Ayala Gill, January 2014
Yoga as a Mindfulness Practice
Yoga and Mindfulness are both practices that have entered mainstream recognition in the West in a
relatively short space of time. Although both are widely practised in a secular context, many would
argue that the mainstream secularisation of yoga in particular has alienated this ancient tradition
from its roots as a practice of liberation. I would like to explore the relationship between the
practices of mindfulness and yoga, and the potential benefits each can offer on a journey towards
awakening. ‘Awakening’ and ‘liberation’ can be understood paths that lead us towards experiencing,
and ultimately resting in, our essential human nature. When the qualities of our essential nature are
revealed, they are experienced as non-personal and non-conceptual: as embodied attributes of
Being. For this reason, any practices that guide us towards such an experiencing need to first
cultivate our capacity for receptivity and reflection: a listening in to Truth rather than a mental
searching for it.
What is the difference between thought and reflection?
Imagine a deep pond, and imagine that this pond represents yourself. Imagine that the surface of the
water is at the level of your eyes, so that the waves and ripples represent the whirling of your own
mind. Every thought sending out a new ripple, which when followed and fed, swells and grows. The
more energy invested in the surface, the greater the storm becomes. Now add a little dust and debris
to the surface, for your clouded presence. Add some sticky gunk from the debris of past relationships.
A little paint splattered around from your years of conditioning. Is it any wonder that we struggle to
see ourselves clearly when we remain at the surface?
Reflection requires receptivity. We sink deeper into the depths of our pond, and listen. What arises
appears to be reflected against the mirrors of our consciousness, so that understanding reveals itself,
and is no longer sought for. We discover an unshakeable knowing that arises from the actual
experiencing of our true nature. No knower, no surface, and no thought, involved.
What is Mindfulness?
Mindfulness is a practice that draws us back into our pond, to a place of receptivity. We practise
remaining attentive and open to all that arises, attending to whatever appears with a radiant and
supple clarity. Mindfulness creates a stillness that is dynamic. It is un-conflicted movement, life in
harmony with itself. It can be experienced whenever there is total, uninhibited, un-conflicted
participation in the moment we are in. When we are wholeheartedly present with whatever we are
doing, with nothing added and nothing held back.
In this way we practise an honest experiencing of both our inner processing, and of the universe as it
moves through us. We refine our capacity to notice our tendencies, before we crystalize around
them and call them “me”. We become familiar with the thought-waves of our minds, appreciating
that their nature is to roam and explore, but withholding from feeding our neuroses or taking any
thought as an absolute truth. Similarly, we befriend the currents of our emotions, and through this
intimacy move away from a habitual and reactive response to them. As we let emotions move
through us and study their nature, we discover that they can guide us back to a more fundamental
experience of wholeness. If we return to the metaphor of the pond, where thoughts are represented
by waves and emotions by currents, we can see that our essential nature is represented by the
water itself. A mindfulness practice is a powerful tool to re-align our attention from the turbulence
of surface waves to an experiencing of the very fabric of life itself.
What is Yoga?
Within the context of mindfulness practice, yoga is often given a passing nod as a useful ‘mindful
movement’ practice. It is generally appreciated in the same vein as perhaps a walking meditation or
mindful stretching, as a practice that cultivates an awareness of body in movement and stillness.
There is sometimes also an appreciation of the heightened qualities of grounded-ness, alertness,
openness and ease in posture after a yoga practice, but again these are most often seen as a useful
preparation for the real practice of seated meditation which can then commence. I would like to
look in a little more detail at these two attributes of yoga, but also explore the deeper possibility of
yoga as a mindfulness practice itself.
Yoga as Mindful Movement
Everything we experience, we do so through the body. Since awakening is a form of non-conceptual
knowing, everything we know must be known through the body. In our thinking-dominant culture,
bodily experience is very alien to many people. For most, the possibility of moving their body in a
non-aggressive way while linking their breathing and attention with these physical movements is a
radical and important first step. There seem to be two main avenues to access yoga as mindful
movement. One is the steady linking of breathing and movement in such a way as to support an
experiencing of ourselves as a harmonised ‘breathing body’. As the thinking mind begins to
surrender into this container and our body moves into our awareness, we experience ourselves as
more embodied and present.
Another way is to harness the intelligence of the mind to direct focussed attention to parts of the
body in both movement and stillness. We cultivate from the gross to the subtle: initially from the
placement of arms and legs, eventually to the directionality of the skin. B.K.S. Iyengar calls this ‘the
intelligence of the body’: the capacity to spread our attention equally across all parts of our body
simultaneously. At the same time, we observe how we respond to our moment-to-moment
experience as it unfolds. We notice where we are reactively pushing through or backing away from
difficulty, and cultivate a widening of presence that can welcome all experiences. In these ways,
yoga can be seen to have similar benefits to body-based mindfulness practices, namely a deeper,
more tangible and more refined experience of present moment embodiment.
Yoga as Enhancement Practice
As well as cultivating a kind, yet sharp observance, yoga is also an enhancement practice of the body
heart and mind. Yogic cosmology describes existence as a dance between three layers or sheaths of
expression: the ever-changing physical realm; the subtle realm including energy, mind and
consciousness, which though formless has a direct impact on form; and the dimension of pure
potential energy, or spirit. By working on any layer, we access any other. So by breaking up
congealed patterns in the physical body, the subtle energy body can flow more freely, which in turn
directly influences how we feel physically, emotionally and mentally. We have greater clarity,
presence, energy and discernment available to us. In this way, yoga can be seen as a practice where
we work skilfully in the body to set up conditions that are more conducive to the deeper
explorations of meditation.
Yoga as Mindfulness
Just as we can use the physical realm as a doorway into the realm of energy, mind and
consciousness, we can also access the realm of pure potentiality through the doorway of the body.
In other words, we can access our essential nature through an embodied experiencing of it. A.H.
Almaas eloquently describes the aspects of our ‘Essence’ to include qualities such as Love, Peace,
Truth, Value, Strength and Will: all inherent, non-personal, non-conceptual qualities that are part of
our nature. These can be experienced as such by harnessing our mind and awareness, but can also
be accessed through the doorway of our body.
Our own personal history results in patterns of holding of body, mind and heart that act to conceal
our deeper nature. By bringing these places of holding into the light of awareness we begin to
dissolve the veils that obscure our wholeness. In yoga, we actively spread our attention: often from
the parts of our body in contact with the ground, to the parts which are weak or dull, until we create
a unified extension of energy and presence. This can create a physical experience that is the
embodiment of spaciousness and strength. By liberating our energy body, and observing the whole
of ourselves, we experience a quality of Strength that is innate to our nature.
Similarly, a deeper experience of Peace, not dependent on external conditions, can reveal itself
through the precise and unified organisation of the body. As Iyengar puts it, “when the muscles and
joints are rested in their positions, the body, senses and mind lose their identities and consciousness
shines in its purity.” (B.K.S. Iyengar, “The Tree of Yoga. Yoga Vrksa”, 1989, p. 63).
Yoga can also offer us a very tangible way to experience beyond our self-imposed limitations, often
determined by inertia, to reveal the stirrings of deeper longings. Since the physical body holds much
of the stagnation of heart and mind, it can be a powerful doorway into accessing this aspect of Will.
In other words, the body can be another avenue through which we taste the truth of our potential
for vitality, intimacy and aliveness, and as such a great motivator for this burning desire for union
within us.
A deeper experiencing of Love is also integral to yoga, as we practice welcoming each new sensation
and reaction in an ever deepening intimacy with ourselves. One of the foundational principles of
Patanjali’s eight-fold path of yoga is Isvarapranidhana: surrendering the fruits of our actions to God.
The effort and intention of our practice is put in place, but then each asana becomes a prayer, an
offering up to the mystery of Being. The space of the heart receives this mystery with gratitude.
Opening to the unknown nature of experience can help loosen the mind’s controlling grip, and
liberate the heart’s tenderness.
Love supports us and builds courage when we are called upon to be vulnerable, to surrender and to
trust. One of the benefits of a multifaceted approach involving both yoga and meditation (as well as
nature, poetry, dancing and many more) as mindfulness practices, is that we build this courage as
we experience our deeper knowing through different doorways of perception, and in different ways.
A danger of any of these practices is when they become an end unto themselves and we lose the
perspective of the truth that they are pointing us towards. We can all too easily begin to identify
with ourselves as good meditators or good yogis, and forget that each moment and every practice
can instead be utilised as tools to reveal a deeper truth. For these truths to be known and embodied
as more than experiences that we associate with certain practices or altered states, we also need to
maintain an intimate participation with whatever we experience. This participation includes
questioning, inquiry and study, so that the insights can be embedded into body mind and heart.
For me, the best indicator of the efficacy of my practices is the way that I inhabit myself in daily life.
This often reveals the extent to which I feel separate; the extent to which I respond to my thoughts
or emotions as ultimate truths. Inseparable from any experiencing of my essential nature is a deep
knowing that this experience is not restricted to me alone, and not able to be fully defined by the
conceptual mind. If we return once more to the metaphor of the pond: when we rest with love, with
mindfulness, with receptivity, in the depths of our pond, the truth of our nature is revealed to us,
and we discover that what we thought to be “our” pond, and “our” experience, is no longer isolated
to us alone. Instead the pond reveals itself to be a vast ocean, out of whose depths all experience
arises. Each wave may have its different tone, quality and expression, but each wave, every sentient
being, is moved by the same current. In the silences between thoughts, emotions or sensations, we
rest in the enormity of the ocean. We are this experience of the universe in this moment, ever
changing, ever evolving; dependently arising, dependently falling. No more, no less.
We live in illusion
And the appearance of things
There is a reality
You are that reality
When you understand this
You will see that you are nothing
And in being nothing
You are everything
This is all
Kalu Rinpoche