Building Bridges

Both yoga and Zen are aimed at discovering who we are beyond the thinking mind, or the conditioned self. Both try to help us find freedom from our mind and bring us to a more intuitive, inner life — taking action as needed while living in the present moment. There are, however, some differences between the two philosophies and disciplines. While many people prefer to stick with a single path, incorporating tools from both Zen and yoga can be a truly enlightening experience.

Yoga: Purusha and Prakriti

Yoga teaches that we are comprised of Purusha and Prakriti. Purusha may be loosely defined as the soul or our cosmic self — our existence that is beyond the body, or the unchanging self. Prakriti is the physical body and the changeable, which includes our minds, thoughts, and emotions.

When practicing yoga, we direct our awareness to observe Prakriti. This is a first step that helps us understand that our thoughts are not reality. This practice of awareness helps us see our conditioned mind. Over time we are able to let the mind be, and let our awareness dissolve into the field of Purusha. In this state we drop the mind, and thus we drop the sense of individual self. When there is no self, there is no separation. When there is no separation, and no one to experience suffering, the suffering is gone. The unity  that is yoga, is there all along, but the awareness is stuck on the Prakriti, our limited perception that is colored by the mind’s conditioning. Not only do we remain within the realm of the mind, but worst we identify with it.

Zen: All is Illusion

Zen considers all that we think exists to be an illusion, called Maya. The illusion is not that things don’t exist, but that we think things are permanent. I may think I am Doron and that I am the same being with the same body, values and ideas I always had, but in reality, my body has changed since I was 14 or even since yesterday. My thoughts, ideas and actions are constantly changing.

The other part of the illusion is that we think that things can exists on their own, while in reality, everything is codependent. For example, a lemon seed is Maya because once planted in the earth it receives water, sunshine and healthy soil, and then grows to be a tree. The tree bears fruit, which we eat, leaving the rest as compost. This compost serves as soil for another tree. The soil is the seed, the seed is the tree, and the tree is the lemon. The seed exists at a certain point in time but also holds within it the potential to become a tree, fruit, and then soil. None of these potential forms is permanent, and the seed and tree, are dependent on many other factors to exist.

Most of us see life from a limited point of view constructed by our mind’s interpretation of reality, not reality itself.

Zen: Reality and Death

Zen teaches us to surrender, to allow the mind to drop away, so we can actually experience all that there is from a no-self mind where there this no one, but it is all one. It is practice of dying while living. The death of the mastermind leads to the birth of intuition, of the seer that is no different than the object the seer sees. To do this, we need to perceive reality from a “no-self” mind. In Zen, the perceiver is sometimes referred to as “the original face”, or “the face before you were born”. It is who you are when you are not thinking – perceiving reality without placing labels on it.

The reality of the no-self mind (Zen) is purusha (yoga). Prakriti (yoga) is maya (Zen). While yoga may appear dual in its interpretation of reality, Zen says that there is no me and you, no duality of good and bad. In fact, there is no oneness; to have “one,” there would also have to be “two” or something beyond one.

So in Zen, there is no one, but it is all one! Simple, right?

Zen tries to solve this paradox by saying all is suchness, meaning it is just how it is, and every way I try to understand it with my mind (including with words) will create duality – a finger pointing to reality, but not reality itself.

Yoga or Zen?

Though yoga and Zen have different ways of explaining reality, in the end, this apparent difference does not exist. It remains in the realm of mind and words, not in reality itself. Whether we practice yoga or Zen or combine teachings from both is irrelevant. What matters is that we arrive at a realization of our true selves.

How about both?

Doron Hanoch is the author of The Yoga Lifestyle.  Study with Doron at the Doron Yoga & Zen Center in Guatemala where you will be living both Zen and Yoga.

Blissful Living,

Doron