Weakening stress and anxiety in our lives through the
teachings and techniques of Yoga and Buddhism (Part 2)
In part one we briefly looked at stress and anxiety
and stated that the teachings and techniques of either
Yoga or Buddhism could work to weaken them.
An important point made was that the state of the body
and posture and the energy within had an affect on
mental states and that the postures of Yoga had a
therapeutic affect on the body in such a way that the
mind and consciousness became more mindful and
tranquil.
We also said that the techniques of either Yoga or
Buddhism were performed on a mental plane, verbal
plane and behavioral plane and that the line that
divided these planes was sometimes hard to clearly
define.
We have also stated more then once that Yoga and
Buddhism consist of both teachings and techniques.
Teachings can be defined as an overall system of ideas
and concepts as regards a discipline, theory, science
or skill.
Techniques can be defined as specific practices that
we engage in mentally, verbally or behaviorally to
fulfill the objectives of teachings.
Both Yoga and Buddhism consist of teachings and
techniques.
It is learning and understanding the teachings, plus
performing the techniques asked of us in these
teachings that bring about the weakening of stress and
anxiety.
Yoga and Buddhism are both systems of mental and
physical purification that understand that the
knowledge of what they teach can go along way to
giving us an understanding that in itself helps to
weaken stress and anxiety.
In Buddhism, the major teachings and techniques are
all nicely and clearly put together in what is known
as The Noble Eightfold Path.
The first step of this Noble Eightfold Path tells us
that there is suffering, that there is an origination
of suffering, an end to suffering and a way to bring
about that ending of suffering.
This knowledge can be tremendously liberating to
individuals, as it gives them a better understanding
of what there is in their own lives, what other people
feel and experience also, and that these tendencies to suffering can be dealt with in a meaningful manner.
Many teachers of Buddhism will tell us that this first
step of The Noble Eightfold Path, Right Understanding,
gives us the philosophical foundation as to why we
should learn and practice it.
The next step, Right Intention, consists of techniques
that are primarily mental, telling us how to organize
our thoughts and intentions as we live alone and
interact with others.
So though it is primarily mental, its practice
manifests itself in word, action and behavior.
The next step, Right Speech concerns itself with what
we say and how we say it.
Though it is obvious that this is a verbal technique,
such a verbal technique affects our thought process
and our overall behavior. Again, as with all of the
techniques of Buddhism the line between techniques as
being primarily mental, verbal or behavioral is a hard
one to define clearly.
The next step, Right Action deals with specific
actions that we should abstain from engaging in.
These are the killing of other sentient being,
stealing and sexual misconduct.
This is a technique that is primarily behavioral, but
will also manifest itself in terms of thought and
words.
The next step is Right Livelihood. It reminds us that
there are certain livelihoods that are abusive to
others and ourselves. When we refrain from engaging in
these livelihoods, we are refraining from mental,
verbal and behavioral ways of being that are truly
damaging to us, others and the world as a whole.
The next three steps to The Noble Eightfold Path are
Right Effort, Right Mindfulness and Right
Concentration.
Their main plane of activity is a mental one,
cultivating a mindfulness that we put into place as we
practice meditation and as we go about our daily
actions and activities each day.
When we examine Buddhism and Yoga, we find that it is meditation that is the key aspect of its practice.
Modern books on Yoga will expose us to various
postures, numbering anywhere from 10 to 200.
An excellent book on Buddhism that I recently came
across had one page that pictured only three postures,
postures that we sit in for practicing sitting
meditation practice.
That is all.
Whether one is trying to weaken stress and anxiety in
their life from Yoga or Buddhism, there is sometimes
too much emphasis on and attention paid to what we are
doing with the body in performing these postures.
In Buddhism there are cases and circumstances where
individuals can be very devoted to meditation, but be
weak in understanding and practicing the other steps
of the Noble Eightfold Path.
The understanding and application of the mental,
verbal and behavioral techniques of The Noble
Eightfold Path has to be complete and holistic in
order to bring about the weakening of stress and
anxiety and the purification of the mind and
consciousness.
In either Yoga or Buddhism, we gain greater benefits
if we learn all of the teachings and techniques
involved and make a constant and mindful effort to
apply them.
©2004 John C. Kimbrough
(John lives and teaches in Bangkok, Thailand. He can
be reached at johnckimbrough@yahoo.com)