“I was into Yoga, now I practice mindfulness”. I have heard such fundamentally erroneous statements over and over again and therefore felt the need to clarify a few points.
Those who pass such a comment neither understand Yoga nor have practiced Yoga in its true sense, because Yoga and mindfulness are NOT different. Neither is ‘mindfulness’ is a ‘Buddhist’ practice, will write on that some other time.
Yoga is an act, and mindfulness is the way that act is done. The basis of Yoga is in mindfulness. Without being mindful, there can be no Yoga. By its definition, mindfulness is the practice of being aware and/or focusing attention. In this sense, the entire practice of Yoga is based in mindfulness. Please note, when I say Yoga I do not mean Asana, but an entire process of self-transformation to realize the True-Self within. Here are a few points on how Yoga is and has always been a practice of mindfulness,
1) When Patanjali says, ‘Yoga is cessation of mental fluctuations’ and gives us a model to resolve the mind – he is speaking to those practitioners who are mindful of their own mental fluctuations. Such mature and mindful practitioners are called ‘Adhikari’ in traditional parlance.
2) When Krishna, in the Bhagavad Gita, asks us to do our actions without attachment (5:11) – he is intending that as a mindfulness practice. In the same way, Krishna asks us to be mindful of our sleep, activity, food habits and recreation in the Bhagavad Gita (6:16), this too is a practice of mindful living.
3) Pratyahara, as a process in Yoga is all about turning the mind inward and being mindful of inner sensations.
4) When Uddalaka tells his son Shvetaketu in the Chandogya Upanishad (6.8.7), Tat tvam asai, ‘You are That’, he is asking his son to be mindful of his inner nature.
5) When Svatmarama asks Hatha Yogis to practice Pranayama with ‘sattvik buddhi’, He is indicating an undisturbed mindful state of awareness.
6) When Krishna talks about the concept of Lokasangraha – social upliftment in Bhagavad Gita 3:20, He is hinting at being mindful of things beyond your own limited mind and working towards betterment of all.
7) The Yoga scriptures start with Mangalacharanam (praise verses) before the actual subject matter begins – this is to mindfully remind the student to be humble and grateful for the knowledge that has been given and received.
8) The Vijnyana Bhairava contains over 100 mindfulness exercises (Dharanas) which Yogis have used for over thousand years.
9) When Hatha Yogis are instructed to practice Sohum Dharana, it indicates being mindful of how the breath moves in as ‘Sa’ sound and how it moves out as ‘Ha’ sound.
10) The Karma Yoga and Bhakti Yoga paths are both firmly based in being mindful of our current nature and moving towards a refined experience of Self.
I can go on and on but what is important is to appreciate the fact that the whole of Yoga is an attempt to realize our True-Nature (Atma) that we have forgotten due to mis-identification (Avidya), in this sense, Yoga, from its core premise, is truly a mindfulness practice. Hope this helps clear the confusion.
