprehensive Course (1)

Abstract

The word yoga has many meanings, including the ideas of union, method, effort, and meditation. The elaborate psychophysical exercise routines of Hindu Yoga are familiar to Westerners, but the subtle metaphysics and refined methods of spiritual development characteristic of Buddhist Yoga are not well known. This volume presents a translation of the Sandhinirmochanasutra, “Scripture Unlocking the Mysteries/* a complete classical sourcebook of Buddhist Yoga. This is one of the main texts of that stream of Buddhist tradition known as Vijnanavada, “The Doctrine of Consciousness，” or Yogachara, “The Practice of This sutra, or scripture, provides a remarkably detailed course in the philosophical and pragmatic bases ofBuddhist Yoga. This is a text that is meant to be read and reread many times as essential preparation by those who are thinking of undertaking meditation exercises of any sort. This procedure was the classical way, and many of the shortcomings and aberrations of modem Western meditation cults can be traced to abandonment of this tradition. The Sandhinimochana-sutra is divided into eight sections, including an introduction in the classical style. As in the case of all universalist Buddhist scriptures, the introduction to this text is an important part of the work, making preliminary presentations of key principles and practices in a highly concentrated setting, partly symbolic and partly literal. The second section of the sutra, entitled “Characteristics of Ultimate Truth,” opens with a discussion of the nonduality of all things. This is taken to mean that phenomena are in essence neither “created” nor “uncreated，” neither mundane nor supernal. Concluding that the real nature of things is beyond words, the discussion goes on to depict ultimate truth as inaccessible to thought and deliberation, beyond all objects, beyond all forms, beyond all representation* beyond all controveRy. For the purposes of Buddhist Yoga, therefore, it is essential to understand that ultimate reality is not a philosophical construct. The sutra then goes on to discuss the relationship between ultimate truth and practices. Through an extensive course of reason based on the logic of metaphysics and corresponding spiritual experience, the point is established that ultimate truth and practices are neither one and the same nor completely different. This is an essential insight, one that distinguishes the special nature of Buddhist Yoga; it is based on one of the most important reforms initiated by Gautama Buddha in the spiritual practices of ancient yoga. This discussion is followed by descriptions of intellectual and spiritual conceit consequent upon failure to perceive the ultimate truth pervading all things. The entire section is then closed with the logical conclusion that all-pervasive ultimate truth is everywhere one and has no differentiarion in itself in spite of pervading all difierentiations. To see the integrity of ultimate truth underiying the fragmented facade of ordinary experience is one of the purposes ofBuddhist Yoga. The third section of the sutra’s course outlines working descriptions of mind, intellect, and consciousness. Here are found the classical Buddhist psychological constructs of eight and nine consciousnesses, which are used as a basis of orientation in yoga. This brief section of the sutra concludes with a transcendental description of mastery of these mysteries as a state of conscious ness in which, by virtue of foqus on ultimate truth, there is no inner discrimination of, or identification with, phenomena corresponding to constructed definitions. The fourth section of the sutra deals with the general characteristics of all phenomena; their conceptualized, dependent, and perfectly real characteristics. The conceptualized characteristic of thin设 refers to phenomena as we conceive of them and speak of them. The dependent characteristic of things refers to interdependent origination of phenomena, which thus exist only as part of universal relativity and not as individually self-subsistent entities. The perfectly real characteristic of things refen to thusness, the direct experience of phenomena without the superimposition of conceptual descriptions. Pragmatic understanding of the distinctions among these three characteristics is essential to correct practice of Buddhist Yoga and correct realization of emptiness, without which there is no possibility of spiritual liberation. This section on the characteristics of all phenomena is thus followed up in the next section by a discussion of essencelessness, the Buddhist principle of emptiness. Here, essencelessness is defined in three ways. First is essencelessness of characteristics, which refers to the nature of conceptualized characteristics projected on phenomena. Second is essencelessness of birth, which refers to the dependent or relative character of phenomena, which by virtue of their interdependence have no individual point of origin. Third is ultimate essencelessness, referring to the selflessness of all things, which is called the ultimate truth. The sutra emphasizes the critical importance of these realizations in the process of actualizing intellectual and spiritual liberation. Accordingly, after defining accurate understanding of essencelessness, the text goes on ac length discussing the misunderstandings that typically arise, analyzing the origins and conse quences of specific misapprehensions of Buddhist teachings on Emptiness. This section concludes with a recapitulation of three phases ofBuddha's teaching, in which the principles of essencelessness are at first occult, then implicit, finally explicit. With understanding of the final explicit teaching, it is realized that ultimate truth actually pervades all the scriptures, even if at first in a covert manner; the teaching that brings this out is thus called a complete doctrine. The sixth section of the sutra’s course consist of an extraordinarily detailed discussion of the principles and practices ofBuddhist yogic meditation. The procedures, problems, resolutions, and results of meditation are analyzed with great precision in this section, enabling the practitioner to avoid the pitfalls and hazards of ignorant or misguided concentration. The seventh section of the course deals with the ten transcendent ways and ten stages of enlightenment, which are comprehensive outlines of Buddhist Yoga. The transcendent ways are practices by which one transcends the world while in its very midst. The teachings of the ten stages of enUghtenment are called the Alphabet ofBuddhism, the basic “letters” of meaning from which all utterances of Buddhist teaching are composed. TJiis section of the sutra defines the transcendent ways and the stages, outlining their curative and developmental functions and effects. This section of the sutra should be read in conjunction with the The Ten Stages in the comprehensive Buddhist sutra known as The Flower Ornament Scripture,* for an in-depth perspective on the transcendent ways and the stages in which they are practiced. The final chapter of the sutra’s course on Buddhist Yoga, entitled “Deeds of the Enlightened/’ presents a typically de- tailed analysis of the qualities, capacities, and domains of operation that characterize a Buddha，or a fully enlightened mind. Here the critical distinction is drawn between liberation and enlightenment, the latter referring to the total sublimation and completion of the individual. The completion is made possible by liberation, but liberation alone does not of itself bring completion. Thus the scripture concludes the course with an intensive recapitulation of the sphere of knowledge and action of the enlightened.