I am amazed to find that Yoga has borrowed from Buddhism, rather than vice versa!
I must make this more precise: the Yoga-sutras of Patanjali have borrowed from Buddhism. Yoga itself is far older than the Yoga-sutras, which De Smet places in late 5 AD or early 6 AD. In fact, De Smet points out that Buddhism as a whole must be considered essentially as a system of yoga (see Guidelines 250).
The requisites of yoga are vairagya and abhyāsa. Abhyāsa is the repeated practice of the means of yoga and the good use of the 5 means (upaya) (cf. upaya-kausalya of Bddhism and Gita): sraddha, virya, smrti, samadhi, prajna. "These five means are obviously adopted from Buddhism." (Guidelines 252-253) In fact, I remember some of these terms from my brief acquaintance with Vipassana at Igatpuri: the need for faith in the method; the prajna or panna.
Showing posts with label Buddhism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Buddhism. Show all posts
Wednesday, 10 March 2010
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