Practicing the Yoga Sutras in a Buddhist Monastery

After doing many Yoga Teacher trainings and courses, I came to the conclusion that if one wants to learn about meditation as taught in the classical Yoga Sutras, one can better go to a Buddhist monastery than to most modern Yoga trainings.

I say this not as a criticism, but as an observation.

This is because meditation as described in the Yoga Sutras requires seclusion and sensory withdrawal, which is something that doesn’t really happen very deeply in most modern Yoga Teacher trainings.

The Yoga Sutras describe 8 limbs, the last four being pratyahara, dharana, dhyana and samadhi - sensory withdrawal, binding the mind into a single point, undistractedness on a single point, and absorption beyond subjective experience.

This is likely not something that is achieved in a 10 minute meditation by the end of a Yoga class for most people, nor by philosophically exploring the Yoga Sutras, nor by reading the text over and over, nor by staying in a Yoga ashram for a year when there is no proper silent meditation training.

Sadly, because so many modern Yoga practitioners don’t experience this, nor their teachers, the modern culture is often as such that these states are spoken about as something beyond what ‘normal’ humans can achieve.

When going to Buddhist schools, especially the Theravada tradition, one will likely receive a different perspective from the teachers.

When going into a Buddhist meditation retreat, or a few of them with daily practice in between, one will likely gain personal experiences with Dhyana / Jhana.

One will most likely experience periods of sustained attention, and feel the bliss and rapture and insight that comes with them.

Buddhist schools are highly focused on meditation retreats, silence and seclusion.

It is because meditation, and absorption, are understood to be what purifies the mind, especially when taken deeper.

Dhyana / Jhana / and different types of absorption here are also seen as advanced, yet are also not overly mystified, and are known to be achieved not only by monks, but also by devoted lay practitioners with proper training and retreat.

Instead of mere philosophical exploration, there is clear and precise teaching on how to achieve them, from teachers with experience, to make them accessible to lay people.

Dhyana / Jhana, and the rapture and insight it leads to, should feel exciting to us as a possibility, and not as something beyond comprehension, written about in dusty ancient books, only achievable by some elite ascetics or monks.

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Contemplations after our last silent retreat, this early May.