Buddha Nature & Yoga

The mind wants
you to think about stuff, about what it wants.
That thinking mind will dominate body and soul
– the inner being.
Connect with inner being
and you will see
who you really are,
not what the mind wants you to think
you are.

Those words on “came”, so to speak, from my Buddha nature, and sounds similar to other “Buddha nature” quotes or Buddha teachings. It is because these ideas flow from the inner place, described by the opening verse. Inner wisdom is accessed in mindfulness and meditation. These are states of contemplation, not thinking, more a kind of thinking combined with surrender to inner, innate intelligence. Anyone can “contemplate”, not only Buddhists, yogis ‘s or philosophers. It is a place of Universal Being, and has zero to do with religion or belief system. That is the whole point:

You have Buddha consciousness, in your nature, in your body

Yoga helps us awaken to the refined subtle, etheric body of existence which is connected to the dense, physical body with its limited perceptions and abilities. One can philosophise, and talk about Buddha nature, but as with describing a travel experience, one has to actually travel to experience travel. For meditation to be valid is has to experienced, in the bodymind, in the present moment. Becoming conscious, through movement and breath in synergy, the  meditating yogi evokes an actual experience of intelligent being within, inside the body.

We learn and practice this type of awareness in the yoga studio. We may realise the extraordinary levels and dynamics of innate intelligence in yoga, but to render it real, in the ordinary reality of the ordinary world, we must learn to live it, moment by moment, day by day, year after year, in body-mind-spirit integration. Realize this, surrender to this flow, and you have… self-realisation. Realising your Buddha nature is a long journey, that is also only a thought away.

Blessings,
Johann Kotze
In Yoga, Cape Town,
Muizenberg.