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Buddhist Practice- YogaMeditation is one of the most central concepts in the Buddhist practice and it can take different forms. Buddhism naturally encompasses states of meditative absorption which are referred to as jhana or dhyana. They are thought to originate in the yogic ideas which Buddha is thought to have taken and developed in a rather different way. Yoga, as practiced by yogis used to be regarded as a state of meditative absorption but which was an end on their own. Buddha has however revolutionized yoga in the sense that he taught that meditative absorption cannot be an end in itself and it must be combined with liberating cognition. This meant that meditation was no longer seen as having the sole purpose of cessation of thoughts but that some type of mental activity during meditation had to take place and this is what it is the liberating cognition, a concept based on the practice of mindful awareness. According to the Buddhist practice of yoga, at the end of the meditation process religious knowledge or 'vision' was achieved. This vision was thus the result of the perfection of meditation combined with the perfection of discipline. Meditative practices have therefore existed long before Buddha and Buddhism but the meditative techniques were not described until Buddha did so. The meditation techniques that appeared before Buddhism are clearly distinguished from the ones that were developed through this religion and most of those written after the emergence of Buddhism describe yoga as one of the main means to liberation. To conclude, yoga is thus a practice that it is thought to have existed long before the rise of Buddhism but which was revolutionized and transformed through the ideas of Buddha into becoming not only the practice leading to the cessation of thoughts but to vision or religious knowledge as well. |
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